The Invitation -

My new friend Ariana gave me this poem..  I am in awe tonight of discovering myself in the mouths and minds of strangers.    Ariana is a traveller and a lover of philosophical thoughts,  she left my body and soul refreshed with her warmth and her blissful, adventurous energy.   Windsurfing, philosohpical debate, and bicycle rides at 2am..    This year has just begun , and already I feel I have discovered so many facinating and inspiring friends!     I feel blessed and infinitely connected to my own reality at this moment..    

     


"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 dreams
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 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
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 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 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 a 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."

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer from her book THE INVITATION

Re.invention

"Iamthecenterofmyhappinesseverythingstartsandbeginswithme. 
The presence or absence of happiness or goodness is not conditional on my perfection,
 but rather my assimilation into my moment.  What I see, or believe I see, has everything to do with my state of awareness. This experience is an echo of my own level of creation.
Are we God?   
Because the interpretation of "being" is open-ended, the outcome is wholly saturated with my own belief and certainty in HERE: 
this place - my place,  my mind." 






Andrew Tipton

Never Stop Becoming

"There are parts of me, I only recognize from photographs."   -  Sarah Kay

Key Largo + with love.

 

 

Andrew Tipton

Flower Sweetbreads & Peppers

Approaching the moment we live in with sacredness;  respecting not only ourselves but our exhertion and our motions.
 Just because a moment is common, makes it no less sacred.
 Just because a moment is necessary, makes it no less sacred.
We try to move through spaces that we find meaningless, but its our view that changes everything -
we may offer sacredness to a moment, or we may attempt to withdraw ourselves from it..
we will face the moment either way. 

A freind taught me this..
 I watched her slender hands slicing red peppers on my wooden chopping board.    Not in a way to be finished - she did not rush or become hurried.     Instead, each slice was distinct and purposeful..    with absolute presence and respect for what she was doing.
It was a moment in which I experienced tremendous inner reflection..  to see love expressed towards the simplest task..  is breathtaking. 

Andrew Tipton

Songs for mending.

"Let it go, let it slip away.
Let it fall, everyday.
You should know you
Can let it go."


Trent Jones.

Admired by the Sun

 

Ryan and I threw together some gear and decided to go climb the cliffs in Cheaha a few weeks ago..      Sleeping beneath the winter stars, grilling sweet potatoes and jalapeno-sauteed steaks in the embers of a hand built fire, coaxing a little music out of the cold night sky..    everything simple, and everything that creates expansive thoughts.    

   After an afternoon of climbing rock faces..  our hands aching, our legs bruised and scratched, we both perched ourselves on a few boulders overlooking the valley...  both of us watching silently as the sun melted into a blue horizon.    

As we sat there staring out across the wilderness, I felt this warmth radiate through my body.. 

  something lifting, rising from our joy and exhaustion.   The best way to describe it, is to say that it was an overwhelming awareness and pleasure of my own humanity.   I felt certain, I felt significant..  in the most simple and yet dis-ordinary way.    I was glad with myself..  glad to exist on earth in this (human) way.  To climb and taste food, and wander and laugh and be aware of vast colors..      That seems common and trivial..  but I wonder if the rocks think so?   Or the if the sunset looks back towards us in the evenings and admires us too?    Because we are beautiful in our own right..    this is a remarkable experience - to be human.    I believe we admire many things about life sometimes, and forget to consider ourselves as well.       

 

   I have never been appreciative of my humanity before..      but that is changing.  

 

    

Andrew Tipton