Day 26 Night - The Great Spirit Morning Prayer of the Lakota Sioux Medicine Men

Below is the Native American prayer I recite in the morning, at night, and when I am walking alone in my neighborhood. Since I do not have a parking space and the neighborhood is popular, I often have to park 2 or 3 blocks from my apartment. At first, it would piss me off, but now I find those walks to be peaceful and meditative. If I have packages, I temporarily park in a driveway, carry them up the stairs, then move the car.

More importantly, for me this prayer that the Sioux medicine men said when they rose in the morning to greet each new day covers the proverbial bases and sings a song that seems to come from within. It is as if the words reflect my own soul and discovering for the first time was like finding a piece of my spiritual home. I value the truth behind the realization that I am my own worst enemy and the beauty of leaving this life with humility and love and without shame. Please never forget that although I stumble here and there and my voice falters  though I fall and scratch a knee, I rise again with a smile and return to the path that has been laid out before me. Here is the prayer...

Morning Prayer of the Lakota Sioux Medicine Men

O Great Spirit

whose voice I hear in the wind,

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 let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made,

and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.

Give me wisdom so I may understand the things

you have taught my people.

Let me the learn the lessons

you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength not to be greater than my brother or sister,

but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.

Make me always ready to come to you

with clean hands and open eyes

so when life fades as the fading sunset,

my spirit may come to you without shame.

Beautiful Sculpture of Native American in Reverence at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston 

By Cyrus Dallin, Appeal to the Great Spirit is a bronze equestrian sculpture outside the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A native of Utah where my entire nuclear family now lives, Dallin had a lot of interaction with Native American children while growing up, and this experience informed his art with insight and care. I love what a simple and direct representation is conveyed in this moving piece of art. Look at how unidealized and normative is the horse and how truly reverent is the warrior in what appears to be a truly authentic moment of prayer and reverence.