Customer Reviews

The Invitation (Plus)

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This little treasure of a book takes ordinary life and elevates it to mystical status.It is one of the most moving books I have ever read and when I finished the last page I actually felt better about myself than I have in a long time. Do not misunderstand, this isn't some flaky new-age message. This book is firmly rooted in real-life but it manages to make the mundane trials of our lives seem more like a dance with the divine that connects all humans. I would hate to say anything that might make potential readers shy away from this book, and I really am not able to convey its beauty or the feeling of peace I felt while visiting the noble world illuminated by Ms. Mountain Dreamers words but please, as a favor to yourself and someone you love, find this book and read it. Your soul will thank you.

Ms. Oriah Mountain Dreamer has created a pathway beyond the comforable and the mundane into that which challenges and repels you. By addressing the edges of your personality and sensitivities, you can build on and extend your awareness and your reality in honest ways that better fit your inner self. The book is propelled from the author's emotionally intense vision of her life as expressed in this question: "Did I love well?"

Although her personal examples are simply there to help your own journey, their poignancy touched me deeply. If you are like me, you will admire the honesty and openness of her sharing. Ms. Dreamer has had two failed marriage and many failed relationships. She has had friends who experienced horrible personal setbacks. You will be seared by the pain, the truth, and the beauty in these experiences. And you will be the better for the vicarious experience.

Above all, this book is a call to have courage, courage to go beyond the comfortable into the important. Because of the examples chosen and her personal perspective, this book will probably speak more eloquently to many women than to many men.

The book is broken down into the statement of her invitation to follow her spiritual path by dealing with longing, fear, sorrow, joy, betrayal, beauty, failure, commitment, and fire to develop the deep sustenance to allows you to go to your true inner home. Each section contains personal experiences of her point, and ends with valuable meditation exercises to help you find your own "truth" in these areas.

Although the book sounds like another New Age tract, it is actually anti-New Age in many ways . . . especially in favoring emotional and physical reality over spiritual vagueness.

Here is a little of what she has to say on these subjects:

Accepting the Invitation: " . . . [Y]ou will experience, not just read about, the ache, the sorrow, the joy, the courage, the peace . . . ."

The Longing: "This is what I ask for: intimacy with myself, others, and the world . . . ."

The Fear: "We are afraid we will not be enough." " . . . [D]esire . . . brings the ecstasy of falling more deeply in love with my own life every day . . . ."

The Sorrow: "If we are strong enough to be weak enough, we are given a wound that never heals." "[That wound] is the gift that keeps the heart open."

The Joy: "The enemy of joy is the litany of 'not good enough' . . . ."

The Betrayal: "Sometimes, to choose life, we must break agreements; sometimes we must keep them although they are hard to keep."

The Beauty: " . . . [G]ratitude expands my ability to receive beauty." "It is what pulls us towards life."

The Failure: " . . . [O]ften an attempt to avoid the paralysis of shame."

The Commitment: " . . . [F]eed the children when [they] thought they could not."

The Fire: "[D]ifficult to keep our hearts open, to feel the fear and pain."

Finding Our Way Home: "Are you willing to meet yourself and not turn away from what you are?"

As you can see, Ms. Dreamer sets a high standard, but one that you will probably be proud to match.

I particularly recommend the meditations in the book. My own meditation routine repeats the same process. I found it rewarding to use different methods. Many new thoughts occurred to me as a result. It was a deeply moving experience in each case.

After you have finished your spiritual journey with this book as a guide, I suggest that you write out your own examples to match these topics from your own experience. This will make the material more accessible, especially if loving well is not your core reason for being.

Be yourself, in more ways and more fully!

