In pursuit of Beauty…
To the Navajo, there is really no distinction between Nature, Spirituality, and Health. The central concept is “hozho”, which roughly translates as “balance and harmony.” When we live in harmony with Nature… when we are in balance… then we are “walking the Beauty Way.”
When we diverge from the Beauty Way, we get sick in body… sick in mind… sick in spirit. Healing consists of setting our feet back on the path of harmony.
Modern life seems to be almost perfectly designed to draw us away from the Beauty Way. We have lots of stuff. We do lots of stuff. Stuff breaks. Stuff costs money. Earning money often requires giving up the very things that bring harmony… time alone, time with loved ones, time doing healthy things, time doing nothing.
Travel used to be a pretty unharmonious thing for the Idiots. They always tried to see and do a lot. It was enriching, but also exhausting. More than once they returned from a trip with the words “now we need a vacation from our vacation.”
As the concept of “Idiot Travel” has evolved, slow travel has become a central tenet. Sometimes they will “put on the miles” – the current journey included two long days for a total of about 1300 miles – but even those long days consisted mostly of listening to a good book while riding in companionable silence. The rush was to put them in position to move very slowly to enjoy some remote areas of Utah. On the third day they went less than 200 miles - and for the next eight days they rarely went more than a couple of miles from their campground.
Modern life makes the Idiots sick and crazy – so they travel often, and try to make the physical journey come as much as possible into harmony with a mental and spiritual journey that allows them to hear their heartbeats. They seek to walk the Beauty Way… and they find beauty everywhere.
So… Idiots Walk in Beauty will be a little different from some previous chapters… not so much a travelogue as a reflection on beauty.
-----------------------------------
The Navajo Beauty Way Blessing
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.
----------------------------------------------------
The beauty of being in motion – a Black Hills sunset photographed by Idiot She from the window of The Beast at 70 mph.
