It doesn’t interest me what do you do for a living. I want to know what you care 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 square to 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 tip of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, 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 in order to be true to yourself. And if you compare 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’s 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, broken 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 would stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn’t interest me where or what or within whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
From The Invitation by Oriah
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