On Being is brought to you by the John Templeton Foundation,

harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest and most

perplexing questions facing humankind.

Learn about the latest discoveries in the study of hope and optimism,

intellectual humility, and free will at Templeton.org.

Joy Harjo is a saxophone player and performer, a visual artist,

a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation,

and 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States.

She's written,

though we have instructions and a map buried in our hearts when we enter this world,

nothing quite prepares us for the abrupt shift to the breathing realm.

I'm grateful for this hour she gave us to walk alongside her in the breathing realm

and to experience what she knows about how to see and how to live.

I'll be in a car or a bus or a van or whatever,

looking at the houses and the windows and all the storefronts and thinking about

all the different realms, all the different story realms and how many

every place, every window, every doorway is an opening to a life,

you know, a whole different life, a whole series of stories.

I'm Christopher Tipett and this is on Beeing.

Joy Harjo is the celebrated author of nine books of poetry and the memoir,

Crazy Brave. She edited the collection of Native Nations poetry

when the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through.

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