Native American sign language, so beatifully simple

This past week we attended a free lesson on Native Americans from a man who lives a half an hour from here. Talking with him before the session started I learned that he actually grew up just beyond the back fence of my own childhood home!
In any case, he talked for one hour about Native Americans to a group of children that I know personally can be a bit unruly.
But the kids SAT. They LISTENED. And at least my own kid LEARNED.
Of the many things he taught us, one tidbit was about Indian sign language. He showed us a very simple thought: Yesterday I went walking in the woods. I saw leaves falling. I was happy.
For some reason my daughter absolutely fell in love with these sentences and has been repeating them over and over for the past 3 days.
They are, I admit, astonishingly beautiful.
Take, for example, the last sentence. The sign for "I" is obvious. Point to yourself with your thumb. The sign for happiness, however, takes the cake if not the entire bakery. Happiness, or joy, or some other grin-wearing, warm-hearted, glowing emotion that we probably don't have a good word for in English, is done by making the sign for sunrise and having it rise out of your heart. A sunrise out of your heart.
I want that every day for myself and for all I love, for the rest of my life. If everyday I have at least one moment when I feel like a sunrise is coming out of my heart, I will be one happy camper.

But as beautiful as it is, I was getting a little tired of hearing about falling leaves and went online to find something else. What I found was a plethora of signs and everything I would want to know here as well as looking at their home page which made me want to drop everything and run out the woods with pocket knife, a rope, and a boy scout tune.

Of the things we found, the site offers a Native American blessing which, after sifting through all of the sign, is another keeper. The words are fairly plain. MAY THE GREAT MYSTERY MAKE SUNRISE IN YOUR HEART.

I turn on the news and there is religious turmoil causing so much pain and suffering. Closer to home I feel pressures from churches, to do this or that, to join something or other. But for me this sentence trumps it all.

Interestingly, the Indian sign for this blessing, according to the site, is actually translated into the following motions:
Medicine
Great
Work
Sunrise
Heart

Great Medicine, great mystery. It's really all a mystery, but it's one that is Great.
Work. It really does take work...I wish more people knew that good things come to those who work.
Sunrise. A new day, a new promise, a new smile.
Heart. What really counts.

Next time you're bored at the computer, do yourself a favor and close the entertainment news or fox or cnn, and learn this beautiful blessing in its beautiful sign. I can't promise, but it just might make a little sunrise come out of your heart.