in beauty I walk
image by Nikki McClarron
Spring! This time of year encourages us to find joy in the simplest and sweetest of things. Tender buds begin to peek out fostered by sun and rain. All that sprouts anew and beckons us to discover what is not so much known just yet but possible.
While there are many things we cannot count on, it is the changing of the seasons that lend some structure to an otherwise wild and unpredictable experience of our reality on Earth. Some may call these tumultuous times that we are in. And they are, no doubt, full of challenging shifts and surprises. We are, afterall, in a time of solar minimum, which tends to bring about global and interpersonal challenges in general. When placed within a larger context, the uncomfortable changes we’re experiencing are simply the hallmarks of greater cycles in which we, as a collective, do have a choice to either flow with in a healthy and life-supporting way or surrender to it’s lower manifestations. As a collective, it is our sustained state of being that will not only shift the tides that are contrary to well-being on an individual level but actually shape the future on behalf of the whole. For this reason, I encourage each and all to do our best in raising our own individual vibrations by holding the essence of all things good, kind, tender, sharing, forgiving, joyous, hopeful and effervescent… in order to foster fertile ground for a truly fresh new day. It is this nubile, new and celebratory energy that is the essence of Spring. And it is this essence of Spring that will lift us from all that is stagnate, outmoded and hindering to our greater and collective potential. At this time of year, I feel inspired to shake of the dross of fear, regret and outmoded beliefs to make space for new ideas, new projects and renewed life in general.
I leave you with this Navajo prayer I so love and think of often, especially in these days of simplifying my own life more and more, leaving room for nothing that is not of love and beauty. I hope you enjoy.
Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony
In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again
Hózhóogo naasháa doo Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo Hózhó náhásdlíí’ Hózhó náhásdlíí’ Hózhó náhásdlíí’ Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…Click to hear the prayer spoken in Navajo by Wanye Wilson, a Navajo member.
Linguistic Note: The word “Hozho” in Dine’ (roughly translated) Concept of Balance and Beauty. Consideration of the nature of the universe, the world, and man, and the nature of time and space, creation, growth, motion, order, control, and the life cycle includes all these other Navajo concepts expressed in terms quite impossible to translate into English. Some Navajos might prefer the term: “Nizhoni” meaning ‘just beauty.”
Written by Robert S. Drake, for Tom Holm, PhD, University of Arizona American Indian Graduate Studies Program, Native American Religions and Spirituality.
