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

quote by osho

All the true vows
are secret vows
the ones we speak out loud
are the ones we break.

There is only one life
you can call your own
and a thousand others
you can call by any name you want.

Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don’t turn your face away.

Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.

Those who do not understand
their destiny will never understand
the friends they have made
nor the work they have chosen

nor the one life that waits
beyond all the others.

By the lake in the wood
in the shadows
you can
whisper that truth
to the quiet reflection
you see in the water.

Whatever you hear from
the water, remember,

it wants you to carry
the sound of its truth on your lips.

Remember,
in this place
no one can hear you

and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,

that way you’ll find
what is real and what is not.

I know what I am saying.
Time almost forsook me
and I looked again.

Seeing my reflection
I broke a promise
and spoke
for the first time
after all these years

in my own voice,

before it was too late
to turn my face again.

~ david whyte

You suppose you are the trouble

but you are the cure.

You suppose that you are the lock on the door

but you are the key that opens it.

It’s too bad that you want to be someone else.

You don’t see your own face, your own beauty.

Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.

~rumi

it is the opening of eyes long closed.

it is the vision of far off things seen for

the silence they hold. it is the heart after

years of secret conversing speaking out

loud in the clear air. ~david whyte

when you realize how perfect everything is, you will

tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. ~buddha

The biggest lie you ever told


Your deepest fear about growing old 


The loneliest night you ever spent 


The angriest letter you never sent 


The girl you swore you’d never leave 


The one you kissed on New Year’s Eve 


The sweetest dream you had last night 


Your darkest hour, your hardest fight 


The saddest song you ever heard 


The most you said with just one word 


The loneliest prayer you ever prayed 


The truest vow you ever made 


What makes you laugh, what makes you cry 


What makes you mad, what gets you by 


Your highest high, your lowest low  

~lyrics from ‘Inside Out’ by Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley

words by susanna tamaro

photo via visualize