The Words of Others

These are a few of my favorite written essays or speeches by other authors.

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.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

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 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, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being 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 God's 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.

~~Oriah Mountain Dreamer (an Indian Elder)

Excerpt from the Journal of Mary Standing Otter
Notes on Shamanic Journey taken November 1998

A Vision...

I walk along a green wooded path. Stag Deer comes out of the woods and faces me. I am not afraid. He walks up to me and with the tip of his right antler he opens my chest and leaps into me. He looks out on the scene from inside my heart and walks beside me to my left at the same time. Buffalo walks to my right. They lead me to a clear lake where I drink and bathe myself. I then turn to look at the shore standing knee deep in the water.

I see the Horned God (Masculine Deity of Europe) step out of the woods to my right and he approaches White Buffalo Woman (Feminine Deity of North America) who has come from the left to stand on the shore. They dance perfectly together without touching. There is no music or sound but the dance itself speaks to me and it says: "It was never the Horned One's intention to rape White Buffalo Woman." Tears fall down my cheeks as I release guilt I did not know I had. "The child of this union cannot be born until the people release their guilt and their resentment."

I remember calling in the directions with Rainbow Eagle and how I understood in that moment that we have all been calling this in since we began to honor the directions, to see differences. The moment a human knew that south was different from north the dance began. The desire to blend was born and the walk toward Unity started. Each time any Medicine Person, any Magician, any Witch, any Shaman, any Priest or Priestess called to the directions we called each other into the Metis Way.

Like children we came together and like children we fought over the toys of ownership, rights, ego... there is no people who have not been both perpetrator and victim. We stand as equals in the great expanse of time.

This is a Sacred Time. What we have called to for thousands of years is upon us.

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