Dear Readers,

Your responses to my last blog were heart-warming and I am very grateful to you all.  I’m still making my way through some of them, apologies that it’s taking me so long to write back. I hope you’re finding ways to make space for your self-care, no matter what is going on around you.

I’m busy focusing on those goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I’ve added a new qualification to my credentials, and I’ve applied for two jobs thanks to the new-found confidence in my abilities. I have spent the past week in and out of interviews! While writing and counselling will always be my passions, I feel a calling to get back into the workforce after being more or less house-bound in my role as a stay-at-home Mum for 19 years. I want to be amongst like-minded people, both in my capacity to learn and to share my knowledge and life experience. I’m wise enough to accept that wherever you get people, you get challenges, but life without challenges is boring, right? We learn so much about ourselves from others and how we interact with them. I will keep saying it, learning is what I love about life and as soon as I stop learning it will be because my time is up.

 

Something different

This week’s photo illustrates my love of rock pools which invite me to explore with excitement and a healthy dose of trepidation. I find myself becoming more daring as I age and last week I did not hesitate to step into the unknown. They kind of sum up life for me – the journey of discovery. My blog this week is something different. Less words of my own and instead, more words from an amazing writer. One of my lovely readers in Ireland recently sent me a photo of a poem that he has had pinned to his wall for some time. He felt that the words might resonate with me too. OMG, he wasn’t wrong. As soon as I read the words, I found myself gasping – for they shook me up, big time!

Don’t you just love when the universe drops these little nuggets of gold into your lap for you to treasure? I know I do! So, thank you to my lovely reader, and now friend, for bringing this poem to my attention. I wish that I had penned it myself, but I could never claim to be as gifted with words as Oriah is. Her poem is both evocative and transformative, in my view, but I will leave it up to you to decide for yourself. I have made a recording of it which you can listen to by following this link. While I’m on the subject of my recordings, how about you subscribe to my YouTube channel. Some people prefer to listen to me read my blogs while they’re on the move. By subscribing you’re guaranteed not to miss out.  And like all of what I publish on my website, my YouTube content is also free to you for your enjoyment. It is my way of paying forward the good fortune that the universe has sent my way over the decades.

Perhaps you might like to read along while listening to the recording. Whatever you choose to do, this is my invitation to you to be moved by this poem as much as I have been.

 

 

The Invitation

by Oriah

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 been 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 the wildness

and let your 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

everyday

And if you can source your own life

in 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

 

As ever, I value your feedback and the connections that we make, so keep in touch and share your thoughts and insights. They matter. Until next time, keep well and be a good friend to you. Love, Gill x