This is one of my favorite poems:

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 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 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”, “be realistic”, or to “remember the limitations of being human”.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re 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.
I want to know if you can be faithful, and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can
source your life from God’s presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a
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 — for the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you are 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.