![Mountain Dreamer Mountain Dreamer](2003/04/03mountain.jpg)
Mountain Dreamer
A friend (Thanks Val) sent me this awhile agoโฆ I thought I had deleted itโฆ she shared it with me, now Iโll share it with you. I think the sentiment within it is remarkable.
The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesnโt 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 heartโs longing.
It doesnโt 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 doesnโt 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 lifeโs betrayals 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.
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 doesnโt 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 itโs 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, โYes!โ
It doesnโt 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 doesnโt 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 doesnโt 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.
update: link is dead
got the shakes?
โThings base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity,
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.โ
-Shakespeare from A Midsummer Nightโs Dream I-2