Prelude
What if it truly doesn't matter what you do but how you do whatever
you do?
How would this change what you choose to do with your life?
What if you could be more present and open-hearted with each person you encounter working as a cashier in the corner
store, a parking lot attendant or filing clerk than you could if you were striving to do something you think is more
important?
How would this change how you want to spend your precious time on this earth?
What if your contribution to the world and the fulfillment of you own happiness is not dependent upon discovering a
better method of prayer or technique of meditation, not dependent upon reading the right book or attending the right
seminar, but upon really seeing and deeply appreciating yourself and the world as they are right now?
How would this effect your search for spiritual development?
What if there is no need to change, no need to try and transform yourself into someone who is more compassionate,
more present, more loving or wise?
How would this effect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better?
What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are in your essential nature- gentle, compassionate
and capable of living fully and passionately present?
How would this effect how you feel when you wake up in the morning?
What if who you essentially are right now is all that you are ever going to be?
How would this effect how you feel about your future?
What if the essence of who you are and always have been is enough?
How would this effect how you see and feel about your past?
What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently
want to be the person I really am?
How would this change what you think you have to learn?
What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and
trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices that offer us the warmth of
encouragement we need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you have to make about how to spend today?
What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world will arise from deep within and
guide you every time you simply pay attention and wait?
How would this shape your stillness, your movement, your willingness to follow this impulse, to just let go and
dance?
By Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Author of the book THE INVITATION.
Excerpted with permission from THE DANCE
(published September 2001).
Copyright (c) 2001 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission
of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 E. 53 St., New York NY 10022
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