Walk In Beauty

Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me...
...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...
In beauty all day long may I walk.

Navaho Prayer

I've got good news. Today you don't have to listen to me moan about the Morrigan and the way the Universe seems to forget about the Genome when life gets all hotted up and whatnot. That's right, I'm hypomanic.

It's interesting how my attitude turned around so dramatically. I mean it's interesting to me. You'll have to decide for yourself if there's anything in it for you.

I received a phone call this morning with nothing but bad news. And when I say nothing, I mean 100% extra fine Merino wool type of bad news. It kicked me in the head and left me a heap on the floor. But wait! That's not the subject of this post. Really it isn't. This stuff is good. Bear with me.

After the phone call, it was the act of an instant for me to assemble the goods, fire up Wind Horse, and head for the open air, blue skies, and sunshine of Brunswick Forest. Not actually into the forest, you understand, that would not be bright and open. I was near the forest. On the edge of the forest.

I walk with beauty around me...

There were no thoughts in my head as I began my walk. I simply walked in the sunshine and I walked hard. I was qigong walking! Walking like that with no particular thoughts in my head always makes me think about that Navaho prayer, Walking in Beauty.

I quickly realized that the vigorous walk made me feel better. And not just better, but good. In fact, the walk made me feel wonderful. I felt connected to the world around me. I breathed in the forest, the sky, the lakes. I felt that I was part of nature. The trees, the egrets, the anhingas (a type of waterbird found in the Carolina low-country). 

This connectedness reminded me even more of my native ancestors who were said to believe that all living things were imbued with spirit and that humans were part of that family of all living things. Of course, we Europeans make up a lot of stuff about the first nation peoples and often have nothing but hearsay to back it up.

But I know that I felt it today in Brunswick Forest. The whole thing made me feel connected to my native grandmother, a woman who died when I was a young child before I really got to know her.

...today everything negative will leave me...

I was reminded too of the Navaho prayer that you read at the top of this missive. I truly felt that the world is filled with beauty and that my life is filled with beauty when I don't shut it out by focussing on the ugly, negative stuff.

This experience has helped me understand another native saying, one whose understanding has eluded me up to now. The saying is regularly attributed to different people and different tribes. Even the Klingons in the Star Trek world are given credit for it. However, the first published account of the saying was attributed to the Oglala Lakota war chief, Low Dog. 

The saying is, "Today is a good day to die." 

Just as is so common with other native traditions and customs, you will find a lot of disagreement about the meaning of the phrase. But as I walked around the forest today, breathing in the natural surroundings, the meaning for me was that Life is good, if I allow it to be, and with the right attitude, the right way of living and relating to the world, my life can be so full, so rich, so complete, that death will not cast a shadow.

...nothing will hinder me.

And so, my friends, my Evil Plan for World Domination has been informed by my native ancestors, and I can embrace the idea that I can choose to walk in beauty and when I do that, then today is a good day to die. 

Fierce Qigong! Hokahey! Let's do it! 

Notes:

First, it should be noted that a common Oglala Lakota Sioux battle cry was, "Nake nula waun welo!" Several sources mention that Hokahey! prefaced that battle cry. And so the actual meaning would have been, "Let's do it! I am ready for whatever comes."

Second, I can't leave this subject without mentioning that the phrase turned up in one of my favorite movies, "Little Big Man," starring Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George. In the movie, a translation of one of the smoke signals was:

 "Sometimes it's a good day to die and sometimes it's a good day to have breakfast."