Daily Feast - January

[bluidkiti]

JANUARY
ONE
So-Qua
COLD MONTH
Unu la at nee'
The Cherokee people stand upon new ground. Let us hope the clouds which overspread the land will be dispersed, and that we shall prosper as we have never done before.
CHIEF JOHN ROSS - OCTOBER 9, 1861
January 1 - Daily Feast
If, like a Cherokee warrior, I can look at the new year as an opportunity to stand on new ground, then strength and courage are on my side. If I have waited a long time for everything to be perfect - and there have been moments, brief as they were, that filled my expectations - then I can face the challenges. I will remember that things do work out, bodies do heal, relationships mend - not because I said it, but because I believe it. But it is time to make things right, to stay on the path. As water runs fresh and free from the woodland spring, so new life and meaning will bubble up from my own inner source. I will be still and steady, because there is nothing to be gained by showing fear in a chaotic world. I can turn from ignorance and prejudice toward a light that never goes out.
~ The death of fear is in doing what you fear to do. ~
SEQUICHIE COMINGDEER
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 1
"…because if you believe in something, and believe in it long enough, it will come into being."
--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE
We are created by the Great One to accomplish His will through our mental pictures or visions. Our thoughts are three dimensional: words, pictures and feelings. We create the vision by thinking the words and we create feeling for the vision by feeling enthusiasm, desire, commitment and other strong beliefs. Once we create the vision, we move toward and become like that which we think about. All visions are tested by our self talk; for example, "This isn't going to happen, where is the money coming from anyway?" When this happens, we need to let go of the test and focus on belief in the vision. Why? Because God said if we believe it long enough, He will guarantee it!!!
Great One, let my beliefs be strong today. Help me to have faith in my visions.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
I don't know of anyone I'd rather see happy than you. Perhaps somewhere along the way you'll also find what causes it and maybe it will be something you can find within your heart to share with others....for only in sharing are we ever really happy.
Just remember that it may well be where you least expect it. You may recognize it as something you're about to give away.....But don't worry, it will come back so many times; like love, it seeketh not its own but flies over us like angels. And when it finds a heart big enough to hold all the love it can supply it settles itself, wings and all, within the soul of that love.
And then the world will be new. There will be sights you've never seen, yet they have been there all the time....there will be laughter from the heart.....and gratitude for all of life's privileges. There will be peace and contentment....and strength abounding to withstand all adversity.....and quiet acknowledgment of God. For without God, there could be none of these.
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January 2 - Daily Feast
This morning, snow wrapped every tree and rock in soft white, and promised to keep the outline of distant hills hidden against a gray sky. But it could not keep its promise. After a few hours the sun came out and turned it all into nature's jewelry, beautiful dew gems sparkling on the grass. We can be so busy that we miss the little things that sweeten life, the way a pet waits to be noticed, the way an owl, a wahuhi, hoots in the woods, and a blue jay chortles in the middle of winter. It is a lovely thing to turn away from busy work to pay attention to our loved things and loved ones. We know how we wait to be told we are important. We should never wait to say or think something beautiful that will make someone's day easier and more secure.
~ We do not want riches. We want peace and love. ~
RED CLOUD - 1870
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 2
"People have to be responsible for their thoughts, so they have to learn to control them. It may not be easy, but it can be done."
--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE
WE control our thoughts by controlling our self talk. At any moment we choose we can talk to ourselves differently. The fight comes with the emotions that are attached to our thoughts. If our emotion is high and seems to be out of control, we can say to ourselves STOP IT!, take a few deep breaths, then ask the Creator for the right thought or the right decision or the right action. If we practice this for a while, our thought life will be different. It helps if in the morning we ask God to direct our thinking. God loves to help us.
Great Spirit, today, direct my thinking so my choices are chosen by You.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Have you ever known someone whose very presence comforted you? They seem to have no need of words, but their quiet companionship soothes　 like balm to the soul. These are your kindred souls who have already been the route you're traveling, or are just ahead and leaning back to take your hand.
Wherever you are on the path of life, there have been many these before you. It may seem the loneliness of the road has many empty echoes. But there have been many good people concerned enough to make an effort to mark the rougher places to allow your journey easier traveling.
And like all travelers we must look for those signs and make them more plain to the ones who will follow.
And then, in quiet communication, we can each take our turn by understanding.
How often we see people who desperately need our help. We would like to help them, but we put it out of our minds because it seems beyond our means and beyond our strength. We use the excuse that we have enough problems of our own without going out on a limb for someone else. Charity begins at home and at home and at home.
If we have the true desire, and the welfare of someone else in our sights, we can ask divine guidance, and we will receive help. If help does not come, it is because we were not truly serious. Or perhaps whatever we wanted to do is not in the best interests of all concerned. Our help may only have slowed their progress or weakened their efforts. If our desires are worthy we need have no fear that a way will come to help.
The desire to help is a divine gift, and we accept it most beautifully by using it.
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January 3 - Daily Feast
When we last saw Essie she had been ashen and without the strength we see in her now. Now she sits flat on the ground, legs straight out in front, and reeds tumble across her knees and lie around her. Nimble fingers seek the perfect one to start a basket. Essie is close to our hearts. She has our Grandmother's name. Her reticence does not inspire idle talk, so we ask what happened to change her. With a quick glance, she says, "God heal." "Is it possible? So quickly and completely?" Hesitantly, she asks, "You got fast oven?" I say I do. "What make it work?" "Why, microwaves - energy. They change the molecules, the structure of the bread from cold to hot." Seconds pass. She says, almost too softly, "Prayer energy. Make me well."
~ I love a people who have always made me welcome to the best they had....who are honest without laws....who never take the name of God in vain.....who worship God without a Bible.... And I believe God loves them too. ~
GEORGE CATLIN, ARTIST - 1830
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 3
"We don't have to say or think what we don't wish to. We have a choice in those things, and we have to realize that and practice using that choice."
--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE
Having choices makes us fully accountable. No one can make us think anything we don't want to think. No one can determine our behavior and how we act. It's not what's going on but how we look at what's going on. If someone does something and we get upset, we can change how we look at it any time we want. We can tell ourselves in the morning that the day is going to be beautiful and that we have expectations that great things will happen. Doing this daily sets our mind to look for the joy and the excitement of each day.
Great Spirit, help me to choose my thoughts with Your wisdom.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
No hope? How foolish, for as long as there is a breath of life there is hope. How many people have sprung to their spiritual feet at the challenge of "no hope" and proved there is always hope. Perhaps there's nothing you can do for me, or I for you, but then again, perhaps there is.
As long as I do not impose the thought of hopelessness on you, and you do not convince me that your strength is all I can depend upon, then there is hope.
The things we sometimes call miracles are merely hopes activated by faith. And a wise teacher has said, "Give thanks for that which you need and soon you will have that for which you have given thanks."
If hope seems to elude you, let us give thanks that it is ours again. Let us speak words that are positive and reassuring and throw ourselves unreservedly into faith and trust, disregarding every emotion that seeks to convince us otherwise.
To lie down and be discouraged is our temptation, but to hope and have faith is our wisdom.
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January 4 - Daily Feast
To the Cherokee, worry is the dalala, the woodpecker, pecking away on the roof. It is easy to understand that even new wood cannot bear such hammering without giving way. Imagine what would happen to a roof which has already been through storms and many hot summers. But how do we handle this woodpecker called worry? By seeing it for what it is - a bird that causes damage. We can shout and scare it away for a while, but as soon as we drop our guard it is back again. Worry did not crash in suddenly. It entered our lives little by little, so that we did not notice. Surely it will go away, but it takes its toll so gradually that we grow accustomed to it - thinking it is just a normal part of living. When we hear worry rapping on the roof, we can ask ourselves, what have we talked about? What have we heard or dwelled on that distresses us?
~ Udadolisdi nuwhtohiyada Jalagi. Cherokee pray for peace. ~
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 4
"Our circle is timeless, flowing, it is a new life emerging from death-life winning out over death."
--Lame Deer, LAKOTA
