Sunday, February 25, 2007.  Business Meeting.

     MS. FORD:  Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the 86th annual conference of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls.  We are so delighted that so many of you are here, and there are lots more who are on their way, but they are in a variety of airports across the country, places that we would never have guessed that there were any problems at all.  But nonetheless, Mother Nature has done all of us a disservice, not to mention the poor airlines.

     It's wonderful to have you all here.  We have a terrific program about which you will hear more shortly.  Our opening blessing, which I think is a real gift to all of us, will start our program. The person who is doing it is Vincent Redhouse.  He is a member of the Navajo Tribe, and he will start our program.  Please welcome Vincent Redhouse.

     MR. REDHOUSE:  Can we all stand for just a moment?  In the traditional Native American culture, we do a smoke blessing many Times during rituals or as we gather together.  It's something that people have experienced and they know something about. Most people know something about it.

     As the sage is being burned, we believe that it's like our prayers are thoughts that are rising, and so we open the ceremonies with the burning of sage.  Also, the burning of sage is significant because, for us, we believe it is an agent of cleansing.  It is a way of cleansing us from the past, even from the present.  So that wherever we are and whatever we're gathering for, we are present and we're clear in that time.  We're not thinking about what's gone on behind us and other things like that.  So we come and we're free to experience that moment.

     The feathers are from the eagle, and for us, the eagle is probably one of the highest-flying birds, and that is important because as we lift our prayers and our thoughts up to the heavens, we feel that the eagle can take our prayers up there and that God can hear our prayers and can know our concerns that we have.

     The other thing that we do is face different directions.  There are four directions that we acknowledge.  They all have a different color; they all have a different significance, and a spiritual importance to us as Native Americans. Among the different tribes throughout the United States and Canada, most of us believe in the same symbolisms, as far as the colors, as far as the directions, as far as the entities that are ascribed to those directions.

     So I'm going to turn for you, or you can turn with me, to the east.  I want to say a prayer to each direction.  To the east we are thankful to Wakan Tanka, the great mystery, Heavenly Father, Mother Earth.  The east is the direction of the new day.  It's the direction that tells us that life is a miracle as we can feel our hearts beating.  We can breathe and we can fill our lungs with air.  We know that life is a miracle, and that we are a part of the miracle of life.  And each new day is an opportunity for us to experience that which is new, a new opportunity, grace, the blessing, and we're grateful, Almighty God, for these things that you give us.  The color for the east is red, the rising sun.

     I want to ask you to turn to the south, which is to your right.  The south is the direction of the day.  The color of that direction is yellow. It signifies the labor that we bring forth in the length of the day.  It's the longest part of the day.  And we are grateful, Heavenly Father, for what you have given us to work with, the gifts that you have given us, and as we work with one another, we realize that we are all related, one to another, on this earth.  Not only are we related to other people that we know, our relations, but we're related to all of life, four-footed creatures, two-footed creatures, the plants, the trees, the mountains, the sky, the earth on which we stand.  We're all related to these things.  And we know that all these things are sacred and we also know that being a part of all these things makes us all the same.  We're all the same.  We can all share with one another freely.  We can receive and we can give.  So for this, Heavenly Father, we're thankful for the life and for the day that you have given us.  And as we work, we express the gifts which you bless each one of us with, that we can share with others.

     I want to ask you to turn to the west, which is to your right.  The west is the direction of the setting sun.  Its color is black.  It's a time when, as the day ends, we can reflect and we can remember what it is that's happened this day. We can be thankful for the good things that have happened, the lessons that we've learned.  We can thank you for our relations, our loved ones, those who have gone before us and those who will come after us.  We can thank you for all these things and for your faithfulness, Father Sky, Mother Earth, in being with us as you have been.

     I want us to turn to the north, which is to your right.  Finally, the north is the color of white.  It's the color of the cold wind that comes from the north and the rain and the snow.  It is the direction of hardness.  It's the direction that speaks of the challenges that we all face in life. They are not easy lessons, but they teach us to trust.  They teach us to have faith.  They teach us to say to the mountain, "Move.  Be."  They teach us that we don't have the power; that you have the power.

     We are so grateful that you allow us to come into this place with one another.  I ask, Heavenly Father, that you will be in this meeting, that you will inspire these people in their endeavors, that you will give them a vision for the work that you have placed them in, and we ask that you join their hearts, that you knit them together. We're so grateful that we could come together in this place as brothers and sisters in your work and in your will.  And we thank you.  Amen.

     MS. FORD:  Thank you so much to Vincent Redhouse.  That was a wonderful reminder for all of us not only of our connection with one another, but also our connection with all creation.  That seems particularly timely to me as so many of us and so many of our schools are really trying to think much more carefully about how we use the precious resources that we all have, which remind us of our part to play in keeping this creation as it was originally intended.

     You all might be interested that Vincent Redhouse, besides being a holy man representing the beliefs of the Navajo, was also a two-time Grammy award nominee for the best Native American music, which is a very great honor, as you all know.