The Quiet of Little Brook

Little Brook

In Seattle, this little creek meanders its way through the back yard of my partner, Teresa’s home. In a rainstorm, it can be a swift current to be careful with — watch your little ones. However, often, it is a simple creek, with simple babbling sounds and a tiny waterfall.

I’ve sat near this creek many times and in many different spots. It is the quiet that I so love to have there. To empty my mind, welcoming the many thoughts to pass just as the water is passing near me.

I know that not all moments in life are meant to be spent near these meandering creeks. But some of them are. They are for me. It helps me to feel in my body the memory of quiet, or flow, that I value remembering in many non-creek moments.

Acting and Thinking

Yesterday I was on a phone call with a good colleague and friend, Cameron Barr. Cameron is among many things, Pastor at Grinnell, Iowa United Church of Christ Congregational. He and I are exploring some writing together, including a more deliberate article on the strategic planning process that we created with several stewards at Grinnell.

Yesterday’s conversation included sharing recent experiences of depth in working with teams. Sometimes it is there. Sometimes it is not. Cameron made this remark.

“It is a lot easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than it is to think your way into a new way of acting.”

Together we referenced the slowing down that is needed in the latter. It’s a slowing down that can really interrupt the habit and pattern of many people. Many of us are quite eager to get things done. A good thing, right. That good thing can also impede us getting to the depth and change that we need. It impedes getting beyond the “act” and integrating new practice.

I’m glad to have colleagues and friends who remind me of this, who help put words to something that happens often yet can be difficult to name.

Four Need to Know Words

Mentmore HieI continue to learn many things this week from my Navajo colleagues and friends. One of the things that I love about Navajo culture is the way that teachings are shared from elders, grandmothers, and grandfathers. Many stories begin with, “my grandmother taught me as a little girl…,” or “one of the teachings from my grandfather was….” Teachings, and these kind of stories, are treated as medicine.

Carol Leonard is one of those colleagues and friends, herself now an elder, that shared a teaching yesterday that she received from one of her elders. It was that she only needed to know four words in Navajo that would cover what she needs. She knows many more, to be clear, and it is a focus of significance for indigenous people to relearn and retain their languages. Carol exudes a wisdom in many elder-shared teachings.

Here’s the four words and what she said (without apology for absence of accents in the Navajo font):

Welcome / Ya’a teeh  — It is the first job in starting a meaning. Either a welcome that comes from an elder, or from the elder that lives in the particular land. It is an essential greeting with one another, an etiquette.

Thank You / A hye he’e — We must be able to thank people for coming out. It is a practice of generosity and kindness, respect.

Beauty / Ni zhoni — This is one of the Navajo traditions that has most impacted me. There is such a commitment and appreciation of beauty, the beauty way. For a culture that has suffered much, has had much taken away from them, many hardships, it is amazing that beauty remains a fundamental invocation and way of life.

Please / t’a shon di — This is a practice of invitation and asking for help. Please will you help us. Please will you join us in supporting this good brother. Please will you help the aunties and the fire they need.

Four words. That represent four practices. That represent a cultural pattern. That represent a people I’m profoundly grateful for.