{"id":601,"date":"2012-11-26T23:46:19","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T23:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.innerquests.netstorms.org\/?p=601"},"modified":"2012-11-26T23:46:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T23:46:19","slug":"the-invitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/11\/26\/the-invitation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Invitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Invitation ~ Inspirational Poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9ZKxN3u8ZHM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The Invitation by Oriah<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n what you do for a living.<br \/>\n I want to know<br \/>\n what you ache for<br \/>\n and if you dare to dream<br \/>\n of meeting your heart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longing.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n how old you are.<br \/>\n I want to know<br \/>\n if you will risk<br \/>\n looking like a fool<br \/>\n for love<br \/>\n for your dream<br \/>\n for the adventure of being alive.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n what planets are<br \/>\n squaring your moon&#8230;<br \/>\n I want to know<br \/>\n if you have touched<br \/>\n the centre of your own sorrow<br \/>\n if you have been opened<br \/>\n by life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s betrayals<br \/>\n or have become shrivelled and closed<br \/>\n from fear of further pain.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI want to know<br \/>\n if you can sit with pain<br \/>\n mine or your own<br \/>\n without moving to hide it<br \/>\n or fade it<br \/>\n or fix it.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI want to know<br \/>\n if you can be with joy<br \/>\n mine or your own<br \/>\n if you can dance with wildness<br \/>\n and let the ecstasy fill you<br \/>\n to the tips of your fingers and toes<br \/>\n without cautioning us<br \/>\n to be careful<br \/>\n to be realistic<br \/>\n to remember the limitations<br \/>\n of being human.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n if the story you are telling me<br \/>\n is true.<br \/>\n I want to know if you can<br \/>\n disappoint another<br \/>\n to be true to yourself.<br \/>\n If you can bear<br \/>\n the accusation of betrayal<br \/>\n and not betray your own soul.<br \/>\n If you can be faithless<br \/>\n and therefore trustworthy.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI want to know if you can see Beauty<br \/>\n even when it is not pretty<br \/>\n every day.<br \/>\n And if you can source your own life<br \/>\n from its presence.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI want to know<br \/>\n if you can live with failure<br \/>\n yours and mine<br \/>\n and still stand at the edge of the lake<br \/>\n and shout to the silver of the full moon,<br \/>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n to know where you live<br \/>\n or how much money you have.<br \/>\n I want to know if you can get up<br \/>\n after the night of grief and despair<br \/>\n weary and bruised to the bone<br \/>\n and do what needs to be done<br \/>\n to feed the children.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n who you know<br \/>\n or how you came to be here.<br \/>\n I want to know if you will stand<br \/>\n in the centre of the fire<br \/>\n with me<br \/>\n and not shrink back.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me<br \/>\n where or what or with whom<br \/>\n you have studied.<br \/>\n I want to know<br \/>\n what sustains you<br \/>\n from the inside<br \/>\n when all else falls away.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI want to know<br \/>\n if you can be alone<br \/>\n with yourself<br \/>\n and if you truly like<br \/>\n the company you keep<br \/>\n in the empty moments.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nBy Oriah \u00c2\u00a9 Mountain Dreaming,<br \/>\n from the book The Invitation<br \/>\n published by HarperONE, San Francisco,<br \/>\n 1999 All rights reserved<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Invitation by Oriah reminds me of Kipling&#8217;s &#8216;If&#8217;:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>IF you can keep your head when all about you<br \/>\n Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,<br \/>\n If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,<br \/>\n But make allowance for their doubting too;<br \/>\n If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,<br \/>\n Or being lied about, don&#8217;t deal in lies,<br \/>\n Or being hated, don&#8217;t give way to hating,<br \/>\n And yet don&#8217;t look too good, nor talk too wise:<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n If you can dream &#8211; and not make dreams your master;<br \/>\n If you can think &#8211; and not make thoughts your aim;<br \/>\n If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster<br \/>\n And treat those two impostors just the same;<br \/>\n If you can bear to hear the truth you&#8217;ve spoken<br \/>\n Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,<br \/>\n Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,<br \/>\n And stoop and build &#8217;em up with worn-out tools:<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n If you can make one heap of all your winnings<br \/>\n And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,<br \/>\n And lose, and start again at your beginnings<br \/>\n And never breathe a word about your loss;<br \/>\n If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew<br \/>\n To serve your turn long after they are gone,<br \/>\n And so hold on when there is nothing in you<br \/>\n Except the Will which says to them: &#8216;Hold on!&#8217;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,<br \/>\n &#8216; Or walk with Kings &#8211; nor lose the common touch,<br \/>\n if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,<br \/>\n If all men count with you, but none too much;<br \/>\n If you can fill the unforgiving minute<br \/>\n With sixty seconds&#8217; worth of distance run,<br \/>\n Yours is the Earth and everything that&#8217;s in it,<br \/>\n And &#8211; which is more &#8211; you&#8217;ll be a Man, my son!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Invitation by Oriah &nbsp; It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longing. &nbsp; It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/11\/26\/the-invitation\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[130,150],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innerquests.chidakasha.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}