The Invitation
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 centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled 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 is 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 at 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 centre 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 Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation
published by HarperONE, San Francisco,
1999 All rights reserved
Blog inspired by someone I seem to be getting to know & wondering if it will strike a chord with him that I actually googled it!
(I know Daniela has a part quote of this in her profile)
Comments (32)
We'll see if he reads the blogs
Not only did I write one verse on my profile...But I also got inspired to write my own verses in the poetry corner.
I take it you posted this for someOne special?
From my own experience I have found this poem too deep for most men here...
Only 2 so far have quoted the one I put in my profile ....and we're touched by it.
And you're talking to a man you could address it to? Wow, that's wonderful
Do you think that the session you had has anything to do with it and has opened your heart chakra?
Whatever it is, it seems to be working...
Yes, I thought I would share the other poem too because it is from the book "The Dance" which I was given to me many years ago.
And, further to this, it also inspired me to write some more verses about 6 years ago (which you will find in the poetry section).
If I can't have a glorious all-bells-and-whistles romance myself, the next best thing is someone else's
My problem is that I'd go through fire for my loved one, take a bullet, sizzle with dedication - whereas the average bloke, let's face it, is perfectly content to have a few laughs with someone who remembers he likes his eggs over easy and doesn't have a headache when he's in the mood for a quick fumble.
Yes, you mentioned my heart the other evening & I kinda felt
I will pop along to your blog now to add my two penn'orth for what it's worth, been busy being a domestic goddess today making a vegan Sunday dinner with 'plastic' chicken, I just have to make the chestnut & mushroom gravy
I intend to read more from Oriah later xx
Even for a non-poetry fan.
I hope it has the desired effect.
There can never be too much love and romance in the world.
But I also know other couples who have met as a result of CS.
2 couples alone met in my garden 4 years ago and are still together. One of them got engaged recently.
So love and romance does happen here, but often behind the scenes.
Do you remember the guy from Denmark who had a gastric band fitted? He met a girl from Vietnam & they are married too & hopefully living happily ever after.
There is also RDM & the guy from the forums whose name I can't remember. &&&& the guy who had long hair & the lady who kept huskies, they had a lovely story.
Not all have happily ever afters, as many relationships don't, but happiness, however fleeting, is better than none
The rest of the time I'm a cynical old trout, though
You vary your non-alter egos between blogs and forums
It's good to keep people on their toes.
And where?
This one?
Like this