What kind of mark do you make on the world?
Sep 18th, 2008 by spaceagesage
Passions and fears tend to run high in an election year. I’ve even seen hate elevated as part of normal discussions. Amid the clamoring and finger-pointing, my Auntie M sent me this wonderful except from J. Ruth Gendler’s Notes on the Need for Beauty:
The Navaho word hozho, translated into English as “beauty,” also means harmony, wholeness, goodness. One story that suggests the dynamic way that beauty comes alive between us concerns a contemporary Navajo weaver: A man ordered a rug of an especially complex pattern on two separate occasions from the same weaver. Both rugs came out perfectly, and the weaver remarked to her brother that there must have been something special about the owner. It was understood that the outcome of the rugs was dependent not on the weaver’s skill and ability but upon the hozho in the owner’s life. The hozho of his life evoked the beauty in the rugs. In the Navaho world view, beauty exists not simply in the object, or in the artist who made the object; it is expressed in relationships.
How’s the hozho in your life? Do you find your words and actions weaving something beautiful in the world?
Photo Credit: Scott Robinson
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These posts may also interest you:
Beauty not in the eye of the beholder; it’s in the heart
Anxiety and worry and doubt — oh my!
Tao Te Ching, chapter 68
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What a beautiful quote and post!
I would like to inspire others through the words that I write on my blog posts. Additionally, I am already honored to receive the many friendships that I have made online; including yours, through my site.
Hi, Evelyn,
Thank you! Isn’t the blog world amazing?
Huh, interesting way of looking at it, that part of the beauty of the rugs was due to the requester of the rug. But, then again, it makes sense. When I am creating for the Lion, or my children, or friends and family, the results are one hundred times better than if I am putting something together simply for myself. And I find as I get to know, and build relationships with, the blogging community I am branching out into more creative ways of expressing myself. E.g. 5 months ago, I never would have pictured myself posting my Half Light post. Shows the importance of surrounding yourself with beauty and light, not ugliness and dark.
I love your posts. They are very spiritual.
Hi, Urban Panther —
Wow. Thank you for your kind words!
I like the way you put it “hozho” — I guess it is translated sometimes as “walking beauty” — into perspective with how you give to others. I have seen people with more light within themselves spark a room with smiles, help heal a broken heart, or give in kind ways that keep on giving. I don’t know if you know this or not, but your posts and comments have a way of doing this, too.
That was a nice little nugget. I enjoyed it.
A couple of thoughts. On your opening remark about passion and fear — where there is passion, there also tends to be fear, as we can get deeply hurt when what we are passionate about does not come to fruition. They are like two sides of a coin, sometimes — you get one and the other comes with it. To be passionate is a risk. It’s all the more reason to be kind and support those who are passionate.
Secondly, your fable reminds me of the water crystal experiment, where they expose water to various emotions and freeze it, and the resulting crystals forming differently. http://www.whatthebleep.com/crystals/
ari
Hi, Ari —
Glad you enjoyed the nugget. In this post, I used “passion” as a euphemism for the high emotional content in our current political debate in the US. I agree, though, that inner passion requires an opening up of the self. I’ve heard of this crystal freezing experiment, and it is mind boggling to think words and thoughts have so much power.