Thanks to an old friend for sharing this with me. I took the above sunrise photo one beautiful winter morning at Key Biscayne, Florida in 2009.
The Invitation
by Oriah
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.
© Mountain Dreaming, 1999 All rights reserved
from the book The Invitation published by HarperONE, San Francisco, CA