The Invitation is incredibly moving. It invites you to live life more fully, and feel all there is to feel-both the good and bad. I don't know what I was expecting to find when I picked up this book, but I got more than I could have hoped for. One of the most compelling aspects of this book is that Oriah Mountain Dreamer is not afraid to practice what she preaches. Actually she doesn't preach at all, which is extremely refreshing. Here is a woman who has gone through it all, and is not afraid to be REAL. She is not some New Age guru living in a bubble, this is a real woman who can move you to tears with simple profound wisdom, and still admit to you she gets irked with her teenage sons for leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor. What a wonderful book!

I really loved this poem. I liked the book as well, probably more than two stars worth, because there are some decent meditations at the end of each chapter and the writing is honest if not poetic. My concern is with the author, who relates her philosophy based on experiences in her own life, and shares with us the seemingly endless relationships and marraiges she has gone through, at the expense of herself, her mates, and her children.

"I want to know if you will be there for me, always. That you will not run away during times of hardship. That you will accept me for who I am, and allow for changes I can and will make. I want to know that you will share the toil of being together, and understand that it is working through transitions where true growth can occur."

Oriah claims to have an intimate connection with nature, and her children, though her connections are without responsibility. It is as though she looks at nature through a looking glass, intimacy as pleasure alone, never really accepting her part in the process(es). It is a very narcissistic view of self, love, and being. I would love to know what she actually is looking for in her relationships, why they keep falling apart, and perhaps even how the men in her life have failed her.

What an incredible book! Makes you really take an inventory of your own life and see how what we think is important, just really doesn't matter (keeping up with the Joneses, bigger, better, more). Helps one to realize that in our present culture we are so obsessed with facades and images and "things" that we forget to really live fully and experience life. Highly recommended if you feel your life is missing something quite important. If you read the poem and it didn't stir something in you, then don't get the book. :-)

This book was like none other I have read. Oriah expresses herself in a beautifully poetic yet also extremely earnest way. She talks about all those things that you think about but never quite knew how to verbalize. What do sorrow and pain mean? What does your soul truly long for and how do you get to that awareness? Who are you really? Her words reach down into the reader's heart and soul and awaken self-awareness. Oriah was 'discovered' by Oprah. The author herself is an excellent speaker. I recommend seeing her at a workshop and buying her tapes. She is based in Canada and longs to lead a hermetic life, but perhaps the calling to teach may keep her in the mainstream for us a while longer. You will finish this book in two days and give it to people you love.

If you like books written in a "stream of consciousness" style, then this book is for you. I enjoyed the chapter called "The Fire" which is about living life more fully and how life is very precious. I found this chapter very touching.

Another book that I recently enjoyed is "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work" by Ariel and Shya Kane...excellent book! Touching and about living life in the moment. I recommend this highly as well.

Thank you to the author of this book for speaking out for honesty. Too bad those who live from fear can't see the real message.

I first ran across the poem, "The Invitaion" on the Internet, then after I couldn't sleep for thinking of it, tracked down the book. I was even more blown away after reading it. So much so that I read it, went back and highlighted portions that had a great impact on me, then, read it a third time, going back again and again to write excerpts in my journal for everyday reflection. This book gave me the courage to get up and keep at it, after a very painful time in my life. Her message is so simple, yet so hard to do, but, has such incredible rewards.... Open yourself up to life, to all of it, the good and the ugly, no matter how vulnerable you may feel, because you can't truly appreciate the sweetness of life and all that it has to offer, unless you dare to have the courage to lay yourself, your deepest part of your soul bare, then began again from there. Until you allow yourself to do that, as she says, everything is just superficial. She teaches you how to LIVE life, good/bad/ whatever, all the way down to the marrow of your bones. A true gift to the human spirit.

This is a book that changes the essence of your inner landscape. I discovered this book by chance, when reading reader rewiews on another book I was thinking about purchasing. I have read this book three times, and each time, another layer of inner memories begins to stir within me. I have brought this book to work and people are constantly picking it up and begining this amazing journey wihtin. This is not an easy book to read, but the time I have given to myself by reading it and processing the lessons has opened doors to places within my heart that I never knew existed. Thank you.