“The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Chapter 1 “Accepting the Invitation”
I want to live with deep intimacy every day of my life…
- The first warning, then, is also the first promise: if this book succeeds in actually taking you into the territory of “The Invitation,” you will experience, not just read about, the ache, the sorry, the joy, the courage, the peace…
- This, then, leads to the second warning and promise: the consequences of moments of deep intimacy with yourself, another, of the world are completely unpredictable.
- The third warning holds yet another promise: no part of the journey is wasted.
“Are you ready to accept the invitation?”
I can tell you that it is possible to feel pain without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it, to dance with joy and feel the ecstasy completely, to live with the failure, to see beauty, to stand in the center of the fire…
that the courage to go deeper is found by letting you desire grow larger than you fear; that strength is found in your longing to live fully, your willingness to settle for nothing less…
I am compelled by some deep hunger of the soul, driven by a desire that will not leave me alone, to live life to the fullest…
It means tasting each mouthful, feeling each breath, listening to each song, being awake and aware of each moment as it unfolds…
Life lived intimately may not be easier. But it is fuller, richer, and more open to everything: the confusion and the insight, the excitement and the boredom, the shadow and the light…
Did I love well? There are a thousand ways to love other people and the world-with out touch, our words, our silences, our work, our presence. I want to love well. This is my hunger. I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself and others every day. So I seek to increase my ability to be with the truth in each moment, to be with what I know, the sweet and the bitter. I wan to stay aware of the vastness of what I do not know. This what brings me to the journey. I do not want to live any other way….
From Chapter 1 “Accepting the Invitation”
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