This poem caught me from the first second I heard it. With this, I welcome you to my blog. I invite you to be yourself. To laugh with me, cry with me, live with me, feel with me, yell with me, vent with me, and simply be with me. The world isn't as random and lonely as we think it is.
| The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer | |||
| 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 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 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 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 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 a 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. | |||
I still dont know what it is to be human
ReplyDeleteor when the essence of humanity had its beginning
ReplyDeleteMaybe this lack of knowledge will drive my humanity
ReplyDeletewhat does
ReplyDeleteif you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy
mean?
Good questions Lyd. I think you'll figure out the human part once the baby comes. :) As for the last one...that is a very, very good question and I'm really not sure. I think she may mean that sometimes faith gets in the way of people trusting other because of fear, judgement, etc. but I'm really not sure.
ReplyDeleteI finally have an answer to your question about being faithless.
ReplyDeleteIt's about being courageous, even when it might mean hurting someone. It's about knowing you might have to hurt someone to be true to who you are. It is not about being a coward and actually going behind someone's back, because that very last verse means, based on what you chose to do, can you bear to be with yourself after the choices you've made.
This is from the author directly:
The word "faithless" was deliberately chosen. It is an uncomfortable word, and although we sometimes have to break an agreement or promise that does not hold true for us any more, it is ( and should be) uncomfortable to do so. Still, sometimes, to serve our soul's purpose we may need to break agreements and therefore be seen as "faithless" by someone else. (In fact, it is my experience that our desire to be seen as "reliable" and "faithful" by others often keeps us in situations that are simply not good for us or others- jobs, relationships etc- because we cannot bear to break implicit or explicit agreements.) The stanza is really about whether or not we have the courage to be faithful to our own path when that means someone else will see us as faithless.
At some point in my life I realized that the people I could really trust were those who would be true to themselves- those who could risk being seen as "faithless" by myself and others when they followed their soul's desires. I think this is part of learning to love who people are and not who we wish they were. As hard as it is, I want my husband, my sons and my closest friends, to do what they need to do even if it means breaking promises they have made with the best of intentions, at an earlier time, if they come to the place of knowing that the intent behind the promise is no longer true for them, or not in the best interests of their soul's journey.