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, be realistic
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.
Text:
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
deutsche Text-Kompilierung: W. Friederich,
www.friederich.de/klang/index.htm