Words of Peace and Wisdom by Native Americans
I have a book that is starting to get a bit tatty, so I thought, before the book falls to pieces and ends up in the trash, why not immortalize them in a blog post. These words are too good to be lost!
In Beauty May I Walk
In beauty
may I walk
All day long
may I walk
Through the returning seasons
may I walk
Beautifully will I possess again
Beautifully birds
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen
may I walk
With grasshoppers about my feet
may I walk
With beauty may I walk
With beauty before me
may I walk
With beauty behind 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,
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
- From the Navajo
The trail is beautiful. Be Still.
- Anonymous, Dakota
Training began with children who were taught to sit still and enjoy it. They were taught to use their organs of smell, to look where there was apparently nothing to see, and to listen intently when all was seemingly quiet. A child who cannot sit still is a half-developed child.
- Luther Standing Bear
Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves selfhood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence... If you ask him: "What is silence?" he will answer: "It is the Great Mystery. The holy silence is His voice." If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?" he will say: "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character."
- Ohiyesa
Once you have heard the meadowlark and caught the scent of fresh-plowed earth, peace cannot escape you.
- Sequichie
We are all creators. We breathe. To speak is to form breath and to make manifest sound into the world. As I write I create myself again and again. Re-Create And breathe. And I see that I am not one voice, but many: all colors, all sounds, all fears, all loves.
- Joy Harjo
In Reverence of Nature
Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt the red hunter comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful or sublime - a black thundercloud with the rainbow's glowing arch above the mountain; a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge; a vast prairie tinged with the blood-red of a sunset - he pauses for an instant in the attitude of worship.
- Ohiyesa
Remember, remember the sacredness
of things running streams and
dwellings
the young within the nest
a hearth for sacred fire
the holy flame.
- Omaha Indian Chant
He wakes at daybreak, puts on his moccasins and steps down to the water's edge. Here he throws handfuls of clear, cold water into his face, or plunges in bodily. After the bath, he stands erect before the advancing dawn, facing the sun as it dances upon the horizon, and offers his unspoken orison. His mate may precede or follow him in his devotions, but never accompanies him. Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone!
- Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles Eastman), Santee Sioux
What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the water time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grasses and loses itself in the sunset.
- Crowfoot, Blackfoot
To be continued...
Image: "May you always walk in Beauty" - Black Elk
