The Invitation

by ORIAH

• ISBN13: 9780061116711
• ISBN10: 0061116718
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-11
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

In The Invitation, Oriah expands on the poem that started it all, exhorting us to fully examine our lives, learn to live with intimacy and joy, and, above all, be true to ourselves. The Dance is the celebrated follow-up that reveals how to let go and enjoy the dance of life. To dance, alone or with others, is to slow down and realize that who we are is enough. Finally, in The Call, Oriah shows that each of us has our own call, our own specific place in the universe, and a contribution that only we can make.

Table of Contents

The Invitation	1	(138)
Accepting the Invitation	3	(12)
The Longing	15	(10)
The Fear	25	(10)
The Sorrow	35	(12)
The Joy	47	(10)
Betrayal	57	(12)
Beauty	69	(11)
Failure	80	(11)
The Commitment	91	(11)
The Fire	102	(12)
Deep Sustenance	114	(11)
Finding Our Way Home	125	(10)
Acknowledgments	135	(4)
Plus	139	(1)
Writing ``The Invitation	140	(7)
``The Invitation'' in the World	147

Excerpts

The Invitation

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 center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become 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, 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’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 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 center 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.

The Invitation. Copyright © by Alma Oriah. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from The Invitation by Oriah
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.