Quotable Monday

This isn't really a quote persay- but a poem that I heard almost 10 years ago on a small hippy island in BC. Read by a woman I really admire, surrounded by God's beauty. Needless to say, it really stuck and I've loved it ever since!


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 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 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, be realistic, or to
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you're 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.

I want to know if you can be faithless
and therefore be 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 a 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 for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, 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.

-- Oriah Mountain Dreamer