THE SHADOW WHICH LOSES ITSELF IN THE SUNSET

Setting out on a desert path into the mountains is like time travel, or perhaps soul travel.  On this day, as peace and serenity fills me, I look down at footprints of moccasins.  Feeling a deep sense of awe as I enter nature’s cathedral, I realize that today will be like no other day.  Before me are clusters of Native Americans, crossing time lines and tribe lines.  Lakota and Sioux, chiefs and squaws, all here to escort me, and beckoning me to bring my friends.  They know I love the earth, and I am now free to roam in a way not all my loved ones are.  They offer to include you if you cross the lines of time and space with us.

So let’s take a walk together into this land first navigated by Native American tribes.  Feel with me this feeling of oneness with perhaps the greatest lovers of nature that the world has ever known.  Come on… mentally don your favorite hiking gear, take a few deep breaths, and come with me.  We have new friends to guide us, and it’s so easy be swept away by the sheer majesty of this place.

WHAT IS LIFE? 

It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.
-Crowfoot, a Blackfoot warrior and orator from the mid-1800s

CHEROKEE PRAYER BLESSING

May the Warm Winds of Heaven blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there.
May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows,

and may the Rainbow always touch your shoulder.

There is a road in the hearts of all of us,
hidden and seldom traveled,
which leads to an unknown, secret place.
The old people came literally to love the soil,

and they sat or reclined on the ground

with a feeling of being close to a mothering power.
Their teepees were built upon the earth
and their altars were made of earth.
The soul was soothing, strengthening,
cleansing and healing.
That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth

instead of propping himself up
and away from its life giving forces.
For him, to sit or lie upon the ground

is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly.

He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life

and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
-Chief Luther Standing Bear

NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER

Oh, Great Spirit

whose voice I hear in the winds

and whose breath gives life

to all the world,
Hear me.  

I am small and weak. 

I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty

and make my eyes ever behold

the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect

the things you have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand

the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden

in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength,

not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my Spirit may come to you without shame.
-Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark, 1887

Honor the sacred.

 

Honor the Earth, our Mother.

Honor the Elders.

Honor all
with whom we share the Earth:

Four-leggeds, two-leggeds,
winged ones,
swimmers, crawlers,
plant and rock people.
Walk in balance and beauty.
-Native American Elder

GO FORWARD WITH COURAGE

When you are in doubt,

be still, and wait;
when doubt no longer

exists for you,

then go forward

with courage.
So long as mists envelop you,

be still;
Be still

until the sunlight pours through

and dispels the mists,

as it surely will.
Then act with courage.
-Ponca Chief White Eagle (1800's to 1914)

 

EARTH, TEACH ME

Earth teach me quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light.
Earth teach me suffering ~ as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility ~ as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring ~ as mothers nurture their young.
Earth teach me courage ~ as the tree that stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation ~ as the ant that crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom ~ as the eagle that soars in the sky.
Earth teach me acceptance ~ as the leaves that die each fall.
Earth teach me renewal ~ as the seed that rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself ~ as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness ~ as dry fields weep with rain.
- An Ute Prayer

ANCIENT NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB

Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.

When you were born,

you cried
and the world rejoiced.
Live your life
so that when you die,
the world cries

and you rejoice.

-White Elk
 

And while I stood there
I saw more than I can tell,

and I understood more than I saw;
for I was seeing in a sacred manner
the shapes of things in the spirit,
and the shape of all shapes
as they must live together
like one being.
-Black Elk

Treat all men alike.

Give them all the same law.

Give them all an even chance

to live and grow.

All men were made

by the same Great Spirit Chief.

They are all brothers.

The Earth is the mother of all people,

and all people should have

equal rights upon it.
Let me be a free man -
free to travel,

free to stop, free to work,
free to trade where I choose my own teachers,

free to follow the religion of my fathers,

free to think and talk and act for myself,
and I will obey every law,

or submit to the penalty.
-Heinmot Tooyalaket ( Chief Joseph), Nez Perce Leader

So live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view,
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song
for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute
when meeting or passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning
give thanks for the food
and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks,
the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing,
for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled
with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep
and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again
in a different way.
Sing your death song
and die like a hero going home.
-Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation 1768-1813

Peace and happiness
are available

in every moment.
Peace is every step.

We shall walk hand in hand.
There are no political solutions

to spiritual problems.
Remember:
If the Creator put it there,

it is in the right place.
The soul
would have no rainbow

if the eyes
had no tears.
-An Indian Chief, 1876

O' GREAT SPIRIT

help me always to speak the truth quietly,
to listen with an open mind

when others speak,
and to remember the peace

that may be found in silence.

-Cherokee Prayer

May the stars

carry your sadness away,
May the flowers

fill your heart with beauty,
May hope

forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all,

may silence make you strong.
-Chief Dan George

Humankind has not woven

the web of life.
We are but one thread

within it.
Whatever we do to the web,

we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
-Chief Seattle, 1854

HOLD ON

Hold on to what is good,
Even if it's a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe,
Even if it's a tree
that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do,
Even if it's a long way from here.
Hold on to your life,
Even if it's easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand,
Even if someday

I'll be gone away from you.
-A Pueblo Indian Prayer