A friend of mine just introduced me to a beautiful Navajo chant, “In Beauty May I walk”.
The Navajo word Hózhó from this chant is translated with “beauty” or “beautiful conditions”. The word beauty, however, expresses a much more complex concept: beauty represents “the intellectual aspect of order, the feeling of happiness, the physical state of health, the moral condition of good, and the aesthetic dimension of harmony.” (Gary Witherspoon)
In the Navajo tradition, the Beautyway (or Nightway) is a ceremony that’s meant to re-incorporate the patient into the harmonious universe, bringing harmony and balance back into her/his life.
You may lose your sense of beauty for various reasons, but according to the Navajo there’s only one way to get back on the Beautyway, and that’s through a reconnection to the natural world.
Walking in Beauty isn’t meant only physically, but actually means being in harmony with our whole world: people, animals, plants, objects, weather, feelings and events in your life. When you’re in harmony, you accept and are accepted, you are one with everything, and you can walk in Beauty. (Gary Witherspoon)
So, my friends, I’ll leave you with this beautiful Navajo chant. May you walk in Beauty.
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 dew 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 below 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.
A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant (anonymous)
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Cristina, this is truly beautiful!
Aileen | Kaizen Vision recently posted..All Natural Energy Booster
Thank you Aileen, glad you enjoyed it
Thank you for the beautiful poem and photos!
You’re welcome Mary
Beautiful and poetic; wish we could all have this peacefu vision of life to life in beauty and harmony.
tasteofbeirut recently posted..Hummus in many versions
That’s my wish too, Joumana. Thanks for stopping by