When we look at the world in the manner which the Great Spirit designed it, we can see why it makes sense to live in harmony with it: the trees grow and bear fruit, the fruit has seeds, the seeds fall to the ground, the ground grows new trees, old trees die to make way for the young. Any time we think we can interrupt this cycle or change it we will experience turmoil and confusion. The Human Cycle exists as the baby becomes the youth, the youth becomes the adult, the adult has children, the adult becomes the Elder, and the Elder teaches the youth. Elders go on to the Spirit World. Spirit comes into babies to produce new life. Flow into the flow. Be the path of least resistance.
My Creator and my Maker, today, teach me to just flow with the river of life.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
There are so many things we must come to know. If there are obstacles we have made them. And if there is unrest it is because of a lack of holiness, of recognizing the truly important. If our appetites are too great, it is not that we crave food or drink, but something higher than that which we are experiencing.
Sometimes we fail to know the needs of others, but more often we can see their needs more clearly than we can our own. And we can help ourselves quickly by recognizing the truth of our own being.
We are spiritual beings and to operate in the strict physical and mental sense is likened to running a car with only gasoline. It cannot be done efficiently. It takes water, gasoline, and oil.
When we learn that it takes our physical, mental, and spiritual beings to make one person, then we are whole and have eliminated the inability to help ourselves. The outcome depends on you and me. And it is our duty to disqualify the thousand and one excuses that keep us from that duty.
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January 5 - Daily Feast
Nothing is so bedraggled and beaten down as a garden in winter. It promises nothing, and shows only wilted, gray and soggy leaves. There are no straight defined rows, no hint of green to show that it will be any different. But the Cherokee knows the difference. Long before winter - in the season of planting, we sowed the best seeds we could. As tiny and insignificant as they look, they will produce. When the best is planted and watered and cared for, the time will come to see the increase - to see a miracle. Life can be renewed and restored. Bedraggled and ridden down as life can be, don't despair. Plant good words, plant good seed. Nurture them with warm attention and care. Be a perennial believer and watch those first warm rays of sunlight awaken your garden to the Season of the Green Corn.
~ Sweet grasses and seeds serve as perfume for body and spirit. ~
INDIAN IMPRINTS
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 5
"But first, let us join hands and pray."
--Starleaf, SHINNECOCK
Where two or more human beings joined together for a common cause, the helpers and the Grandfathers will show up to help. When our Indian people come together, the Elders say, "always pray first-do a ceremony and ask the Creator to be with us and to help us. We can never pray enough." The Elders also say, "pray in a circle because the Creator made things in circles. When we stand in a circle and pray together, a sacred hoop will form above the people. This is the spiritual way."
Oh Great Spirit, through my prayers I can find Your guidance. I pray You guide my path today. Touch my life with Your holy Breath.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Most successful ventures have behind them some hardships. We as human beings demand such experiences before we can truly appreciate the meaning of victory. No one promised that life would be one long gala event, but if we're made of durable stuff, we neither let it hinder us nor make us run roughshod to get ahead.
We must always recognize past hardships for what they are. We cannot ignore them, for they are a part of our makeup. But neither can we let them become crutches to lean upon when there's need for an excuse.
Bitterness over past experiences wastes valuable time. Perhaps it was those hardships that gave us the strength to rise above the mediocre things. However crude, ugly, or unhappy, even tragic, some of the times may seem, as seen alone, when combined with all our other knowledge they form the perfect circle and play no more important part than all the rest.
In the words of American poet John Neal, "No man ever worked his passage anywhere in a dead calm."
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January 6 - Daily Feast
Dare to believe in miracles. Look beyond the mud on the windshield, beyond the impossible, and know life is more than anguish and stress. Reach out to someone, when your heart is too heavy to feel the sunlight or to taste the rain. Rid yourself of dark thought and melancholy. Open your mind to fresh air, to the unlimited music in your soul. Thoreau wrote of waking in the night to hear a strain of music dying away - travelers singing. He said his whole being was so expanded and infinitely and divinely related that he knew how narrow his own thinking had been. The Cherokee always teach their young to listen. We hear not the crash of cymbals or the noise that rise the airwaves - but the sweet song of the meadow, the even rhythmic sounds of nature. It is here where the dikanowadidohi angel sings.
~ Speak to yourself in spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. ~
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 6
"When we're through with this earth and all these problems, we don't have to come back. But as long as we're here we have a job to do and a purpose to fulfill and that means dealing with the circumstances around us."
--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE
We are put on the earth to participate in life. We have a beautiful mind, we have the ability to pray, we have the ability to change, we have the ability to accept, and we have choices. All things God created are constantly changing. This constant change causes our circumstances to change. Sometimes we say life is difficult. During these times we need to use our tools: the tools of prayer, and the tools of meditation. We are designed to change and live joyfully on this earth. The only requirement for living joyfully is to live according to the laws, principles and values given to us by the Creator.
Great Spirit, give me Your courage today, and guide my footsteps.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Think on pleasant things. Deliberately turn your thoughts to something pleasant when the pressures are too intense. And be careful as undisciplined thought quickly sifts back to the unhappy, unsettled mind.
The greater part of the time we are victims of our emotions. They play havoc with our peace of mind and are great friends of pessimism. They tell us things are true with such sincerity that we believe them into fact. They convince us things are a certain way and that we cannot remedy them with any amount of effort.
But stop where you are and consider what it is you are listening to and how it affects your feelings. Do a turnabout and take the positive route of deliberately replacing thoughts of unhappiness, injustices, and misunderstandings with the thought that these are merely chariots to carry us past all that has withheld freedom.
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January 7 - Daily Feast
The earth is too small for all the lonely people to have missed each other so completely. But the voice of loneliness seems to persist and deepen with every hour. The Cherokee elder teaches the young person, "Learn to know and like yourself. Learn to be your own best friend." Learn the art of enjoyable solitude - of having lunch with yourself and being comfortable about it. A person alone is unique. A lonely person shows it in his haunted stare. Sometimes loneliness comes because we have not made room for anyone else. We need to stretch out beyond our boundaries, step out of familiar territory, stop nursing emptiness and self-indulgence. Loneliness is looking for something to fill a void. Joy is expanding so that others want to share our lives.
~ May your way be blessed with life by the unifying force of the Great Holy Spirit. ~
CHEROKEE PRAYER
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 7
".when we become hollow bones there is no limit to what the Higher Powers can do in and through us in spiritual things."
--Frank Fools Crow, LAKOTA
If we want to be of maximum use to the Creator, we must ready ourselves to do so. If we are to become a channel for His purposes, we must prepare ourselves to do so. If we have resentment, fear, selfishness, or anger, we are not hollow bones. We must be rid of these things. We must change ourselves. We must ask for forgiveness for ourselves and forgive our brothers and sisters. We must keep our insides clean. We cannot use our power in a good way when we have blockages such as hate, judgment and envy. When we are free of these things the Higher Powers can use us beyond our wildest imagination. Then we can really help ourselves and help our people. Only when we are hollow bones can we have an effect on the world.
Oh Great Spirit, remove from me the things that block my usefulness to You. Remove from my day all thinking that is out of harmony with Your ways.
Grant me Your peace and allow me to function as a hollow bone.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Until you've walked in the rain you cannot truly appreciate the protection of a shelter.
Unless you've felt the heat from a sweltering sun you cannot fully enjoy the coolness of shade.
Only after the clatter and bang of crowded places can you find quietness and solitude so soothing to the nerves.
Before you can stop worrying and start living, there must be an elimination of fear which is the cause of all worry.
Sometimes, unfortunately, we must collide with the bad before we can totally appreciate the good.
It is said that we too often must be reminded of our obligations before we take charge of them.
Frequently it seems we must have our freedom threatened before we muster enough patriotism to defend it.
Too many shoulders are bowed by our thoughtlessness before we finally learn the key to real success is kindness.
We never know how truly wonderful it is to be loved until we are loved when we've failed to deserve it.
M.R. Smith's words, "God's plans, like lilies pure and white untold - We must not tear the close shut leaves apart - Time will reveal the calyxes of gold," revealed, after all, that patience does its perfect work.

