The Invitation

Just found this on Facebook and it has made me go 'Wow'. 

Amazing and oh so challenging:



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 dreams,
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 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,
be realistic,
remember the limitations of being a 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 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 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.”

 Oriah Mountain Dreamer