's Best of 2001
"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?" This is the opening question to The Dance. And like a thematic melody, this is the thread that holds Oriah Mountain Dreamer's book together, as she encourages readers to stop trying to change who you are and simply remember that "who you are is really enough." There are many reasons Mountain Dreamer is such a popular author (her debut book, The Invitation, was a soaring success), the main one being she doesn't pretend to have all the answers. Instead her warm, conversational writing shows us how to "live the questions," as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke once beckoned us to do. When Mountain Dreamer yells at her 19-year-old son, even after vowing to be patient, she asks herself, "Why [do] I repeatedly fail to live the intentions that matter to me? I want to know how to narrow the gap between the sincerest desires of my soul and my daily actions." Living these questions isn't easy, but it is the only way Mountain Dreamer wants to dance. Her chapters explore topics such as greed and money, creating love relationships, overscheduling, and solitude. At the end of each chapter she suggests a fitting mediation or exercise. --Gail Hudson


From Publishers Weekly
On the heels of her bestselling debut, The Invitation, Mountain Dreamer has written the gentlest of spiritual self-help books urging readers to slow down, let go and dance. Her central theme is that who we are is enough (loving enough, compassionate enough) and that only fear prevents us from accepting this liberating truth. Another recurring theme is the importance of learning to hold and keep others in our hearts in order to dissolve the divisive us-and-them dichotomy that deadens empathy. Each of her 12 chapters is followed by a practical meditation for readers to internalize and implement her ideas. If these lessons sound heavy-handed or high-minded, Mountain Dreamer delivers them in the most engaging and personal way. Her writing is intimate and conversational, its greatest strength being her use of illustrative anecdotes. Sometimes she draws from the lives and experiences of individuals she has spiritually counseled, but most often she tells stories about herself. These are not the exhortations of a wise and enlightened spiritual guru, but the true-life struggles of a multifaceted woman who is a divorced single mother of teenage boys, a lover, a spiritual guide and a writer. Her occasional use of profanity is entirely gratuitous, but she writes disarmingly of her own hurts, blunders and embarrassments, including her failures to take her own advice. The fact that she does so "without self-recrimination" demonstrates her effort to heed the message of the book and accept herself as she is. (Sept.) Forecast: Even readers who usually eschew New Age books enjoyed The Invitation, which has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies and received a nice spike in sales after the author's appearance on Oprah last year. Mountain Dreamer suffuses this gift book with the same broad appeal; it should easily sell out its first printing of 68,000. HSF plans national advertising and a five-city author tour.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman's Retreat Book and The Comfort Queen's Guide to Life
“Savoring Oriah’s words, I am both inspired and grounded by her fierce honesty, compassionate wisdom, and gorgeous language.”


Elizabeth Lesser, author of The Seeker's Guide, and co-founder, Omega Institute
“To read The Dance is to dance with Oriah Mountain Dreamer--who leads but never steps on your toes.”


SARK, author/artist, Succulent Wild Woman
“I deeply respect and admire Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s direct channel to the soul, and The Dance takes you there.”


Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessings
“. . . a blessing, a healing, a reminder to stop living in the neighborhood of your self & go home.”


Mark Victor Hansen, Co-creator, #1 New York Times best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul
“This book tells you how be authentic and make a lasting difference.”


Book Description
Welcome to The Dance, the wise and practical book that expands on Oriah Mountain Dreamer's new moving prose poem. In this compelling book the acclaimed author of The Invitation challenges readers to live with passion, energy, and honesty. The key, says Oriah, is to savor the everyday world of family, friends, love, and work with clear minds and open hearts. When we are physically and emotionally stressed and our spirits are depleted, we must realize that happiness has not vanished but is buried beneath the clutter of our harried lives. With rare courage and honesty, Oriah unveils the challenge of her inspiring poem through compelling stories from her own experience, offering us tools to become fully the person we already are -- not ways to change."To dance -- to live in a way that is consistent with our longing" -- is to discover a gift that we can give ourselves again and again over a lifetime. To dance, alone or with others, is to be who we truly are as we fulfill our soul's desires. To do this, we must learn how to let go and slow down, returning to the sacred emptiness where we encounter our true self. Practical, inspiring, and profoundly illuminating, The Dance is an invitation to discover a place of connection, serenity, and joy that is uniquely our own.


About the Author
Oriah Mountain Dreamer is a visionary teacher and writer, and author of the bestselling The Invitation. She speaks and leads workshops, ceremonies and retreats throughout the United States and Canada.

FROM OUR EDITORS

This lyrical follow-up to The Invitation explores a most ponderable conundrum: 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?

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Welcome to The Dance, the wise and practical book that expands on Oriah Mountain Dreamer's new moving prose poem. In this compelling book the acclaimed author of The Invitation challenges readers to live with passion, energy, and honesty. The key, says Oriah, is to savor the everyday world of family, friends, love, and work with clear minds and open hearts. When we are physically and emotionally stressed and our spirits are depleted, we must realize that happiness has not vanished but is buried beneath the clutter of our harried lives. With rare courage and honesty, Oriah unveils the challenge of her inspiring poem through compelling stories from her own experience, offering us tools to become fully the person we already are — not ways to change.To dance — to live in a way that is consistent with our longing — is to discover a gift that we can give ourselves again and again over a lifetime. To dance, alone or with others, is to be who we truly are as we fulfill our soul's desires. To do this, we must learn how to let go and slow down, returning to the sacred emptiness where we encounter our true self. Practical, inspiring, and profoundly illuminating, The Dance is an invitation to discover a place of connection, serenity, and joy that is uniquely our own.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jennifer Louden

Savoring Oriah's words, I am both inspired and grounded by her fierce honesty, compassionate wisdom, and gorgeous language.

Elizabeth Lesser

To read The Dance is to dance with Oriah Mountain Dreamer—who leads but never steps on your toes.

SARK

I deeply respect and admire Oriah Mountain Dreamer's direct channel to the soul, and The Dance takes you there.

Mark Victor Hansen

This book tells you how be authentic and make a lasting difference.

Rachel Naomi Remen