21: Summer Breeze: The Invitation

Transcript

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Welcome to the Summer Breeze edition of the Return to Her podcast. I'm your host, Cassie Dalton. These bite-sized episodes are your weekly breath of fresh air while I take some time to regroup, recharge, and dream up. Powerful content for season two coming this August. Just a quick reminder, everything shared here is for informational purposes only and is never meant to be a substitute for professional advice. So take a deep breath, settle in, and let's drop into a little something to nourish body, mind, and spirit. I'll meet you there. Hello again, everybody. Welcome back in to the Return to Her podcast. Remember, during the summer I'm going to be doing these Summer Breeze editions that I hope to keep short and sweet and uplifting, something that Nourish has us. All body, mind, and spirit. And for today, what I wanted to do actually is read a poem that really touched my heart I encountered this poem many years ago when I was in my yoga teacher training, and it definitely woke something up in me. It made me feel. A little bit more what it is to, to seek authenticity, to seek truth, to seek that such a, that, that real truth of who we are, why we came here, not just the superficial. Who are we in regards to? What is our job and what is our title? Are we a parent or title or reparent or not? So this poem really impacted me deeply and I wanted to share it with all of you. So the poem is called. The invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer and just reading a little bit from her website if you are interested in looking her up. She is a poet and an author. She also has a blog, and according to the description of her on her website, quote, her writing, teaching, and personal journey. All explore how we can each become the individual that we are at the deepest level of being, and how we can co-create meaning together in the world. Blending humor, sight and compassion for our human struggles. Aria encourages herself and others to be ruthlessly honest and infinitely kind toward our own strengths and our weaknesses. So here is the poem. I just want you to sit back. Take a few deep breaths and allow the words to wash over you. As always, whatever resonates is for you today and whatever doesn't, you can just let it fall away. 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 center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled 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 bruise 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 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. So just allow that poem to wash over you. Allow yourself to take a few moments after this episode closes, if it brought anything up for you. Sit with that, see what happens, what might rise, what might be finally ready to fall away. If there's anything. Keeping you from stepping into that authenticity, that truth of who you are. Maybe take a little time today to be alone with yourself and notice if you like the company you keep in those quiet, empty moments, and I'll see you next week when we return to her. Thanks for spending a few moments with me today. If this episode brought you even a whisper of Insight or calm, I would love it if you'd share it with a friend, rate the show, or leave a quick review. Those simple actions really help others discover this space and keep it growing. If you feel called to support the podcast energetically, you can do so with a small monthly donation. Just see the link in the show notes that says, support the show. That will help me continue to create meaningful content for you, especially as we gear up for season two. Until next time, keep listening and tuning inward to the truth of who you really are. And I'll see you next week when we return to her.