Stumble It!i am at perhaps the most significant crossroads in my life. i am reassessing what is most important to me in terms of professional and personal directions and values. i'm in a transition period adjusting to life after zoe and, in sifting through the lessons i took from her, the most important focuses for me--fabulous health, happiness, love, living in balance, and engaging fully in my best life--are even more keenly sharpened.
my process in periods of transition is to read for inspiration and research and to let my thoughts percolate until i feel that aha moment when the cake is baked, so to speak. being of partial native american lineage, i have always felt tuned to some of their core rhythms and values. i recently re-read the wisdom of the native americans and felt compelled to share cultural practices that resonate with me as being a positive relief to our cultural habits. i know that sometimes i'm so habituated to the way things are that i don't consciously examine the costs and benefits to status quo v. changing.
to be my healthiest and happiest, i look for where i need to get in balance. eyes wide open. it occurs to me, as in photography, that whenever we find the perspective we think is most important, perhaps we would benefit from turning around to look in the other direction to see what of value we might be missing.
in terms of spirituality, native americans celebrated the eternal, the great mystery, silently and in solitude. silence allowed a personal communing with the spirit--speech would be feeble in trying to articulate the nature of the eternal. no middle men were authorized to come between an individual and g-d, particularly since we are nearer to g-d in solitude. additionally, faith can't be forced upon someone; therefore there is no preaching or threatening under the guise of religion. and nature is where we are closest to spirituality and to g-d, so there was never a need to build a temple when the deep woods are a more perfect cathedral than we could ever erect.
silence is revered and honored. i am acutely aware of how much our culture fills the silence with yelling and talking to avoid silence and to shirk being at one with our selves and our thoughts. we now even turn to digital e-speak, we are so averse to silence. silence, however, is a sign of equilibrium, the balance of body, mind and spirit. silence allows self-control, patience, dignity, reverence, courage, poise. in dialogue, pausing before answering someone was considered honorable, giving consideration to the other person's words and feelings before sharing a thoughtful and meaningful reply. today, i notice at least half of conversations are more about a volume or overlapping yapping competition instead of about an exchange and a respect for the exchange.
spirits are present in the world around us. animals have spirits just as humans do, but since they are not able to articulate in a language we speak, we attribute to their souls a sinless purity of an innocent child. we trust their instincts, as they, being nonverbal, are more tuned in to instinctual wisdoms.
love of possessions is considered a snare, a burden of a complex society, and a source of troublesome temptation and danger. i see the gadgets hawked on tv that are designed to peel hardboiled eggs, lift meatloafs out of their pans, suck in our guts-- really? we need a gadget to peel an egg? we can't serve a meatloaf from a pan? we can't do abdominal exercises and eat well? what does the accumulation of things give us but clutter and responsibility to maintain them? yes, i enjoy things of beauty and tools that optimize my life, but some things to me just feel like they are merely empty calories, filling a void we are frightened to address. virtue and happiness are independent of things, perhaps even incompatible with them. furthermore, sharing with people less fortunate was natural. generosity trumped greed.
the value of solitude was appreciated. large concentrations of people was considered unnatural and gave rise to evils, even. certainly, unsanitary conditions were exaggerated in crowded living situations, but also dangers like lust and loss of spiritual centeredness. in nature, when you know how to tune into it, powerful energy can be gathered when we're in solitude but it dissipates in constant crowding.
prayer set the tone for each day. prayer took the form of not a liturgy prescribed for recitation but going to the river, for example, as the sun rose and offering an unspoken prayer in recognition and appreciation of the eternal spirit. it was important to do this alone. moments of silent gratitude were offered throughout the day as scenes of beauty might appear or food was eaten or important journeys commenced.
nature is the measure of consummate beauty and it was appreciated, not destroyed. the book tells of the confusion caused when a party of Sioux chiefs were taken on a tour of the corcoran art gallery to view paintings of nature. and yet the culture that pained those pieces of art showed no compunction in demolishing the very landscapes they painted and slaughtering the buffalo now living only on the canvases. i shudder to think how much of our natural world we have obliterated and toxified for a short-term justification. well, how's our long-term looking?
miracles exist in the ordinary. no matter how scientifically we can attribute every cause and effect, perhaps we have lost sight of the gift of seeing wonder in displays of nature, in chicks hatching from an egg, bees finding their hives.
i submit that values come in all the colors of the biggest crayon box... and more. but i do think it is more important than ever to be clear about what our values are and live in accord with them. our best lives... the life of our world depends upon it.
liz
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