Poem | Dr. Lori Todd

The Conversation – Dr. Lori Todd

What is important in any moment, is only what we choose is important in that moment. It takes a phone call, a medical report, an animal walking by your window, to change everything in an instant. The world can go from black and white to color in an instant. The world can go from possibility to resignation in an instant. All that is left is our interpretation, and our inner reserve to choose the one that will forward our lives.

The Conversation

One moment you are worrying about those extra wrinkles
Next moment you find out you have cancer
One moment you don’t have enough time for everything
Next moment you can’t move because of the surreal nature of life
You look in the mirror and wonder what really matters
And the answer is the same; nothing really matters
Then you have an insanely funny conversation with someone
You realize for a moment you forgot that you had problems
Life is moving in slow motion; you wonder if joy will return
Then you realize joy is just a pause button from pain
The Conversation –

By Dr. Lori Todd

The Invitation

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 hearts 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 you 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, to 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 the 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 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 the 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, 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 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.

–Oriah Mountain Dreamer Indian Elder

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