The Invitationby Oriah Mountain Dreamer. |
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
It doesn't interest me how old you are.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
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 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.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
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
Message from Oriah Mountain Dreamer While I am pleased that this piece, The Invitation, has spoken to many others and happy that it is being shared, I would ask that you honour the original by sharing it as it was written. I am a teacher and writer living in Toronto with my two teenage sons. While my family history includes stories of Scottish, German and Native American descent I am a Canadian woman, and not an Indian elder as has sometimes been reported, being neither old enough nor wise enough to claim the status of elder for any people. I have had the priviledge of studying with and learning from the wisdom of Native American elders who gave me the medicine name, Mountain Dreamer. Oriah Mountain Dreamer At Oriah's website you find information about her books in print The Invitation, The Dance, The Call, Opening The Invitation and What We Ache For . Dreams of Desire is a small collection of poetry also available there. You can read more about the author at her website www.oriah.org |