The Invitation

This beautiful poem, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, is how I am opening the space for the women this evening at the very first Sacred Women's Circle in Steyning.


May these words sink deep into your being. 
May you know that you are loved.

Today's powerful, inviting sky

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.

By Oriah from her book, THE INVITATION (c)1999. Published by HarperONE, San Francisco. 
All rights reserved. Presented with permission of the author. www.oriah.org

As I Began to Love Myself

I have just discovered this wonderful poem which was written by the late Charlie Chaplin on his 70th birthday, April 16th 1959. It's beautiful and thought provoking and lovely. Enjoy...

As I Began to Love Myself, a poem by Charlie Chaplin

As I began to love myself
I found that anguish and emotional suffering  are only warning signs
that I was living against my own truth.

Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”.

As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody
As I try to force my desires on this person,
even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it,
and even though this person was me.
Today I call it “RESPECT”.

As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life,
and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow.
Today I call it “MATURITY”.

As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance,
I am in the right place at the right time,
and everything happens at the exactly right moment.
So I could be calm.
Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”.

As I began to love myself I quit stealing my own time,
and I stopped designing huge projects for the future.
Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do
and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm.
Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”.

As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health -
food, people, things, situations, and everything the drew me down and away from myself.
At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism.
Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”.

As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right,
and ever since I was wrong less of the time.
Today I discovered that is “MODESTY”.

As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worry about the future.
Now, I only live for the moment, where everything is happening.
Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT”.

As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me
and it can make me sick.
But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally.
Today I call this connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART”.

We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems
with ourselves or others.
Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born.
Today I know “THAT IS LIFE”!

Beautiful flowers sent with love

Happiness

It isn't

that I'm flying high,

dancing through meadows or

frolicking in oceans

right now.

My happiness

is simpler

than that,

wrapped deceivingly in

a double decker journey,

studying gaits,

noticing colours 

and feeling

my aching feet

make contact with

the floor, warm and

flat

like a stone I

found on a beach

once.

It's knowing that

this moment is

King,

and I its Queen;

that watching 

people carry shopping and

old people grow

older

is perhaps the most precious

of experiences, for 

in them lies

the key to enlightenment - 

first

"chop wood, carry 

shopping"

and then

"I am not a body - 

I am free."

Children will play.

Girls will look

effortlessly beautiful

and not realize it until

many years later.

Feet will ache,

and in and out I breathe.

Becoming 

conscious, slowly,

of the neverending presence

of love

in me.

When I take a risk

When I take a risk...
Amazing things seem to happen:
Doing one thing every day that scares me
Is yielding incredible results.
I am braver; I made it down the hill.
And
I asked if anyone wants to be my first
coaching client and
immediately, someone wonderful said yes!
I knew it was time to shine
again
and I got a teaching job
just like that
 - no long application needed, no interview.
Just, welcome,
and,
Teach.

What else?

I've opened myself to him,
and every cell in my body
seems to pop, crackle and fizz.
Also, it is time to open my arms
to the flow of abundance
that is just waiting to rush through my life
welcoming the river,
allowing it to flow.
And the most wonderful people
keep coming my way,
like they can't help themselves
but want to hang out in my orbit.

I am so grateful.

The risks are scary
but!
taking them -
just
day by day -
is totally transforming my
precious,
tender,
once-in-a-lifetime
life.

Moments

Moments

by Luis Jorge Borges

If I were able to live my life again,

next time I would try to make more mistakes.

I would not try to be so perfect. I would be more relaxed.

I would be much more foolish than I have been. In fact,

I would take very few things seriously.

I would be much less sanitary.

I would run more risks. I would take more trips,

I would contemplate more sunsets,

I would climb more mountains,

I would swim more rivers.

I would go to more places I have never visited.

I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans.

I would have more real problems, fewer imaginary ones.

I was one of these people who lived prudently

and prolifically every moment of his life.

Certainly I had moments of great happiness:

Don’t let the present slip away.

I was one of those who never went anywhere

without a thermometer, a hot water bottle,

an umbrella, and a parachute.

If I could live over again,

I would go barefoot, beginning

in early spring

and would continue so until the end of autumn.

I would take more turns on the merry-go-round.

I would watch more dawns

And play with more children,

if I once again had a life ahead of me.

But, you see, I am eighty-five

and I know that I am dying.

Me having a moment. Photography by Nige.

Go deep with me

You can go deep with me

Way down deep

beneath the "fine"s and 

"okay"s and

that same old tired, tight-lipped smile,

ever wearying,

fading as the sun sets;

cheeks wilting,

skin sagging

overcast irises not quite

knowing how

they will face another day.

You can go deep with me,

show me what you hide so carefully

the fucking frustration of it all,

the murderer,

the heartless

senseless

beast

who prowls unrelentingly

gnawing at the root of your soul.

Come, 

and go deep with me, and 

I will show you

that beneath the horror

of your hall of mirrors

lies a child

in a basement

quivering

lonely

touch starved

lovely

innocent

ever patient

awestruck,

as she looks out

into blazing brightness

dancing on a thousand stars,

fingers brushing the moon.

Tell me your secrets

and I promise you

that you will not be left

comfortless.