WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW....

We've been brainstorming questions for "the list." We are trying to find out about a person's qualities with a quick set of questions. Some men are actually filling out the list by providing their evidence about why they have these qualities. I'm asking people I date questions like:

• How would your ex-wife describe you?
• What do you do to relieve stress?
• What special talents do you have?
• What motivates you?
• What do you feel passionate about?
• etc.

But the more I think about it, perhaps these are not the questions I really want to ask. At church, the minister read this excerpt from The Invitation, a book by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
Maybe this is what I really want to know.....

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 be realistic 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.

Wow! This is really what we need to know about a person before we pledge to share the rest of our lives with them. The problem is I don't think you can really find this out in a few dates or a few years. How do we really know who another person's essence, their soul?

Question of the Day: How would you complete this sentence "It doesn't interest me to know.....I want to know....?"