Here's a poem I found on a career website as an inspiriational poem. It's by Oriah MountainDreamer. The author of a best-selling career book listed this poem in his "resources" section of his webpage as something to motivate and encourage. Look at my comments at the end.
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 centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled 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 is 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.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
On the surface, it seems to be all about being true to yourself, getting a life, etc. Some of it is good.
And yet....
Upon deeper analysis it seems to be about listening ONLY to yourself, caring about yourself, nurturung yourself and let everyone else be dammed.
Look at this stanza...
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.
Hmmmm.....does this sound like WAS to you?
In other words, being true to yourself, even if it means being "faithless" or unfaithful to another, is the way to go.
By the way objective "truth" is not important, what's important is "leaning into our our own honesty."
Maybe marital infidelity is partly fueled by the narcisissm of our age that stresses being true to oneself apart from consequences to anyone else.
I've also noticed that many books on affairs and marriage counseling never actually say an affair is WRONG. They say it doesn't work in the interestes of the marriage. Well, DUH, generally marriages don't last if one partner is openly screwing around on another.
