This is my 100th post as a WordPress blogger at Smoky Talks …. I not only want to thank all of you who read my posts faithfully and leave comments for me, but also thank those of you who are stopping in for the first time–I hope you will return.
I joined WordPress May 12, 2011. One hundred posts in 15 months. One hundred posts where I’ve talked about my books, shared pictures of my pets and family, written about my love for Mother Earth and all of creation, favorite books, favorite authors. I think I’ve touched on every subject except politics (which I refuse to get into here; those of you who have read me any length of time can undoubtedly infer my political beliefs from what I have written).
One hundred posts in 15 months. Months in which I’ve been hospitalized three times, had surgery, suffered a smashed shoulder, gone through endless physical therapy. Months in which I finished my third novel, The Storyteller’s Bracelet, and began work on my fourth, The Madam of Bodie. Which goes to show, no matter how physically challenged I am at times, I’m a True Writer: a writer who not only can write, but must write.
As a thank you to you all, I want to celebrate 100 posts by offering up this beautiful Navajo Prayer, In Beauty I Walk, for you all today. Part of this plays an important role in The Storyteller’s Bracelet, when Sun Song sings it at her secret morning prayers when she is facing a Very Rough Time (capitalization intentional). Several readers have asked me to tell them more about the prayer. Quite frankly, other than offering the entire text here, I can’t tell you much more. I contacted numerous sources, and no one could tell me the author’s name, or the exact source of the poem. As I wrote in my book, I’d love to know who the poet is or was.
I try to live this poem each day. For those of you who mediate, it makes a great mantra. I read it while sitting on the grass in our favorite park while watching bluebirds dive and swoop through the air. I whispered it under my breath while Scott and I sat on the rocks beside the Kings River on our recent Sierra trip. I whisper it sitting on my back deck in the morning, enjoying a sunrise over the mountains,. I hope you will read it and choose to take it to heart, too:
NAVAJO PRAYER: In Beauty I Walk
Chalk Pastel Red Crow Artist: Kathi Anderson
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…
Congratulations on 100 posts in spite of all the sturm und drang your world. I like the prayer and the role it played in The Storyteller’s Bracelet. I can see how it would make a good manta. Be well, keep writing and keep singing to Mother Earth.
Malcolm
Thank you, Malcolm.
You are an inspiration, Smoky. Wishing you 1000 more stress-free posts and NO visits to the hospital. Cyber hugs and champagne, my friend!
Thank you, Anne–both for the kind words, and for the cyber-champagne and hug!
Thanks, dear Smoky, for your writing and inspiration to me, the youngest oldie in our family, in despair as I read your post. In Beauty I Walk always meant looking my best in the world of show biz. Maybe the poem will be of help to this soul gone a wandering of late. Continued good health and success to you and your family.
How you look on the inside, feed on the inside, is so much more important than our culture’s definition of physical beauty. In the Far East and many indigenous cultures, elderly women ARE considered beautiful, because they carry within them the knowledge, medicine, and stories of their cultures. There is no shame in looking your age, sweetie. You earned every gray hair, every scar, every wrinkle you have when you strip yourself bare of makeup and social expectations.
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Congratulations! Wow, 100 blogs. Yes, I think beauty is the true meaning of life, period. Beauty is nature, beauty is music, beauty is art, beauty is poetry, beauty is even love. As the Beatles said, “All you need is love.” This is, of course, true, but maybe it’s more accurate, to say, “All you need is beauty.” This covers all the bases; nothing is left out.
Make that: “…more accurate to say, “All you need is beauty.”
Thank you,love.
Lovely. May the next year be easier for you.
Thank you so much, Yvonne.
Smoky: I am proud to be a fellow writer of yours. Though it is very late and I am very tired…I still wanted to catch up on things with the authors. (When you mow three acres of grass in 102 degrees heat, them drag hoses and sprinklers that have to be put back, it makes a really full day) I live in a place that relies on irrigation from two different rivers in order to keep our places green. Tonight I hear that we have just north of us, a 40 square miles of fire burning and all day we have had the smoke factor blowing down to us! We really need to get past this drought and high temps. Anyway my dear fellow author, CONGRATULATIONS FOR REACHING A VERY REAL MILESTONE. (geez I thought I was doing good when I hit ten ! Ho Love and hugs, Joice
Joice, thanks for the congratulations! Sounds like you have your hands full. Better than being bored, though.
Smoky, I love this poem, In Beauty I Walk. Thanks for posting it, and congratulations on your 100th post! I’m a little late with my congratulations, but I got to tell you how fortunate I am to know you! You’re the greatest.