[bluidkiti]

January 8 - Daily Feast
Lo, the poor Indian!
Whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds,
Or hears him in the wind.
Alexander Pope recognized the simplicity in the Indian's beliefs. Though all tribes are rich in symbolism to express what they believe, we all basically believe in One God, One Creator, One Great Loving Spirit over all. The Cherokees had their Father-Creator who was Yowah, the unity of three beings. The name Yowah was so sacred that only certain priests were allowed to say it. This same innate belief lives in each of us if we can only uncover it. Worship is of the heart, deep, joyous, personal. It is a life-current between each of us and our Creator. We can wrongly destroy ourselves but never the love that is beyond our understanding. It is there, even when we are too stubborn to receive it.
~ We perceive a battle between good and evil, and we also perceive good will win. ~
THE IROQUOIS
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 8
"Native Americans are essentially calling for righteousness. By this they mean a shared ideology developed by all people using their purest and most unselfish minds."
--Lorraine Canoe/Tom Porter, MOHAWK
The Native way is to first focus on decisions that will be good for the people and then for yourself. Righteousness means "to think right." Our way is to consider the good of all first. This helps our minds to be unselfish and pure. This it he spiritual way. This can be very hard to do because the world we live in says to take care of yourself first. A man of God cannot be taken advantage of unless it is the will of the Creator. The Creator really controls everything. To have a good future, the people must gather in a circle and pray for the highest good for the people.
Great Mystery, today let me love instead of being loved. Let me be giving instead of receiving. Show me the advantages of having a giving heart.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
When you hear geese honking their way southward in the quiet of the night, when you hear church bells ringing through the crystal clear autumn air, then you've heard the sounds of Thanksgiving.
Perhaps memories of Thanksgiving are not the same for all of us. We all carry our own memories within our hearts, and some live only for past Thanksgivings when a family was more complete. And so this day serves only to remind them of happier times. Those times should be remembered in all their glory and yet, there is the now. It is important too. Perhaps in some ways it is more important, for the challenge to quit thinking of ourselves and to consider how sorely needed is every last person. How memorable we could make this day for someone who hasn't even a happy memory. How strong we can be, not for ourselves, but for that memory and for those who do not have the strength.
Some young child or some young adult may be looking for a pattern to go by, some reason to be truly thankful, and here is the opportunity.
Some of our most delightful hours are spent in conversation with those people sometimes known as senior citizens, our elders, and lovingly, grandmother or grandfather. But whatever their titles they still have a wealth of wisdom and experience to share with us.
Whether we accept the experiences of our elders to profit by, or if we choose to ignore them, will determine a great deal how alert and aware we are of life. For this is life, this experience, this knowledge.
And within these lives we find so many things, small though they may be, that have a great part to play in our success or failure as human beings and parents. For they have learned what still remains sacred in man's heart, though years may pass and times may change.
To most the unhappy times are forgotten. And left to live are the beautiful beloved things that work as well today as yesterday. Things like cheerfulness, and refusal to take up unpleasantness as final; a warm and friendly kitchen where guests had rather be, and a Bible well read; a shining faith and a belief that the impossible only takes a little longer; and, a good broad shoulder to catch our tears - and love, which after all was the beginning of all of this.
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January 9 - Daily Feast
Sometimes great distances exist between the high points of our lives. Time moves swiftly and we tend to let it slip away without making it count while we wait on another high experience. We discount it as nothing unless we have reached some spectacular height and have passed ten other people on the way. The Indian does not consider himself idle when he stands still watching, listening, seeing the stars, or watching the sunset. His spirit-eyes absorb these signs and wonders to feed him when he cannot see the rolling hills, the flowing streams. A narrow view is one that constantly asks, What shall I eat? What shall I wear? What can make me feel secure? And all the time, the beauty and peace which cost nothing surround us unnoticed. Envy and lack of inner joy rob us of our peace of mind.
~ O, listen! Hear! Sing with me, for I am joy. ~
CHEROKEE SONG
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 9
"So, with the Native way, it's not whether people find out about what you've done or not... that's not nearly as strong as having your source of morality within you, having your morality arise out of an inner perception of what is wrong, ridiculous, or shameful. You are your own judge."
--Eunice Baumann-Nelson, Ph.D., PENOBSCOT
Inside each of us is a voice. It is a quiet voice. It is a guiding voice. If we listen for it, it will guide us, and help us avoid disaster. It is especially active when we are afraid, when we are in doubt, when we are scared, when we need help, and when we get angry. If we are excited emotionally, it is hard to hear this voice. If we are angry, it's hard to hear this voice because it is usually quiet. The best thing we can do is to practice getting quiet. If we don't get quiet, there is another voice called the judge. It tells us to attack or say bad things to other people or to judge ourselves. This voice is loud and usually gets us into trouble.
Creator, Great Mystery, help me listen for the quiet voice. Let me know this voice of Yours. Your ways are gentle. Guide me with this voice. Thank you.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
It takes such a little whiff of memory to carry us all the way back. Small things tucked here and there remind us of some place, some thing, some person who has played a special part in our lives.
We want to go forward, try new things, know new people, visit new places, yet how nice to slip on those comfortable old slippers of the familiar bygones and remember loving faces and happy times.
It is said that we should never return to places that have a sacred spot in our memories. Everything changes with time, so little remains recognizable to us. We begin to think that perhaps those hallowed places were not so wonderful as we remember.
But they were, for in their time and that place it was as it should have been, happy and meaningful. They may have changed, but so have we.
A little of every place and every person goes with us in the building of even happier times. We have not lost anyone or anything but it is the combination of all that we have lived and learned that builds our character and teaches us the way of life.
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January 10 - Daily Feast
When something in our minds rings a bell that warns us, we do well to listen. What is it that wants to lure us away from the chose path? Is it not from the good side? Then, run like a rabbit! Every one of us has a sounding board, as testing place that detects the way we are moving. Like a compass, it points the right way - and we are foolish not to understand - gohlga. To ignore the impressions that are within us is like trying to go through a door, but refusing to use the doorknob. It is one thing to be dense and another to be willfully determined to get lost in the wilderness. Listen to the alarm system. It is there for a good reason - and later on we won't have to say that something told us not to go a certain way and we didn't listen.
~ He hears voices other do not hear; sees visions that confirm his dreams. ~
EAGLE OLD MAN
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 10
"We cannot escape remembering the important things that have happened, and we cannot escape the awareness of the important things that have not happened."
--Ralph Salisbury, CHEROKEE
There is a Master Plan. There are Natural Laws that run the universe. Everything on the earth has a purpose. Change is constant. That which is built is constantly being destroyed. That which is loose is being used to build new things. Nothing can be destroyed, only rearranged. Change will happen and every setback is only temporary. In other words, the Creator is in charge. We are not in charge. He designed the universe. He runs the universe and He will change what needs to be changed. As humans, it is easier for us to participate in all of this if we are spiritual. We need to be tuned in. Therefore, God gave us the spiritual concept of acceptance. When things change, we can change ourselves through the principle of acceptance.
Great Spirit, let me live today in acceptance of Your will. Today let us do it Your way.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Whenever we stop to consider where we are on the road of life, we might also think about why we are there. Whether it is success or failure, or wavering in the middle of the road, we are where we are because of someone or something.
Nearly every person can pinpoint the time in their life when there was a turning point, a change for worse or for the better. And usually there is someone to whom they give the credit for such a change.
Throughout our lives we contact many people, and they each leave an impression. As living continues the combination of all those thoughts and feelings and actions forms our opinions, our likes and dislikes, our fears and our loves. But there is one basic factor in all of this that turns us one way or other - the individual, the personal self. It is how we take life, what we expect, how we do our daily tasks, where we place our values that makes the difference.
We are born with the right to choose - and whatever we choose there will always be someone there to help us be good or bad. But first, we must give credit where credit is due.
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January 11 - Daily Feast

The owls call to each other early on a midwinter evening. Just as the last rays of sunlight sink into a rosy glow, a silence settles over the countryside. For a short time, everything is hushed. In that near-dark hour the wind lays and no sound is heard - as though the whole forest listens. The moment is brief as daytime creatures find their nests and those of the night begin to awaken. It is time to rest from our own activity, to find a quiet hour to let pressures ebb away. One of the greatest wonders is the rhythm and order of nature. But even greater is the flexibility of human nature - that we can move, think, project, plan and see all of it in perspective. And as the day wanes we can put it all down and take on the peace of nature.

~ Heed little the melancholy nights that keep tune with sorrowful thought. ~

CHIEF RUNS-THE-BATTLE

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 11

"Race and language makes no difference; the barriers are gone when persons can come together on high spiritual levels."

--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE

Not only are race and language barriers overcome by spirituality, but all things are overcome by spirituality. Inside every human being is the spirit. When we see people, we can choose to look at their outside or we can choose to look at their inside. Spirituality resides inside of others, we must be able to look at our own inside. If we see spirituality inside ourselves, we will see spirituality inside others. The saying is, "what you sees is what you gets."

My Creator, let me see all my brothers and sisters through the spiritual eye.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

We want much. It seems sometimes that wanting is all we ever get done. And yet if it were not for the desire of our hearts, there would be little incentive to work and plan and expect.

Some would have us believe it is wrong to desire any more than absolute necessities. But good desires channeled in the right direction can do nothing but better the one who seeks.

Sometimes getting is only a substitute for the true desire. Humans have a way of looking outside themselves for things to satisfy their spiritual hunger. It may be prestige. Or it may be anything that will inflate their egos and given them feelings of security.

Emerson wrote, "The implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feels it." we have the ability to rise far above what we think we can. We have within us the answers if we but have the wisdom to seek those answers.

