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 btrayaly 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, or fake it or fix
it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine of
your own; if you can dance with
wildness and let ecstacy fill you to the tips of your fingers
and toes without
cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the
limitations of being
human.
It's doesn't interest me if the story you're
telling me is true.
I want to know if you can dissapoint another to be true to yourself,
if you can hear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your
own Soul.
I want to know if you can see beauty, even if
it's not pretty every day,
and if you can source you life from God's prescense.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and stil stand on the
edge of a lake and shot to the silver of the full moon, "YES!"
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 and stand with me and not
shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where you or what with
whom you have studies.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else
falls away.
I want to know if you can truely be alone with
yourself,
and if you truely like the comapany you keep in the empty moments.
--Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder, May
1994
