The Invitation By 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 hearts 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 you 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, or
to remember the limitations of being a human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you're 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.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from ITS 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.

Simply Happy...

So I woke up this morning with this surreal-like happy feeling. The surreality (not sure if that's word or just a Rose-ism) of it was because there was no rhyme or reason for it. Nothing spectacular has happened in my world as of recently...I just woke up happy and on a Monday morning at that! It was a wondrous feeling to wake up with, I have to admit though. I kept trying to figure out why I was so happy for apparently no reason and then I just stopped. I just stopped trying to make sense of this overall great feeling and I just went with it. I had a great day but ask me if anything great happened today and I would have to say no but it was a great day nonetheless. I was just simply happy...
Happy to be going to work in a place where I've been able to make some positive changes and I'm appreciated for...Happy to be waking up in paradise when even on your worst day, a person just needs to take in the beauty of this island that surrounds them and realize that life isn't so bad after all...Happy to have some of the greatest people I have ever met in my life and call them "friend"...Happy to have such a supportive, loving, and crazy family...Happy that I am loved by many and that I am able to love so many in return...Happy about who I am as a person and how in this neverending changing thing we call life, I keep learning and growing with it...Happy to be alive....
I woke up this morning just simply happy....