|
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. Mother Teresa |
Living in truth with ourselves |
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 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 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. |
Living In Truth with ourselves - What this means for me For me the concept of unconditional love for others led me to acknowledge and love myself and it was a hard part of my journey. This was needed before I could truly love others without losing myself. In many ways this gave me great strength, it allows great compassion and healing to flow - without the 'need' for me to rush in and rescue anyone or be rescued myself. I can sit with pain, mine or others, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it - and in this way allow healing to happen. One of the 'tools' I use to remind myself of "me" and my comitment to "me", is The Invitation by Oriah reproduced below. We would like to express our gratitude to Oriah for her permission to use it here. |
Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. James A. Baldwin |
by Oriah from her book THE INVITATION (c) 1999. Published by HarperONE, San Francisco. All rights reserved. Presented with permission of the author www.oriah.org |