The Invitation

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The speaker states that she is not interested in knowing what “you do for a living.” The “you” she is speaking to is the intended listener and her prospective lover. The first stanza outlines that she cares much more about what this person “ache[s] for” than what their life consists of at the present moment. She sees through the surface level definition an occupation brings and is reading to meet this person’s “heart’s longing.” 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. Oriah is currently focused on writing. She is working on a novel, another non-fiction book- a collection of stories about deepening our inner lives- and writing a weekly blog, “The Green Bough” at oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com

Her bestselling books and teachings blend honesty, compassion, and humor to encourage sacred self-discovery. Having faced her own adversities, Oriah urges infinite kindness toward our own and others’ imperfections. Her insights help readers embrace their full humanity in all its rawness – fears, failures, passions, and purpose. Lessons from the Poem As ‘The Invitation’ progresses she adds that she doesn’t care about her listener’s children, past, or the mask they wear in public. Everything she needs to know comes from within her lover’s soul. The poem concludes with the speaker expressing her interest in knowing if her listener could live within their own mind, without the company of others. Their interior fortitude is a deal-breaker for her.

The Invitation

Oriah Mountain Dreamer grew up in a very religious household and small community in Ontario, Canada. Her family taught her Christian tradition. However, her family would move around a lot which gave her the experience of different ways of thinking. Her parents were both teachers, which added to her education, and provided her with a wide array of philosophies. In her early life, she would spend time in the wilderness.

She is known today as an inspirational author who seeks to help others find joy in their own passions. The focus of her life is looking into the Sacred Mystery. Her teachings on this topic have moved beyond writing and into audio. She released a CD titled, Sounds True, Your Heart’s Prayer.It shares her own thoughts and beliefs about the struggles everyone faces in life. Mountain Dreamer considers herself to be, at heart, a storyteller who uses words to change one’s beliefs about themselves and the larger world. The poem begins with the speaker making two initial statements about what she does and does not want to know about a possible lover. First, she does not care what they do for a living. She does care about their dreams and what their heart aches for secretly. The speaker goes on to add that she wants her life and that of her lover to be filled with the great adventure of being alive. 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.

The Name

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!”