And perhaps we should consider, even before we begin to seek, the wisest of all instructions, "With all your getting get understanding."
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January 12 - Daily Feast
As time goes by we learn it isn't the speed with which we do our work, but the quality of time that makes life an accomplishment. How much do we enjoy working, or playing, or just resting? Schedules and deadlines take up most of what we do. We seldom have time to enjoy something for the sake of doing it. If we feel pressured, we have little incentive to enjoy doing anything, much less doing it well. Many who have to sit all day are bored and have nothing to think about except how unhappy they are or how they feel physically. More time is not the answer. We need a better quality of life, I ga osi, deeper rest, and it begins with quality attitudes. What we have or what we do not have should never dictate the quality of our lives or our capacity to simply enjoy.
~ Some pass without recognition, the grandest of all..... ~
SONG OF LOVE
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 12
"The first thing that we want you to understand is that spirit has no color or race to it. It doesn't matter whether your skin is white, black, red, Hispanic, whatever. No one out there is any better than you, and you are no better than anyone else out there."
--John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG
We are all created to be of equal worth. We may be different sizes, different heights, different ages, different colors, we may have different beliefs and be of different cultures. In the unseen world, we are all spirit formed into different shapes and colors but we are all worthy. For example, you can have water, you can have steam, or you can have ice. Which of these is not made up of H2O?
My Creator, today, let me see equal worthiness in all people.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
We know without being told when we have acted unkindly or behaved unjustly toward another. Intolerance, whether it is personal superiority or religious bigotry, serves only to isolate us from the greatest joy in life - the sharing of ideals and happiness and friendship.
We must be patient and fair toward anyone whose opinions differ from our own. There is a much better chance of convincing those whom we hope to influence by being an example rather than a voice.
It is much easier to be led than to be pushed, and not so hard to be tolerant when we recognize within ourselves the reasons we are not always tolerant.
It sometimes becomes habitual to be dissatisfied with everything we see others do. We don't take time to understand and know the basis for their actions. We often fall short of listening to them long enough to understand, and their next words or actions may explain it.
We cannot afford to be intolerant, because no matter how good our ideas are, there is always a better one.
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January 13 - Daily Feast
If we are not happy, it is because no one has given us permission to be. The hardships and stresses of those who went before us make us wonder if we have a right to do better. Do we have permission to outlive, outdo, outwork all those who went before us? Have we given our children permission to be stronger, better, and more intelligent than we are? The Cherokees have a word for it, adahenhdi, meaning the gift. Or have we told them to adhere to their roots instead of respecting them? Have we made them caretakers, or have we set them free to be strong builders on firm foundations? Permission is hard to come by when we wait and wait for someone to tell us we have done well, that we have earned the right to be mature, respected adults. No, we give ourselves permission to grow, to live long and well, to prosper and be in good health.
~ I can tell my children that the way to get honor is to go to work and be good men and women. ~
CHIEF RUNNING BIRD
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 13
"When you remove love and try to replace it with monetary things, you've got nothing ... Get him to understand that he has to love himself before he can love anything else."
--John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG
It is said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." That's the trouble, most of us do.
Great Spirit, You are love; You are spirit. Spirit and love are interconnected. I am spiritual. Let me realize what I am really made of.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Bad feelings are burdens. When we get to the point of believing the whole world is sour because we don't understand it, we have a lot of self-searching to do. Maybe we helped it to lose its sweetness. Maybe we're the bad apple that soured the whole lot.
Our first thought should be to make amends. Sometimes we can't, and when such is the case we need to get out of the way and let time and nature take its course.
Life is too beautiful to go on being a bitter pill that insists that everyone swallow it. As in the words of Caleb C. Colton, an English clergyman around the turn of the century, "the man who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the grief which he proposes to remove."
We need to unburden ourselves by forgetting our problems and doing something that will put a smile on someone else's face.
The quickest way to solve the problem of hurt feelings is to inquire if this situation is important to the whole of existence. Does this particular thing mean more than any of the other things of life? It is amazing how quickly trials fade into nothingness when faced with this question. It places before us the need to decide here and now the meaning of our whole existence.
There are not many things in our lives that we can truthfully say mean everything to us. The small things are important and very dear, but the really significant things we count on one hand - life, our loved ones, our good desires, our faith, and our nation.
One of the most magnified situations in this day is taking life too seriously. In the stress of too much mental confusion, we seem unable to laugh off so many little irritations. We let personality rule us into making each little problem the source of great anxiety and dramatically lay hold of it until it chokes us.
The worthwhile side of this life is too important to let ourselves become involved with things that mean little to us. Too much of the trouble in the world is caused from ego-building important that would never be missed in anyone's existence.
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January 14 - Daily Feast
What we take for granted someone else thinks is beautiful. What we want to get rid of is someone else's treasure. Sometimes we stand so close to something dear that we cannot see that it is dear. Our lack of awareness robs us of what we assume is ours forever. We have many eyes, but most are closed or glazed over. The eyes of the mind and spirit perceive far more than our physical eyes will ever see. The eyes of our hearing detect sound but also feelings and attitude - and the music of he sphere. There is a word in the Cherokee language, agowhtvhdi, which means sight. When we touch something we not only feel but we also see the gentleness or the hardships, the depths and the heights. No, we are never blind except when we close ourselves off and deny the very Spirit of Life.
~ Give heed, my child, lift up your eyes, behold the One who has brought you life. ~
CEREMONIAL SONG
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 14
"It is a native tradition to sit in a circle and talk-to share what is in your heart."
--John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG
The talking circle is also a listening circle. The talking circle allows one person to talk at a time for as long as they need to talk. So much can be gained by listening. Is it a coincidence that the Creator gave us one mouth and two ears? The power of the circle allows the heart to be shared with each other. What we share with each other also heals each other. When we talk about our pain in the circle, it is distributed to the circle, and we are free of the pain. The talking circle works because when the people form a circle, the Great Mystery is in the center.
My Creator, give me the courage to share, and the courage to listen.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
If you don't know what to do about a situation - wait awhile, the answer will come. If weariness overcomes you before you've completed a difficult job, wait awhile, you'll get your second wind.
If you do not agree with someone else's philosophy, don't fret, perhaps later you will come to know that the same philosophy can be reached from many different directions.
If you think the activities of another person or group are frivolous and unnecessary, wait a bit, they most likely will feel the same way about you sometime.
If you don't like what others have to say, wait, they may clarify it - or you may change your mind.
If life hasn't dished you unhappiness, wait a bit, if you've planted any happiness seeds, you will also reap.
We can't always wait, but sometimes waiting is action, and action of the hardest kind. It is difficult to keep quiet when you have something to say, but it more often saves your face later and sometimes your life.
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January 15 - Daily Feast
Feeling drained and weak in the knees is not so much a physical problem as an emotional one. Too much pressure drains away strength and we feel we are going to pieces. Inertia and lightheadedness may be the result of having to face something that seems beyond any power to overcome. But these will dissolve when met with strong words of strength and faith. As soon as strength takes hold and begins to flow again, we know we have struck down something so wily and subtle that it was both real and imaginary. But nothing has power against strong words, "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick." And then we can ride the waves of our emotions like a canoe and not get upset among the waves.
~ Black Hawk is a true Indian, and disdains to cry like a woman. ~
BLACK HAWK
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 15
It's all spirit and it's all connected."
--Grandfather William Commanda, ALGONQUIN
If everything is connected, we cannot disconnect. To disconnect is not a real choice. This is why we are always spiritual no matter what we do. Every alcoholic is spiritual. All our brothers and sisters are spiritual. We may not be behaving correctly, but nevertheless, we are spiritual. Our choice is to live out of harmony with spiritual ways or in harmony with spiritual ways. Everything is spiritual.
Great Spirit, give me the knowledge to be in harmony with the spirit today.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Do you remember the interesting story of the lion and the mouse in Aesop's Fable's? The lion could have crushed the mouse but was merciful and let it go free. A year later the lion became entangled and the mouse nibbled its way through the net to set it free.
It is a dangerous thing to wade through other people's feelings, burning our bridges and believing we will never need them again. The saddest persons on earth must be those who find they have tried to destroy the only one who can help them.
The smallest and seemingly most insignificant has a purpose in this world, and it isn't for us to judge what that purpose is. We have enough to do in finding our own.
As in the fable, we must remember, "Few are so small or weak, I guess....but may assist us in distress....nor shall we ever....if we're wise....the meanest of the least despise."

[bluidkiti]

