Hello World,
This is going to be a rather long post. But stick with me, and try and follow where this is going, because I swear, somehow it's all related.
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There's this girl I know from high school who, while lives largely in my periphery, has become nothing short of an inspiration. It started with an innocuous link on her Facebook to a blogpost she wrote a couple of years ago, and then I started to follow her blog. And her life path. And I realized that she was very much like me in so many ways (something I was semi-aware of when we were in school together) but her drive came from this place of self-knowing.
A couple of days ago, she announced on Facebook that she's quitting the 9-5 she's held for the past few months in Boston, and is westward bound to try and create a life surrounding her passion. Not her interests, but her passion.
When I read it, I was just so pleased. I let her happiness wash over me, and I felt calm. And then I wrote this and left it on her wall:
So many people talk about their dreams and doing what they love, yet most never make it past the safeness of dreaming. I am so incredibly proud and honored to know someone who extends their boundaries, pursues their passions, and puts self-reflection and self-happiness first - and that that person is you.
Keep living out your dreams; you're an inspiration for me to continue to do the same and I am absolutely certain you also inspire and motivate others to do the same.
To be happy and to help others find their happy; what more could you ask for in this world?
"Mtaka cha uvunguni, sharti ainame"
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Today, my favorite blogger Kim, from So Many Places, wrote about this poem in a post from France:
THE INVITATION
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
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’s 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 on 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 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.
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"I read the poem once and then I read it again. Of all its beautiful stanzas this one stands out to me today:
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.
And I realize that this is what I want to express in my emails: the importance of embracing the flame of possibility instead of turning your back on it. I want to say: If the risk of climbing into the fire is worth more to you than the comfort of lingering where it cannot touch you, you will know.
And when you decide to step inside the fire do not shrink back.
Do not shrink back even though the flames are crawling up your pant legs.
Do not shrink back though you are afraid that you might catch fire.
Do not shrink back although you fear that the heat and intensity of the flames will transform you into something unrecognizable.
Because that is exactly the point."
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I loved what she had to say about shrinking from the fire. But I was more taken by the last two lines:
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.
This is something I ask myself every day.
Am I happy with what I accomplished today?
Do I love where I am in this moment?
Am I in love with what I do?
Do I love me?
And when the answer shifts from 'yes' to 'no', that's when I too, will have to be brave enough to make a change.
Above all, I must commit to living a life that I am proud of. That sustains me, that is true to not only my interests, but my passions, and my vision of the future.
Moreover, I must continue to surround myself with people who live in the same way, for our energies united ground our own convictions in a world where dreaming and doing are still distant.
xoxo,
M
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