THE INVITATION

By Oriah Mountain Dreamer
(A Native American)


         From The Invitation, copyright 1999 Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

     IT DOESN'T INTREST ME WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING.  I WANT
     TO KNOW WHAT YOU ACHE FOR, AND IF YOU DARE TO DREAM
     OF MEETING YOUR LIFE'S LONGING.

     IT DOESN'T INTREST 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 INTREST 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 BEEN 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, BE REALISTIC, OR TO REMEMBER THE LIMITATIONS OF
     BEING HUMAN.

     IT DOESN'T INTREST ME IF THE STORY YOU'RE 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.

     I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU CAN BE FAITHFUL, AND THEREFORE BE
     TRUSTWORTHY.  I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU CAN SEE BEAUTY EVEN
     WHEN IT'S NOT PRETTY EVERY DAY, AND IF YOU CAN SOURCE YOUR
     LIFE  FROM GOD'S PRESENCE.

     I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU CAN LIVE WITH FAILURE, YOURS OR MINE,
     AND STILL STAND ON THE EDGE OF A LAKE AND SHOUT TO THE SILVER
     OF THE FULL MOON, "YES!"

     IT DOESN'T INTREST 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 GREIF AND DISPAIR, WEARY AND BRUSIED TO THE
     BONE, AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE FOR THE CHILDREN.

     IT DOESN'T INTREST ME WHO YOU ARE, 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 INTREST 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 EMPTY MOMENTS.


 Thank you for reading "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer on this
 website!

 Because of the support from people like you, "The Invitation" has
 been able to touch the hearts of thousands all over the world.

 Below is a brief message from Oriah about how the poem and then the
 book came to be.

 If you would like any further information about the book, feel free to
 contact the publisher (amanda.merrill@harpercollins.com)


 **Message from Oriah Mountain Dreamer**

       In the spring of 1994. I went to a party - an ordinary party, and I
 made an effort, a real effort, to be sociable. I asked and answered the
 usual questions: What do you do for a living? How do you know the host?
 Where did you study? Where do you live? And I came home with the
 familiar hollow feeling of having gone through the motions. So, I sat
 down and did what I often do to sort out what is going on. I wrote.

       Using the format of a writing exercise that had been given to me by
 poet David Whyte, I wrote about the party conversations, what really did
 not interest me and what I really did want to know about others, about
 myself.

       I went to the centre of the ache for something more between myself
 and the world and the prose-poem, "The Invitation", poured onto the page.

       A week later I included the piece in a newsletter I was sending to
 eight hundred students who had, over the previous ten years, come to
 workshops I had facilitated on spirituality, sexuality and creativity.
 I sent it exactly as it had been written that night. I didn't think
 much about it. I'd shared many pieces of writing with folks on my
 mailing list over the years, often hearing back from those who felt a
 particular piece spoke to them.

       But this time, something different happened. People started copying
 and sharing "The Invitation", and I began hearing from hundreds of
 people I didn't know. A woman wrote from New Zealand where the piece
 had been read at a large spiritual gathering. A man in the States wrote
 of reading the piece at the funeral of a dear friend who had died of
 AIDS. Individuals as far away as Romania, Iceland, Greenland and South
 Africa wrote that someone had sent them "The Invitation" on e-mail,
 handed it out at a wedding, or read it aloud at a workshop or
 conference. The piece seemed to have a life of its own.

       It was Joe Durepos, a literary agent in Chicago who had contacted me
 to ask permission for the piece to be used in Jean Houston's book, "A
 Passion for the Possible", who suggested that I consider writing a book
 based on "The Invitation." I started writing and Joe sold the first few
 chapters to Harper San Francisco.

       The prose-poem had touched others with a voice that cut through to
 what really matters. I didn't want the book to be a watered-down
 version of the original piece or a heady analysis of its heart-felt
 sense of urgency. I wanted the book to be as raw and as real as the
 prose-poem, to offer the receptive reader a chance to actually go to
 the places mapped out by "The Invitation." To fulfill this promise I
 had to go to those places myself.

       I went to a cabin owned by some friends and started writing, using
 each segment of the original piece as a doorway into deeper places-the
 longing, the joy, the sorrow, the fear - reflecting with ruthless
 honesty on the meaning and struggles of a human life. I wrote what I
 need to remember, what I need to hear again and again: that life is
 full of beauty and pain; that the world will break your heart and heal
 it, over and over, if you let it, and that letting it do both is the
 only way to live fully; that we are not alone but deeply connected to
 that which create, and sustains all life.

       Aided by Harper San Francisco editor Karen Levine I distilled the
 stories down to their essence and offered  meditations at the
 conclusion of each chapter, meditations that had helped me walk through
 the doorways "The Invitation" had opened.

       Life is hard. And life is wonderful. "The Invitation" is about
 finding what we need-the inspiration, the intimacy, the courage and the
 commitment to live fully, every day.


 -- Oriah Mountain Dreamer



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