January 16 - Daily Feast
Rules are made to keep us safe and honest and well-organized - but many of them become more important than the purpose for which they were written. We have a tendency to make rules only to fall under the power of them. If rules and laws are made and have governed us for any length of time, it is generally though that there can be no exceptions - even to the point of being ridiculous. When a rule becomes so binding that it will not allow common sense and honest action to help the people do the right thing, it is time to make a change. Rules are made to help us do our best, ori da tli in gv is, in Cherokee. Rules are made to serve human beings - not human beings made to serve the rules. We need the rules, but wisdom as well.
~ The Great Father in Washington says you have to go! ~
INDIAN INSPECTOR, 1877
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 16
"If people are going to get back into balance, one of the things they have to do is seek the truth. They have to start really speaking the truth themselves, and that's a difficult thing to do. The way it is now in the world, we don't mind lying."
--John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG
Well, everybody's doing it. Do unto others before they do unto you. If it wasn't for back luck I would have no luck at all. These are excuses and rationalizations for giving up accountability. Be true to yourself. Seek the truth, The Great Spirit is the truth. The truth shall set you free. This is the truth. We cannot be free if we are dishonest nor can we live a balanced life if we are dishonest. As we grow, we need to start taking stands. All warriors take stands. The warrior's belief is constantly being aligned to truth. The warrior will always know where he/she stands.
Great Spirit, help me today to seek Your truth, not my truth.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Regret is something everyone has, but no one can afford to keep. Being remorseful is commendable when we should be sorry for wrong behavior, but to live with regret is to add to it day by day. There are those who are unable to admit they have ever been wrong. But there are more who carry with them so much regret they are bowed in spirit.
Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, once said, "Remorse is beholding heaven and feeling hell," but perhaps just knowing heaven can exist makes regret more hellish. And so often it renders the regretful almost powerless to lift themselves out of their predicament.
But there is forgiveness! A daily vow or affirmation can take us a step further in lifting ourselves above the things that cause regret. And if we've settled down in the middle of unhappiness to enjoy our lot in life, then, moment by moment, inch by inch, we shall overcome that, too!
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January 17 - Daily Feast
Most changes are too subtle to be noticed. The fog, u gv ha dv, that blankets the early morning hangs so thick in the woods that the hills beyond cannot be seen. Then, without us seeing it, it is there no longer. So it is in our relationships with other people. We do not understand the moods and changes that work their silent influence on us when we least expect it. We react to the moods of others like we do in the fog, not realizing what has happened until the silent influence has gone. When our feelings are so in command, it is difficult to change the circumstances around us. All the experiences of a lifetime have influenced our decisions and made us react in a way that destroyed something that may never be rebuilt. When the fog lifts it takes away the veil so that we can see a long way. But the inner-fog hides life and love and friendship - until we change it.
~ I am satisfied....I am not afraid to avow the deed that I have done.....I am willing to bury the tomahawk and smoke the pipe of peace.... ~
SOUWAHNOCK 1833
'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 17
"In our story of Creation, we talk about each one of us having our own path to travel, and our own gift to give and to share. You see, what we say is that the Creator gave us all special gifts; each one of us is special. And each one of us is a special gift to each other because we've got something to share."
--John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG
We are all equally special. We need to focus on what is right for ourselves. As we focus on what is right for ourselves, we will start to see our special gifts. Then we can see how to share our special gifts with others. If we focus on what's wrong with ourselves, we will not be able to see our gifts. Then we will think we have nothing to give others and we become selfish and withdrawn. The more we focus on our good, the more we see the good in others. The more we see the good in others, the more we see the gifts they have to share. What you sees is what you gets!
My Creator, today, let me use the gifts You have given me. Let me use them wisely.
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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Have you noticed how hardheaded we are about clinging to the way we think something should be done? If it worked once, we think it should again, and perhaps it does. There are proven methods of getting successful results in many things. But ever so often we try to use the same procedure, follow the same general pattern we've used before, only this time it doesn't work.
How we pound our fists against that stone wall! Insisting all the time that there used to be a door in exactly that spot. Who moved the door? Frequently circumstances are to blame. But placing the blame is not the important thing. Finding the way is important.
The way may not be marked plainly, and we have to blaze a new trail, find a new method. But the hardest part of finding that new method is in admitting we need one. The first and most important step is in changing our idea of how it should be done. As soon as we have accepted this fact the mind has a reserve of experience and knowledge that will hurry in to help. But only after we've admitted the need for it.
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January 18 - Daily Feast

A certain amount of protection from the wind makes it pleasant to walk in the deep woods, even in January - Uno lv at na. It is quieter and without the activity of other seasons, but the deer come daily to feed on acorns that litter the moss covered earth. Timing is important, even though the Cherokee has been said to have a time of his own - arriving and leaving as he see fit. But even nature gets ahead of herself or lags behind at times. Here in the dead of winter, a shaft of sunlight brings out tiny moth-like insects that dance straight up and down, going nowhere. Doing the right thing at the right time is all-important. We tend to get overanxious and want to push ahead when it is not the time nor the right thing to do. We are not programmed by nature but by Spirit, and from that comes the wisdom to stay or act.

~ I beseech you.....by everything you hold sacred and dear, abandon this wild visionary and desperate undertaking and return to your village. ~

KEOKUK, 1832

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 18

"Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit."

--Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), SANTEE SIOUX

Be still and know. All new learning's, all ideas about new things, creativity, daydreaming and mental effectiveness come to those who learn about silence. All warriors know about the power of silence. All Elders know about stillness. Be still and know God. Meditation is about the place of silence. This is the place to hear God's voice. We can find tremendous amounts of knowledge in the place of silence. This is the sacred place of God.

Great Spirit, teach me the power of silence.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It has been said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But it is even truer that there is no hell more furious than those humans beings who feel scorn within themselves for themselves. It is natural but painful for those who do not know the meaning of love to find fault and grief within their own existence. Unable to accept the blame for their actions, there is a continual search for the cause in other people.

How can we tell what point in life others may have reached in their development? We can only see and sense the pain that some carry while they learn the way. If it is impossible to get along with them, we should get along without them, but condemning them will never turn the tide.

Understanding of others and of ourselves has been a great human need for all time. The fact that we do not look with a critical eye, pecking away in constant irritation at another's faults, but give some sign of friendliness, some patience for rebellious spirits, may serve as the turning point for that spirit. And to try for such understanding does no harm for the one who makes the effort.
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January 19 - Daily Feast

We have to actively resist the suggestion that something is going to make us sick. It is not easy to talk illness and poverty without believing strongly that we may have to deal with them. The easiest way is to cancel negative suggestions and claim what we want. Money, which is a de la in Cherokee, will run for cover if we continually talk friendship - and we know what happens when someone tells us we do not look well. We being to take our pulse and wonder whether we should lie down. Too much sympathy and self-pity destroys our immunity to difficulty. When we shut down on it and begin to talk health and begin to talk about excellent opportunities, then we open the way to be well and prosperous.

~ They came to you under the guise and pretense.....and gained your confidence.....they are enemies of you and your band, instead of friends. ~

KEOKUK, 1832

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 19

"Heal yourself - your physical and spiritual bodies. Regenerate yourself with light, and then help those who have poverty of the soul. Return to the inner spirit, which we have abandoned while looking elsewhere for happiness."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHUA NATION, PERU

It is difficult to look inside ourselves, especially when we see conflict or confusion. During times of conflict we need to realize that we are talking to ourselves about our thoughts. This conversation is printing in our subconscious and forming our beliefs. During times of conflict we need to ask the spirit to control our self-talk. Only thorough finding that inner place and going there during troubled times will we ever find happiness.

Great Spirit, You are my peace and you dwell within me. Let me look for You within myself.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

"Though we speak with the tongues of men and angels and give our bodies to be burned, if we are irritable or hard to live with, it all accounts for nothing," wrote Margaret Widdemer.

Wouldn't it be a blessing to ourselves and to others if we could be as gentle and considerate in temper as we expect others to be? It is not a good thing to keep pent up then emotions that rules us so continually, but neither is it good to be too quick and too constantly blowing off steam.

It may serve as a tension reliever to us, but it can soon ruin our relationships with others. And without our realizing it, we can soon become chronic complainers.

Worry, physical ailments and weariness can cause a short temper that we think others should understand. And most have a way of knowing if that is the case, but prolonged impositions on other people will wear that tolerance very thin. It takes two to have an argument, but it takes only one to start it.

The need to forgive and to be forgiven should never be overlooked. To pass over a disagreement quickly without thought to the damage we've done can take the shine off any friendship. There can be no merit in forgetting if we cannot first forgive.

There are two voices in this world that will be forever unpopular. One is the voice of self-pity, the other is the voice that yells all the time. One declares itself to be the victim of great injustices, the other yells to demand justice.

Those who believe themselves to be the victim of injustice - those who believe they are meant to suffer - will always find conditions to prove they are right.

And those who yell, "Look what I've sacrificed," and always with the theme, "What I've tried to do for you," have slowed another's progress and stopped their own.

True victims of circumstance are easily recognized, and do not care to be noticed as such. And those who yell their merits have received their rewards, so there aren't any others.

Both have their attentions turned inward, but to the sorrow of most.... Their voices are not.
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January 20 - Daily Feast

When we rely on other people for what we need to know, we are vulnerable to their mistakes. What others give us may be sincere and it may be genuine, but all information is a matter of how we read it. What one person says with one meaning may reach the ear of another with a different understanding. Wisdom comes from the same source regardless of where we hear it, but it is better to take words of wisdom and work them through our own minds for direction and understanding. When someone else has answers that seem to apply to our questions, we can be open and teachable, but not gullible. It stands to reason if we tune our ears to answers within ourselves, we won't have to lean on outer sources for information.

~ The British father.....promised aid and assistance.... He is at peace with the Great Father in Washington.....and neither knows nor cares for your grievances... ~

KEOKUK

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 20

"The most important thing now is to reveal the inner temple of the soul with right thinking and right activity."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHUA NATION, PERU

The key to growing a strong tree is to have a good system of roots and to feed the roots with good medicine. If we put poison in the root system, it will affect the tree, and it will become obvious to the rest of the forest what is being fed to the roots. This is also true of the human being. We need to feed our roots with right thinking. If our thinking is right, it will become obvious to the rest of the people. We don't need to tell people about ourselves with our mouth because our actions always tell them.

Great Spirit, direct my thinking today. Feed my roots.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

True forgiveness could be described as a divine amnesty where we receive a pardon from the unworthy things we've done, and have another chance to prove our worth. Forgiveness is something we must give in order to receive. And we have a tendency to linger over old grudges, using them to bolster our reasons for not forgiving. But we cannot return to the past, nor can we change one whit of anything that happened then. We cannot make up for resentments we've caused in others, no more than they can make up for ours.

