It doesn't interest me what u do for a living. I want to know what u ache for, and if u dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old u are. I want to know if u will risk looking 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 u have touched the center of your own sorrow, if u have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if u can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if u can be with joy, mine or your own, if u can dance with wildness and let the ecstacy fill u 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 doesn't interest me if the story u are telling me is true. I want to know if u can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if u can bare the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul, if u can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if u can see beauty, even when it's not pretty, every day, and if u can source your own life from it's presence. I want to know if u 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 interest me to know where u live or how much money u have. I want to know if u can get up after the night of grief and dispair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who u know or how u came to be here. I want to know if u 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 u have studied. I want to know what sustains u, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if u can be alone with yourself and if u truly like the company u keep in the empty moments.
~Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder
1 comment:
M, I think that's the most beautiful post I've ever read on here. It put life in a perspective that makes me want to help the world not use it. thanks for posting that.
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