.One of my favorite poems is "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. It’s a poem that cuts through the superficial layers of life and asks the real questions. It’s not interested in the surface-level details we often use to define ourselves—like our job, age, or accomplishments. Instead, it goes straight to the heart, asking what really sustains us and what we truly long for. Here’s the full poem:
The Invitationby Oriah Mountain Dreamer
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 centre 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, 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 Beautyeven 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 at 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 centre 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.
So often, we get caught up in the surface details—what someone does for a living, how old they are, or what they’ve achieved. But, this poem is calling us to look deeper, to ask questions that go beyond the usual.
The poet isn’t interested in what you do for work or where you live. Instead, they want to know about your heart—what you ache for, what drives you at your core. Are you willing to dream, even when the dream feels risky? Are you willing to chase something so deeply important to you that you might look foolish in the process?
It’s not about how much you've studied or what credentials you have. What the poet really wants to know is, can you live with failure? Can you stand at the edge of life's hardest moments and still say ‘Yes’ to it all—to life, to love, to the adventure of simply being alive?
I think the real message here is about authenticity and vulnerability. It’s easy to hide behind achievements or titles, but this poem pushes us to ask the hard questions: Have you touched the depth of your own sorrow? Can you sit with your pain—or someone else’s—without rushing to fix it or make it disappear?
It’s also about joy. Can you embrace joy without holding back, without worrying about being too wild or too reckless? Can you let yourself dance fully in the moment, without the voice of caution telling you to be careful or stay grounded?
The poet is asking if we can be truly ourselves, even when that means disappointing others. Can you stay true to your own soul, even when the world accuses you of being selfish or faithless? That’s real strength, because it means trusting yourself enough to live authentically, no matter the cost.
And what about beauty? The poet isn’t asking if you can see beauty when everything is perfect, but if you can still recognize it when life is messy, when things aren’t going right. It’s about finding the sacred in the ordinary, the beauty in the struggle.
Finally, the poem challenges us to consider what sustains us when everything else falls apart. When life strips away the comfort, the success, the familiar—what keeps you going? What’s at the core of your being that remains steady and true?
This poem is a call to live from the inside out, to strip away the layers of superficiality and show up, raw and real, in every moment. It’s about being willing to face the fire, the pain, and the joy of life without shrinking back. It’s about daring to live fully, no matter what life throws your way.
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