Aspirations

As this is a new blog, I was going to write about me today, telling you all the little details that would take up to much room in the bio.......and then, I went on Facebook and found this poem that a friend had posted:


THE INVITATION by Oriah

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 dreams, 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 shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wilderness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be
careful, realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling 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 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 and 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 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 for the children.

It doesn’t interest 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 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.


Having read this, the little snippets of info about me seem irrelevant. This poem moved me, and I thought that if I posted it I would be showing you what I aspire to be.... I fail every moment of every day, but it's the trying that counts.
I hope you liked the poem too, and if you share this blog journey with me, you'll get to know the little details about me as we go along......and it will be far more fun that way :)

The photo at the top, by the way, is the clematis montana rubens which is at its most glorious at the moment at the bottom of my garden, scrambling along the fence and right up to the top of my neighbour's 15ft high conifers!!!