Beauty of The Spirit

The beauty in our surroundings are often overlooked, for various reasons. Many people are just to focused on their fast paced lives they rarely stop and take a moment, to just look around them. The reading that really stuck out to me this week was Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit.  While reading this piece I found myself thinking about my own experiences with nature. An important statement Silko made that stuck out to me was “Viewers are as much a part of the landscape as the boulders they stand on.” Which I immediately related to my experience at camp I wrote about within my narrative. At the time all I could do was dread the experience and question why anyone would want to spend days, sweaty, dirty, and unconnected to civilization. Yet by the last day my mindset changed. I’ve never experienced a feeling nor can I describe what it was like to jump into the cool water of the lake after a long day of hiking. It was at this point in my life where I laid on the gravel soaking wet simply staring at the sunset, laughing with my peers where I truly felt one with earth.

            As well throughout this reading I found myself intrigued in the religious beliefs the Pueblo people held. Specifically, where Silko stated “The remains were merely resting at a midpoint in their journey back to dust…the remains of things- were treated with respect, because for the ancient people all these things had spirit and being”. Growing up I’ve been exposed to various types of religions and was allowed to gather my own set of beliefs without having anyone else’s views forced upon my own. Much like the Pueblo I believe that our remains are simply at a resting point once we take our last breath but I believe in some form of reincarnation and the need to preserve and respect what someone once was.