I wrote the prose poem, The
Invitation one night after returning home from a party…
I don’t usually attend parties but on
this occasion, berating myself for being anti‐social, I made an effort to go
and be friendly. I returned home feeling frustrated, dissatisfied with the
superficial level of the social interaction at the party. I longed for
something else.
As I write
in the beginning of my book The Invitation is “. . . a declaration of
intent, a map into the longing of the soul, the desire to live passionately,
face‐to‐face with ourselves and skin‐to‐skin with the world.”
It is the
story of a very human woman who longs to live fully awake. It is the story of
the human heart’s capacity and longing to live intimately with all of it‐the
joy and the sorrow, the hope and the fear.
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.
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
I want to know
if you will
risk
looking like
a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
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
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 shriveled and
closed from fear of further pain.
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.
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 wilderness
and let the ecstasy fill you
mine or your own
if you can dance with wilderness
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
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
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true
to yourself.
If you can bear
If you can bear
the
accusation of betrayal
and not
betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
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
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.
~
By Oriah © Mountain
Dreaming,
(The Invitation was published by HarperONE, San Francisco in the spring of 1999.
It became a best‐seller and has been translated into over fifteen languages around the world.)
Oriah is first and foremost a
story-teller, a lover of words and symbols and the stories that lift our
spirits, open our hearts and offer us ways to see patterns and create meaning
in our lives. The focus of her life and work has been an on-going inquiry into
the Sacred Mystery. Oriah was raised in a small, wilderness community in
Northern Ontario. A graduate of Ryerson University’s social work program and a
student of Philosophy at the University of Toronto she has facilitated groups,
offered classes and counseled individuals for over thirty-five years. Her daily
practice includes ceremonial prayer, yoga, meditation and writing. Oriah is the
author of several best-selling books all published with HarperONE,
San Francisco, found here. Oriah is the mother of two grown sons and
lives in Toronto, Canada. You may visit her at her website here, on Facebook, or e-mail her
at mail@oriah.org.
~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~
Comments
Post a Comment