To forgive is divine. God is above punishment, but we are not. It is we, not God, who punish by taking things into our own hands and making them work for our own selfish reasons. We demand punishment by hanging on to painful past experiences that produce self-pity. We are the ones who blame God's will for our illness, our poverty, our lack of friends. But we are wrong, for there is a moment of truth when we face ourselves and know that we are the guilty.

And there is a time such as William Wordsworth wrote about, "that blessed mood, in which the burden of the mystery, in which they heavy and weary weight of all this unintelligible world, is lightened"....because we've been forgiven.
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January 21 - Daily Feast

In the darkest day in winter color is everywhere. They are colors we do not expect to see, so we do not see them. They float on early morning clouds that lie aloft in the southern sky and hover in the crevices of hills at midday. In the evening, the western horizon is purple - all shades of purple, which the Cherokee calls gi ge s di. The last rays of sunlight color the scuddling clouds with purple, rose, and lilac. The Indian loves color and is tuned in to its joy. If we are caught in moods that are drab, our eyes have little chance of seeing color. A drab view can be changed. Even now a, as go in ge (jay) and a brilliant, gi ga ge (cardinal) can stir us with their blues and reds if we have the heart to see them.

~ This is the most valuable thing I have ever possessed. ~

YE-WHELL-COME-TETSA, 1815

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 21

"This is the time of awakening to the inner father and the inner mother. Without this we will receive no high initiation; instead we get initiated into darkness. That's because any investigation or revolution without God leads, not to freedom, but to more slavery."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHAU NATION, PERU

Honor the Father and the Mother. Father stands for wisdom and Mother stands for feelings. Inside each of us is the Father and the Mother. If we do not honor both, we will not grow in balance. To honor both the Father and the Mother helps our masculine and feminine sides grow. The winter season is a good time to focus on this. This is our season of reflection. Honoring both sides allows us to see the Creator is both Father and Mother.

Great Spirit, Father Sky, Mother Earth, guide me today. Let me experience balance.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Hardly any of us are without some jealousy. We like to think of ourselves about that painful emotion, because such a monstrous feeling is a destructive thing. But if we have not felt a normal amount of it, it is because we have yet to doubt something we love very much.

Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and sister of Francis I, King of France in the fifteenth century, wrote the following words:
"Love may exist without jealousy, although this is rare; but jealousy can feed on that which is bitter, no less than on that which is sweet, and is sustained by pride as often as by affection."

Jealousy can rear its head when logic is giving you the facts, and throw the whole thing into chaos. But confidence is the enemy of jealousy. Confidence, trust, and faith are all strong parts of a nature where jealousy does not rule.

And jealousy, even in moderation, can introduce us to a serious problem with ourselves, if we let it grow out of proportion. It breeds rejection while maturity and understanding keep us safely within the bounds of permissiveness rather than possessiveness.
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January 22 - Daily Feast

Pushmataha, Chief of the Choctaws, understood our weaknesses as well as our strengths. He knew how willing we are to give in to abuse for fear of having no peace at all. Peace at any price is very familiar to the American Indian. And we know how a little success can do away with common sense - how it can remove the stops that keep us on the true path. A stable attitude can offset the extremes where we sometimes find ourselves. Good peace - to hi dv - is an inside job, a place where we cultivate the development of our own spirits before we look to our surroundings for strength and sustenance. The heart and soul that loves peace and wants others to be peaceful will never miss the mark of excellence.

~ Never be elevated above measure by success....nor delighted with the sweets of peace to suffer insults. ~

PUSHMATAHA

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 22

"The first factor in the revolution of consciousness is the mystic death of the ego - the death of negative thinking, negative personalities. We must purify the soul of the inner enemies. Every time a defect manifests- envy, gluttony, anger, lust, whatever-that impulse to the heart. Ask, `Do I really need to invoke this?' And then honor the heart."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHAU NATION, PERU

Our egos have character defects. These character defects we sometimes act out and they invariably bring results to our lives that we might not want. If we continue to use these character defects, we will continue to have undesirable results in our lives. How do we change ourselves or get rid of a character defect We can go to the heart-ask a question, make a decision-then honor the heart. For example, say I get angry today. I would go to the heart and ask, would I rather be right or would I rather be happy? How we answer this question can have an enormous impact on how our day goes. Once we decide the answer to this question, we need to honor the heart by saying, "Thank you for the power of changing my thoughts. I choose to be happy and to experience peace of mind."

Great Spirit, today, let me teach only love and learn only love.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The destructive hand is one that never finds a friendly hand to shake. Its finger is always pointed at someone's face in a threat. The destructive hand is forever lifted against anyone who differs, ready to strike in disagreement, always lifted for attention to let them tell the wrong someone has done.

The destructive hand tries desperately to hold another's good back....ready to sign a complaint....forever in a gesture of disdain.

But pity the destructive hand. It will never know the tenderness of love nor find the clasp of friendship. It will never feel the sun warm on its palm while it lifts someone....or guide another to happier things....or wave or cheer or praise and give thanks.

The destructive hand is the negative approach to all of life. It can never do anything but discourage and frighten. The positive approach to life is found in every gesture of the productive hand; it builds unbreakable structure, unbroken peace, and joy to soothe the most savage heart.
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January 23 - Daily Feast

As a child, I wanted to sing at the supper table. It seemed the logical place to let the joy of life flow freely - since it was our habit to share happy experiences at mealtime - never grievances. But E li is, Grandmother Essie, expected manners, not singing. The food at our table was not as important as the stories. Some were farfetched yarns so typical of the Cherokee. When we came together, laughter and joyful bantering took my mind off the ever-present greens that I had to close my eyes to eat. Grandmother said greens were part of making-do, but it seemed to me that I was making do when I sang at the table. Food should never be eaten when the throat is constricted and the spirit aches from hurt. Joy makes the most common food a feast - and it would not surprise me that E li is is sitting at supper in heaven - singing!

~ Friends and relations....you know what I feel....you have children, whom you love as yourself. ~

WAWATAM, 1763

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 23

"Our true enemies, as well as our true sources of strength, lie within."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHUA NATION, PERU

A long time ago, the Creator put inside the human being the secrets to the laws of life. We usually know this is true even though we may not know what these laws are. If something goes wrong with our lives, we usually fix the blame on something outside of ourselves. We tend to give up accountability. One way or another we say, "It's not my fault." We need to realize that all permanent and lasting change starts on the inside and works its way out. If it's meant to be, it is up to me.

Oh Great Spirit, let me realize fully that my problems are of my own making. Therefore, so are the solutions.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Don't allow life to mean too much. Keep it light and shallow; spend as much time as possible scoffing at those things meaningful to others; forget the decency and patience in their attitudes.

And look with overbearing revenge to make them pay for what they believe.....laugh at their efforts.....call attention to their imperfections.....and don't forget to learn how to live alone.....if not in body, then in spirit. And then don't take the blame for a desert-island soul. It is of one's own making. But remember, oh so well, that life does not stand still while we search for someone to blame for our isolation.

[bluidkiti]

January 24 - Daily Feast

Other people have no more power than we do. They may have the knack for making us think they can do anything. A little adjustment down in our minds will stop the thought that we must cope and compete with those who have greater advantages. If we believe anything holds us back, limits our ability, we can know beyond a doubt that more ability resides in us than we will ever have time to hone and develop. When we are doing something we love to do, it comes naturally to mind our own business and to polish our own skills. Love for the right work takes it out of the role of labor and competition and makes it into a work of art. Then, the little competitive self is dissolved into a powerful giant that didn't realize how much he was growing.

~ Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, cannot live without bread and pork and beer. But you ought to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life has provided....for us in these spacious lakes....and woody mountains. ~

PONTIAC, 1762

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 24

"Always listen to what the Elders say."

--Dona Josefa Medrano, HUICHOL, SIERRA MADRE, MEXICO

In school we have been taught to go to the encyclopedia when we need information about certain subjects. From the time we are little, we have a natural tendency to seek out role models. When we need information about living we tend to seek out books about living. These maybe self help books. The world is full of information. For the Native people, we have our Elders. All races have Elders. Our lives will run much smoother when we listen to the Elders. They don't always tell us what we want to hear but they always tell us what we need to hear. The Elders have the ability to make the truth sweet.

Creator, thank You for the Elders. Help me this day to listen to them.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There must be a great many persons who have questioned their own wisdom in having fought for a principle. To so many, it seems all they gleaned from it was the title "different". Isn't this why so many refuse to stand up for what they believe? We look at them in disbelief, the idea that someone is trying to attract attention. If they are not twitted about their actions they are treated with cold indifference which can be even worse.

It seems that if persons have the strength to say they will fight for a certain truth, they must also have the strength to fight alone without depending on those around them to tell them how they should conform. They must not be embarrassed to be counted as unusual in the pursuit of their particular belief.

But the individuals who find themselves alone in the stand they take must remember that if it is truth they are following it will eventually win and at least they can live with themselves. Not everyone can say that.

