On March 5th a Native American elder came to St. Joan of Arc Parish to share the wisdom of her 76 years with a group of about 80 kindred spirits. Her theme was The Genius of Simple Living: An Enhancement to Prayer and Global Living. Those of us who were there will never forget the experience nor will any of us be able to express in mere words the event. Sister Jose Hobday explained how to build a life of simplicity and space through her stories and pearls of experience from her travels and teachings. The six hours flew by and we all hungered for more. At the same time our outside worlds vanished as we tried to absorb all of her saintly wisdom. She told us her degree was in Architecture and she has used that knowledge to build a cathedral of beautiful space around herself wherever she is on the planet. This is no small feat as she travels some 90,000 miles per year giving talks to all lucky enough to be in her presence.

Her body may be failing her but her humor and ability to hold a crowd spellbound is as sharp as it ever was. She lives on a Yakima Reservation in the heart of Tucson, AZ. She has met with the Dali Lama and Mother Teresa to name a few. She asked the Dali Lama the one most important thing to tell people and he said, “Tell them to ‘Wake Up’!” Sister’s version of John 10:10 is: “I have come that you may have life and live it to the hilt!” She explained we must develop an attitude of lightness and to travel unencumbered. We are pilgrims on this earth and we have the power to give our self away to life on the way to fullness and joy if we travel lightly. We must get an attitude of Lightness. We must find security somewhere else. Her suggestion was to look at the lilies of the field. We must discover how much more valuable we are than the lilies. She taught us that we are ALWAYS on God’s mind! She suggests we learn the Gospel and bear witness to ourselves and others will see the gospel in us.

Some of her pearls for simplifying our lives involve holding our values and time and habits sacred. For example if we meditate for 3 hours in the morning and casual friends want to call or come to visit in that time frame we need to be very direct and say we have a previous appointment for that time and can not break it. Simplifying your life in this way will actually give you more time. What is the one thing people say today they don’t have…Time! Spend time with people who respect your time and your values. The other thing people say they need is more money. With a simpler life of fewer “things” and “stuff” you will have more money, also.

Jose told the story of how she flunked kindergarten because the teacher, whom she called “Mouse” because she was gray and wore gray, and was so uninteresting and the whole experience to her was boring and gray! Her mother explained to her with this wisdom, “My Dear Daughter, Nobody has been put on this earth to entertain you. You are the problem when you are bored! If you are bored then you are boring!” Jose went on to explain that we must “do it so it makes sense to us and it will work out. It’s what you do with your creativity that makes things work out.” She further stated, Awareness, presence, mindfulness, Wake up, Stay awake, and Be where we are NOW are points to consider. With a change in attitude and a determination to work harder she was promoted to first grade after two weeks in kindergarten the second time around.

We must laugh daily and often and suggests if we have nothing to laugh at that we might just go to the mirror and look into it and begin to laugh! She told us how the body may get worn out but we must deal with the body as the body holds our mind. We must fuel it right, care for its cleanliness and exercise. The drum in the Native American world talks to the heart and the beat of the earth and the beat of the cosmos and that the dance is the highest form of prayer. The pay off of the Simple Life is more space and more time! Sister Jose beat the drum for us as we left on breaks and as we returned.

In simplifying our wardrobe she suggest three rules: limit your wardrobe; it must be essentially inexpensive; it must be appropriate for your work. She said go for style as it is timeless, fads last 2-3 years at best and fashion lasts about 5 years, but style will still look good in 20 or 30 years! In the Native American world gray hair is the sign of wisdom. She also pointed out that very high priced clothing, which has been marked down, is not simplifying. We must limit the value of items if we want to truly simplify our lives.

The six basics in life are food, clothing, shelter, recreation, transportation and a work place. The Native Americans never had a word for “work” until the Europeans arrived. They had a word for doing things of necessity and that word was “Live!” To the Native people work equaled life!

Jose told us that life is about making love. Fall in love with all of life and then you will fall in love with God! Those in her presence fell in love with life and we saw the face of God in Jose.

Bergetta Monroe won her first camera by selling 640 boxes of tea biscuits (cookies) in eighth grade. She has been taking pictures ever since. While not having any formal training she has recently finished her first DVD of an Amtrak trip to the Pacific Northwest. Her "day job" for much of her adult life has involved caring for children. Her hobbies have included needlework, genealogy, decorating the home she shares with her husband and travel; she has enjoyed using photography with all of the above. Currently she is working on her next DVD project of recording her neighborhood for the year 2004. She can be reached at Bergetta@aol.com.
When I left the experience and got into my car to drive home the first sound from my radio was Matt Monroe singing “Born Free”. God does talk to all of us in interesting ways! If you want to talk to me about this conference, feel free to email me.

Sr. Jose Hobday is a profound theologian, a mystic, a practical common-sense Native American, and a joyous Fransiscan. Here she is trying to beat some sense into me with her drum. She taught us how to dance: "Bend the knees, beat the ground of mother Earth, roll your shoulders to father Sky." We all danced. The drum is a call to prayer, to awareness. She asked the Dali Lama (whom she knows personally) to sum up in his message for people in one word, and she tells us he said: "WAKE UP!" Maybe that is one word in Tibetan, and maybe old Dali was playing a joke on Jose by using two words.

At any rate, we all tried to wake up to global and local needs of our fellow human beings, and we became fairly comfortable with the prayer that is dance.

- Pat Stevens


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