moving at the pace of beauty

by kye on May 12, 2010

Catching up on posts to the focusing discussion list this morning, I was delighted to come across a poem that meant a lot to me a decade ago: “The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

I was particularly struck by this:

I want to know if you can see beauty, every day…
and if you can source your life from its presence.

Because I was reading it freshly after a long absence–and reading it within the context of focusing–I took it as an invitation  to ‘source my own life from the presence of beauty’ right at this moment.  As I accepted that invitation, this is what happened:

I began by asking myself: am I sensing the presence of beauty right now?

… yes!

So for a long minute I simply sat with the palpable presence of beauty, before any words or thoughts about it…

And then, looking out the window, I saw a bird soar up to clear the building.

…yes! that’s an instance of this presence!

‘Sourcing myself from‘ this presence… now what does that phrase invite, in this moment?

I sat quietly with the feeling of the invitation, with the palpablility of the invitation, just waiting…

…Ah, the pace!  It wants the exact pace that has room for the soaring bird.  Sitting here planning my day, it wants me to make room for the bird!

I felt a little mist of tears–gratitude for the bird, and for the gift of this poem, and for being reminded of it:  for the invitation to shift my day into a softer slower key.

  • http://www.purposepowercoaching.com acordaamor

    Hi Kye — it's funny, I've always seen that poem as a challenge to men to really “stand up and be a man,” and treated reading it as a chance to get really intimate with the places where I don't feel like I'm measuring up in that area. Hearing a woman interpret it reminds me of how it's not really a gender-specific message or an indictment of my “failures” :) and I can relax as I look at it again.

  • kye

    Chris, I'm chuckling, reading this–what a different perspective! A long time ago I shared this poem with a male friend who reacted very negatively; maybe I'm beginning to understand why, a bit.

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