H.W. Beecher has written, "It is often said it is no matter what a man believes if he is only sincere. But let a man sincerely believe that seed planted without ploughing is as good as with; that January is as favorable for seed-sowing as April; and that cockle seed will produce as good a harvest as wheat, and is it so?"

Sincerity, like trust, must be rooted in those basic truths that are for the good of everyone. If that which we sincerely believe in and live by is truly good, then the results will speak so loudly that all who really want to will see. Until we sincerely want to know good and do good, we will never know it. And until we do, we only half live.
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January 25 - Daily Feast

Giving up robs us of drawing up gold from our own depths. Imagine having a well, a very deep well, that is topped off with several feet of tainted water. But deeper down, the water, the a ma', is clear, and down even father it is a spring, a spring that bubbles cold and pure through deposits of gold. Should we give up because of what we saw in the beginning? Or would we want to tap the depths and clear away the polluted water and get down to the very best? If it is true that we only know five percent of who and what we are - then, it is possible that we have untapped depths, where our being is pure and free of contamination. Should we give up such a rich experience because of what we have seen on the surface?

~ We give you this belt to clear away all clouds, that we may love in bright sunshine.... ~

HENDRICK, 1754

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 25

"Also ask your heart to purify and cleanse this defect and harmful desire. Ask also the help of the inner father and mother. Every time we eliminate a defect, we build our soul, our inner temple. We ascend. Like going up a stairway."

--Willaru Huayata, QUECHUA NATION, PERU

The building blocks to knowledge and wisdom are constructed through the lessons of our character defects if we constructively review our conduct each day, asking where we are resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid. Remember, we need to review constructively, not destructively. Destructive review is when we ask, "what's the matter with me anyway." or "how could I be so stupid?" These question lead to morbid reflection or remorse and seriously affect our self esteem. In constructive review we ask, "what will I do next time?" With constructive review we progressively eliminate the defect and replace it with wisdom.

My Creator, allow me to have my defects because through them I gain in knowledge of Your will.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The truly humble are those who have no thought of using other people to their own avail. They are aware that any success they may attain come note entirely from their own intelligence and abilities, but because somewhere along the way they have acknowledged how inadequate they are alone.

The day of the self-sufficient person has never truly been. Without other people, without a sense of humility, success is lost to the overambitious.

English critic John Ruskin once said that the first test of a truly great person is humility.

There is greatness and sincerity when we can say to ourselves that we are not only human and except for the grace of God we would even lack those qualities. We realize that the world owes us nothing, and no person owes us anything but love. It is not simply our job to serve ourselves, but it is our duty to serve others.

Humility is one of the finest qualities found in human nature. Without it we are nothing but a brash machine, with it we are warm and kind and always respected.

If we want to be friends to others, we must meet them on their level. This isn't to say we have to be the type they are, but understand them and realize that it is a good thing that we are not all alike. This is the beauty of humanity, the variations that keep the human race from being monotonous.

And there is nothing sweeter to the human ear than to hear someone talk its language. Great persons have realized this and have made themselves adaptable to the little and to the big, to the learned and to the unschooled, in order to be more widely understood.

Who knew better than the Wise Master the importance of meeting others on their own level? The Master looked into the lives of every type of person and saw many changes that needed to be made, but also saw much to love and to waken. And in this gentleness and compassion the Wise Master could meet us all and speak our languages, then to be understood and followed.

We live in such narrow existences when we cannot communicate with anyone except those on our own level of thought and action. And if we only have one level on which to operate, there's danger of it becoming a shelf for immovable objects.
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January 26 - Daily Feast

There are in every life both sunshine people and rainy-day people. There are giving people and there are those who take, but how so few in number are those who understand. To have someone understand why we cry or laugh, why we feel downcast for no apparent reason, is to have a friend. A friend accepts our changes of mood without telling us to snap out of it. They know if we could so easily handle tears we would have done it already. All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in the presence of a friend who never judges but stands alongside with loyalty. "My u na li, take my hand and walk with me until you can go alone." It gives us what we need to be a friend as well.

~ We shall not fail....to nourish your hearts....about the renewal of our amity and the brightening of the Chain of Friendship. ~

CANASSATEGO, 1742

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 26

"All life is a circle."

--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE

The atom is a circle, orbits are circles, the earth, moon, and sun are circles. The seasons are circles. The cycle of life is a circle: baby, youth, adult, elder. The sun gives life to the earth who feeds life to the trees whose seeds fall to the earth to grow new trees. We need to practice seeing the cycles that the Great Spirit gave us because this will help us more in our understanding of how things operate. We need to respect these cycles and live in harmony with them.

Great Spirit, let me grow in knowledge of the circle.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Human dignity is that silent something in us that keeps from falling below the level where others look down on us to make light of our very existence. None of us exists who cannot sense to some degree the feeling that others hold for us. It may create in us a "show them" attitude that takes us through life more successfully, but it will more likely destroy our desire to be anything more than what is expected of us.

It is an appalling thing to see others impose their superiority upon human dignity of those whose literacy may not be equal to their own. Only profound ignorance could convince anyone they have the right to see and idly judge another's intelligence, or to insult the dignity of any human being.

The little silent people who have not yet discovered within themselves the abilities they need to lift themselves, still have the right and dignity of being human. A small amount of respect and direction might start them on the road to better things, though it might be all uphill. At least if they know it is all uphill they may work harder and reach and place where they can look back at those with lofty ideas about themselves, standing forever stagnant, and feel more compassion than they could ever have felt.
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January 27 - Daily Feast

Habit has its beginnings in thought. Whatever becomes second nature to us has first caught on in our thinking - only to operate, in time, without thinking at all. Breaking with deeply ingrained addictions is something else again. Since we were old enough to understand we have been bent to a certain thought, molded to act and react until we follow through habitually. If what we did gave us comfort or made us feel good, we did it again. We have to fight habit with habit, deliberately changing one thought, one action, for another. If we simply try to remove a habit without filling the vacuum, we are opening the door for more and worse to come in. It is harder when we let thought drift back to remember how we were comforted. There is more than one comfort, more than one joy in forming a new habit.

~ We bury them from sight forever and plant again the Tree. ~

DEKANAWIDAH, 1720

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 27

There is no death. "Only a change of worlds."

Buddy Red Bow, LAKOTA
The Elders tell us of the other dimension, the Spirit World. Our spirit in our bodies does not die, it only looks that way to our eyes and our brains. Some of our ceremonies allow us to see into the Spirit World. Death is only part of a process of life. It shows the transition into the Spirit World. The Elders tell us this is a joyful life journey.

My Creator, help me to understand both the seen world and the unseen world. Let me not be afraid of the world You live in.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There is much to be said of small things. Even in this age of emphasis on bigness we must realize that bigness is only a mass of small things. An idea is a small thing. With it we can change our world. We can take a tiny seed and give it careful attention and reap a hundred fold. We can take a little idea and give it our attention and build it into a fortune.

A smile is a small thing. Smile once at someone in passing and three will return the smile. Smiling is so contagious that it moves from person to person until a hundred smiling faces are the result of one.

A thought is a small thing. One thought inspires another and another until a mental image is formed. From that mental image blueprints are drawn. And from those blueprints worlds are built.

Hope is a small thing. One tiny glimmer of hope can lift us out of the deepest pit of darkness. One whisper of encouragement will help us to know that as long as there's hope there is an excellent chance.

A wish is a small thing. Like a little prayer, it climbs the steps to an idea that makes a smile and gives us hope to make our wishes come true. For in small things are all great things formed, in little beginnings the possibilities of great events.
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January 28 - Daily Feast

Speak to me of serenity, of treasures yet to be found, of peace that flows like a river. Tell me of tranquil places that no hand has marred, no storm has scarred. Give me visions of standing in sunlight or the feeling of spring mist against my cheek as I live and move and breathe. Show me paths that wind through the wild lilies and beds of buttercups. Sing me songs like the mingled voices of wrens and meadowlarks, the lowing of gentle cows, the soft mother-call of a mare to her colt. Lead me past a glass-smooth pond where frogs croak of coming-out parties, their graduation from frisky tadpoles to squat green frogs. Find me a place in the sunlight to sit and think and listen to the sweet inner voice that says so quietly, "Peace, be still."

~ To hi ge se s di ~

PEACE ON EARTH

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 28

"We call it the `sacred' red road because it is the road that will lead us to living the good life, an honest and healthy life."

--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

The Red Road is the path we walk on when we want a direct relationship with the Great Spirit. This requires sacrifice. This requires us to have our beliefs tested. To walk this path is really an honor. The returns for doing so are exciting, not only for ourselves but for the effect that will be felt for three generations. This means your children will see the benefits as well as your grandchildren. Do I want to walk this sacred road?

Great Spirit, guide myself and my family on the Red Road.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There may be many reasons why man wants to conquer the world, but there is something youthful and soul-stirring to be able to do it for somebody. Living within oneself is barren and shallow, lacking in warmth and without understanding. But where we can be outgoing and giving, the importance of others becomes doubly strong.

