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The
Invitation
by
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn't interest me what you do for a
living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting
your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I
want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream,
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring
your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and
closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain,
mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine
or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are
telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be
true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray
your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even
when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from
its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure,
yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the
silver of the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you
live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after
the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what
needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how
you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of
the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with
whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside,
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
by
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
copyright © 1999 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
Used at this website without
permission YET.
Note of clarification by
the above author regarding this prose:
From Dreams of Desire, 1995
by Oriah House. All Rights
Reserved.
Published by Mountain Dreaming
300 Coxwell Avenue
Box 22546
Toronto, Ontario Canada
M4L 2A0
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