We recently took a Road Scholar course on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations in northern Arizona.
One morning we sat around the central fire in a hogan out on the desert and a colorfully dressedNavajo woman spoke to us about their culture. She talked about a Navajo poem. . .
With beauty before me
With beauty behind me
With beauty above me
With beauty all around me
With old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively
It is finished in beauty.
She explained that to the Navajo "beauty" means the natural world, to be constantly connected to
the out of doors, open to everything that is going on around you and sharing those experiences
with others for a lifetime.
