Farmers and gardeners, in regions they say, walked their land in the nights that deepened at the turn of the year. Under the sparkling canopy of winter stars, they would actively imagine how their fields, gardens and herds would appear in the fullness of the growing season, and also at harvest. Nice New Year’s custom.

Grandfather Leon Secatero

With that thought in mind as 2010 closes out, I’m prompted to repost a brief message spoken by the late Leon Secatero. Among many other things, until his death in 2008 Grandfather Leon was Headman in service to the Canoncito Band of Navajo in To’Hajiilee, just west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. We got to be friends over the years; lots of shared interests. Because Leon’s message was so essentially centering, it merits repeating as we all now make inner preparations for the fields, gardens, and projects that will flower in our lives through 2011. Leon’s message is strengthening and centering. It bears repeating.

“The journey we are beginning now is for the next 500 years. What will be the sacred path that people will walk over the next 500 years? Even in the midst of all the changes taking place and all the things falling apart, we are building that foundation now. That’s something important for us to remember and to focus on. If we don’t do it, no one else will.

“To move ahead into the next 500 years we must leave some things behind or they will contaminate or even eliminate the future. We cannot go forward if we keep destroying the earth. But we must also ask, what is good and healthy and helpful? Those good things can be part of our foundation, part of our pathway into the next 500 years…”

**** ****