Oriah Mountain Dreamer

[BlueHeron]

I came across this poem this morning. Its called "The Invitation". Other Avalonians will probably know of the writer but she is new to me and may be to other newer members as well. Seemed like a beautiful way to begin a new day :sun:

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.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer

[BlueHeron]

In light of Greybeard's thread (thank you) above this one on the Forum, titled "New threads - nourishing them", would others like to contribute poems that mean something to them or have inspired them when they've needed help? I'd love to hear, thank you.

[seah]

I can't resist the invitation, BlueHeron :star: here is David Whyte's House of Belonging



"I awoke this morning in the gold light turning this way and that
thinking for a moment it was one day like any other.
But the veil had gone from my darkened heart and I thought
it must have been the quiet candlelight that filled my room,
it must have been the first easy rhythm with which I breathed myself to sleep,
it must have been the prayer I said speaking to the otherness of the night.

This is the day you realize how easily the thread is broken between this world and the next.

And I found myself sitting up in the quiet pathway of light,
the tawny close grained cedar burning round me like a fire and all the angels of this housely heaven ascending through the first roof of light the sun has made.

This is the bright home in which I live, this is where I ask my friends to come, this is where I want to love all the things it has taken me so long to learn to love.

This is the temple of my adult aloneness and I belong to that aloneness as I belong to my life.

There is no house like the house of belonging.”

[Michelle]

Listen to the Mustn'ts

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child,
Listen to the DONT'S
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
the IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen child,
ANYTHING can be.
Shel Silverstein

From the book "I Can Make A Difference". A children's collection of poetry.