70 NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
to ecological systems, but rarely on beauty. They emphasize that
sustainability requires more than discussion of biological processes,
ecosystem relations and policy development. Our culture’s reluctance
to speak of beauty and its relationship to sustainability keeps us
locked in the materialistic paradigm that is largely responsible for the
deterioration of the planet.
Beauty observed in nature is often described as a harmony of
parts, complexity, integration, patterns, clarity or unity in diversity.
Lubarsky (2012) asks us to reconsider the role of beauty as an
important value and as a marker of vitality. She suggests that we
call to mind memories of beauty such as standing at the edge of
the ocean under a full moon or seeing a sunset, and imagine what
it would mean if that beauty were no longer to exist. She suggests
the decline of beauty in the modern world and the decline of nature
are directly linked, both victims of a mechanistic view of reality.
This worldview is not wrong, but the metaphor of mechanism is not
adequate to describe fully our experience of the world, and the side
effects of this view are costly.Beauty as hozho
In our visits to the Navajo Nation, medicine woman Annie Kahn
taught us about the word hozho. In the Navajo language the word
hohzo is most often translated as beauty. The importance of beauty is
reflected in many songs and chants of the Navajo people. Annie Kahn
explained to us that hozho actually means beauty in a much larger
sense than ideas of attractiveness or culturally determined ideals.
When the Navajo speak of walking in beauty, with beauty before,
behind, beneath, above and within, as in the Navajo Night Chant,
they mean to live in a way that is in balance and harmony with all
other living things, recognizing and honoring the interconnectedness
of everything. We understand that even these words in English are
inadequate to fully capture the richness of this Navajo word. Gary
Witherspoon (1977) in Language and Art in the Navajo Universe makes
the important point that, for the Navajo, beauty is not an abstract