The Invitation - by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

A good friend shared a prose poem with me, called The Invitation. It seems that the author went to a party and realized that she was very weary of the trivial conversation and questions that people pose in that context. She wrote about what she would really want to know. I have reproduced the text of the poem below.

I was quite taken with it and got the book, which gave more background. It was an easy enough read, but she struck me as the kind of person who just beats herself up all the time and makes some dumb decisions. Well, each to their own. I still enjoy the poem.

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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.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - by John Berendt

This book is billed as being about a murder and its investigation. It's fair to say that the murder is a thread running through the book, but hardly makes for suspense. The true value in the book are the beautiful descriptions of the people and places of Savannah - the glimpses of the social hierarchy and stories of ordinary and extraordinary people's lives.

As an inveterate people watcher, I enjoyed the book. It made me curious about the place. Maybe I should investigate. A friend told me about the movie - perhaps I should check that too.

I am really not reading fast enough at the moment - life is too full ...