Dear One,
Have you considered who called the land where you live now, "home" eons ago?
Yesterday I was welcoming a group of people to Sedonaand I shared what I've been told. Sedona is a ceremonial place, a place of peace, one that's been considered sacred by humans for thousands of years.
For thousands of years, the Natives of the Americas, such as the Sinagua, Anasazi, Hopi, Yavapai, Apache, and Navajo called this powerful and wild place home. The landscape is infused with the history of dwellings, from the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, to the austere desert hills of the Verde Valley, to the box canyons of Sedona's Red Rock Country. Today, the Yavapai Nation and it's people are a 20 mile drive south, and the Navajo Nation is a four to five hour drive north. The deep connection between the Colorado Plateau and its native people is profound. And I can feel it.
These past few days with the big blood, blue moon hanging over the horizon, I sense the millions of people who have been awestruck at its beauty over the centuries. (
Find out about the special moon and eclipse here
) Its presence reminds me of this, a powerful Native American Prayer, a favorite of Eleanor Roosevelt's, which was translated by the Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887.
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.
