Connections Radio Presents Oriah Mountain Dreamer “An Invitation”
November 23, 2010 1 Comment
Oriah Mountain Dreamer is the author of several best-selling books: The Invitation (now translated into more than fifteen languages), The Dance, and The Call: Discovering Why You Are Here.
Oriah is first and foremost a story-teller, a lover of words and symbols and the stories that lift our spirits, open our hearts and offer us ways to see patterns and create meaning in our lives. The focus of her life and work has been an on-going inquiry into the Sacred Mystery. Her writing, teaching and personal journey all explore how we can each become the individual we are at the deepest level of being and how we can co-create meaning together in the world. Blending humor, insight and compassion for our human struggles Oriah encourages herself and others to be ruthlessly honest and infinitely kind toward our own strengths and weaknesses.
Using story and sharing meditations Oriah’s writing explores how to follow the thread of our deepest heart’s longing into a life where we can choose joy without denying the difficulties we each face.
In her Connections Radio interview Oriah says, “The Invitation grew out of my authentic longing for something deeper in all of my relationships. I came home from a social gathering feeling quite unfulfilled and sat down to complete a series of statements beginning with, “It doesn’t interest me. . .”
“I think the poem became such a phenomenon because it struck a chord in our common longing. I have tremendous faith in our longing. If you go deep enough past the surface things that represent what we long for, we get to our yearning for intimacy with ourselves, the Divine and the world.
“Although it’s unrealistic to expect that we will always be intimate with another person or ourselves, I think it’s possible to live in a place where we access meaningful intimacy of the Beloved in all our relationships and enjoy the waves of that as it comes and goes. The gift in wandering away and coming back is that you get the sweetness of that homecoming every time.”
Oriah’s daily practice includes ceremonial prayer, yoga, meditation and writing. She emphasizes that, “The value of having a structured daily routine for returning to oneness is that we tend to forget about our centering practice in times of crisis but when it is something that we do everyday we have a much better chance of using it to get through our difficult times.”
Oriah takes a great deal of comfort in knowing that, “The lovely thing about our connection to the Beloved, whether you call it God or The Great Mystery, is that it reaches for us all of the time. So, with just the tiniest little bit of an opening, Grace is what comes in.”
She believes that, “We have to choose to be human. Embrace the reality of your own unique journey. To be present be in the now you have to be here in this body the way it is right now. This means not how you imagine it to be or with the things you hope for and are working towards, or remembering nostalgically how things were. Being in the now helps us extend and keep our hearts open to other human beings.”
An important idea that helps her to be more accepting of herself and others comes from knowing that, “People do the best they can with what they have to work with. I turn that towards myself when I think I should be doing better. That’s also a good place to start with the problems in the world and how we can bring more of what is needed to each of these situation. An open heart is always needed.”
Oriah is currently focused on writing. She is working on a novel, another non-fiction book- a collection of stories about deepening our inner lives- and writing a weekly blog, “The Green Bough” at oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com. Oriah’s website is www.oriah.org and she can be contacted at, mail@oriah.org.
Cynthia James and Dr. Jordan Paul, your hosts for Connections Radio, share a common passion for helping to heal separation and facilitate oneness. Our motto, “Stay Connected” means living in oneness with our authentic self and our family, including those with whom we live as well as every living thing with whom we share our planetary home.
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