HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to all of you! Enclosed with a poem by Oriah that has been inspiring signpost for me for quite a long time.  Love, Rina



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.

-Invitation by Oriah, from the book Mountain dreaming