It is impossible to even be selfish without the help of others. Who would we take from, blame troubles on, resent, and criticize? But more important, who would care when we're ill, who would be happy when we're blessed, and who would love us when we least deserve it?

The world may be deluged with problems and solutions, laws to live by, formulas, fear, faith, and the everlasting struggle to survive in the face of others, but it is just as necessary to share laughter in happiness, to know God in a sunset, and to feel joy in a sunrise, all more beautiful because of others.

Victor Hugo wrote that the greatest happiness in life is in knowing that others love us, for ourselves, or rather, they love us in spite of ourselves.
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January 29 - Daily Feast

New life comes in only as we turn loose of the old. There must be a place for what we want or need. If there is not a place prepared, the new circumstances flow on by - and we are left with the same things we have always had. If we think we cannot bear to part with an old way of life, we are not ready to accept anything new. Instead we can make a personal decision, a firm commitment, to forget what is behind and push forward to what is ahead. Our mental and spiritual attitudes make room for new life when we set them in motion with our words. Nothing will overtake us, not love, not prosperity, not peace and joy - until we make a place for them and ask them to come in. Hope, alone, does not do it, but a firm decision for a new life will clear the way.

~ My people, before the white man came you were happy. You had many buffalo to eat and tall grass for your ponies - you could come and go like the wind. ~

WOVOKA

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 29

"We grieve more because we have been disconnected from our earth, our first Mother, our spiritual Mother."

--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

Where does all life come from? The Earth. Where does everything return to? The Earth. Where do values come them? The Earth. Many people are lost because they don't know the importance of connection to the Earth. They connect to money, to relationships, to success, to goals. When we are disconnected from the Earth, we have feelings of being sad or lost. When we are connected to the Earth, we feel warm and secure.

Great Spirit, help me to stay connected to the Mother Earth.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

"I owe no man anything but love" it is said. But what is love? Love is duty - whatever duty may require to accomplish a good thing.

Love is peace. One must not only be peaceful but contribute to the peace of others. Let there be peace and let it begin with me.

Love is sometimes pain. We must give up something that causes us pain because it is for the good of the greatest number.

Love is understanding. That others do not have to forever explain their actions to us. That we know their reasons without being told.

Love is courage. Courage to lead where one has the ability to lead. Courage to stand up for what one believes in and wants to live.

Love is faith. Faith in God, faith in self, and faith in others. Everyone is not above reproach, but we must have faith that the majority strives to be.

Coleridge wrote, "He prayeth best who loveth best," which seems to rule out all hollow and self-heard prayers. For those who truly love do not hear themselves only, or rule all life useless because they cannot love or pray.

Life can be as simple as love and prayer. Where the two mingle there can be no jealousy, resentment or fear.

Jealousy makes us compare our lot with another's. And there can be no comparison, for no two people are alike.

Resentment plunges an otherwise logical soul into despair and an endless journey of revenge.

And fear rushes us headlong into situations that detract, accidents that could be prevented, and long delays in reaching our goals.

But if we can, for a few moments, invite into our hearts a thing called love, then we can pray. And if we can pray we have the source of all answers to our aid.
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January 30 - Daily Feast

Waiting tests our grit and faith, and anything else we have on the line. We activate every nerve in us to move, to do something - and then we wait. But if we wait a little longer with patience and endurance, we will know what to do. During this period, we can stir up the gifts that are in us, encouraging ourselves to be strong and calm, to find a calm center in the midst of all the whirling debris around us. When we can wait with u li he li s di (joy), it connects us to the right things, puts us in the right place to receive. Joy is not of the emotions but of the spirit, and it can bubble up and grow in our weakest moments.

~ We have learned that though there are many papers in Washington upon which are written promises to pay us for our lands, no white man seems to remember them. ~

FOUR GUNS

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 30

"Bright days and dark days were both expressions of the Great Mystery, and the Indian reveled in being close to the Great Holiness."

--Chief Luther Standing Bear, SIOUX

The Great Spirit created a world of harmony, a world of justice, a world that is interconnected, a balanced world that has positive and negative, this way and that way, up and down, man and woman, boy and girl, honest and dishonest, responsible and irresponsible, day and night. In other words, He created a polarity system. Both sides are to be respected. Both sides or anything are sacred. We need to do good and we need to learn from our mistakes. We need to honor what takes place in the daytime and we need to honor what takes place in the nighttime. WE learn that we need to learn and we see what we are supposed to see by staying close to the Great Spirit. We need to be talking to Him all the time, saying "Grandfather, what is it you want me to learn?"

Great Spirit, let me learn today that all things are sacred. Help me stay close to You, my Creator.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Irritation, they say, is something gentle folk should never know. Always passive, they go along the way smiling, no matter what the cost to feelings. But have you ever tried to smile when all the street lights are red and someone honked loudly when you failed to move quickly enough.

Have you heard a politician slur the name of your candidate....and had a promise broken without so much as a faint explanation? Or perhaps the long explanations on how to do something you've done for years....and suddenly you want to make two lists of people you like and people you don't like?

And maybe you've answered the telephone and heard them hang up simply because your voice was not the right voice....Or had them stand back empty handed while you with your packages opened the door for them?

Well, it's no easy matter to be gentle folk and the mildest can get angry all over again by just thinking of an injustice. Perhaps it is trifling to let such little things irritate. But the best of us feel the small things that we never quite get over. We forgive and forget except to think about it occasionally, and then we must consider the words of Seneca, "Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it."

We live in a continual round of adjustments. It is usually an admirable thing to be able to make adjustments easily. Not many can. And, yet it makes us wonder at times if those who can so freely change and move without emotions have ever felt very deeply.

We tend to cling to familiar things and familiar customs. There is a great security in traveling a way we know by heart. The roughest road can usually be traveled without incident when we know every turn and bump.

It has been said by those who do scientific research that it takes at least three weeks to adjust to changes. But three months would do it more justice. And it must be done by abandonment, by setting aside for a period of time all things like the old way. Many times it is done not for ourselves alone, for it is foolish to believe a change involves only ourselves.

In our very complex way of life there is no situation to affect only one person. And often the most wonderful thing we can do for someone else is to find our own balance by making adjustments quickly, even in the middle of chaos.
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January 31 - Daily Feast

Sensible people do not get ruffled easily and are known to be reliable in a crisis. We want these stable people with us as friends and team members when the game is terribly important. We have heard the calm voice and felt the strong hand when our knees wobbled and our hands shook. It is easy to recall those who sustained us with their words, their caring. And sadly, we remember those who did not. Whatever common sense is, the heart has it, not the head. It is having the right priorities, knowing what is important, and giving as much as, or more than, we have received. Indians of old has this stalwart strength to stand like straight arrows to give support. They reached out to lift someone before they stopped to think whether he deserved it. The price is the same now as then - patience, love, loyalty - those things that seem so scarce.

~ I learned many English words....could recite some of the Ten Commandments....I knew how to sleep in a bed, pray to Jesus, comb my hair, use a toilet....I learned that a person thinks with his head instead of his heart. ~

SUN CHIEF, 1890

'A Cherokee Feast of Days', by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 31

"In sharing, in loving all and everything, one people naturally found a due portion of the thing they sought, while in fearing, the other found need of conquest."

--Chief Luther Standing Bear, SIOUX

There are two systems of thought that are available for us to choose from. One is the love-thought system and the other is the fear- thought system. If we choose love, we will see the laws, principles and values of the Creator. If we choose fear, the results will be so paralyzing that it will cause us to take over and not rely on the Great Spirit. The fear-thought system will automatically cause attack, conflict, need to control over others. The love-thought system seeks peace of mind, unity and causes us to be love seekers.

Great Spirit, today let me see only love.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Everyone is a collector of something. And everyone's collection looks peculiar to someone else. And yet, who knows why an item may have a certain appeal to one particular person. The shape, the color, the whole idea may have a hidden background, but it is most definitely there!

It may be old books, or magazines. Perhaps it is pill bottles, fishing hooks, or something "I may need someday when..." Who knows the reason old calendars continue to hang, and scraps of this and that may someday be just what I need.

But more dear than any of these are the happy thoughts we collect to use along the way. We can use them to cheer someone, to pass along a word of courage, a simple prayer, a smile. And when someone has time to share with us an experience that we may profit by the pain they felt - yes, these are collector's items. These priceless bits of life's fabric, woven by someone's cares and offered to us in hopes that it will help.

Whatever it is that we collect, we must never forget the dearest collections are the kindnesses, the thoughtful acts, the smiling faces that can be ours by giving the same.

What could be so priceless as true friendship? Friends for which time and space do not exist! It is written, "What a great blessing is a friend with breast so trusty that thou mayest safely bury all thy secrets in it, whose conscience thou mayest fear less than thy own; who can relieve thy cares by his counsels, thy sadness by his good humor, and whose very looks give thee comfort."

All of us have had many friends, but the special ones remain forever in our memories. The dearest are those who believe in us and are willing to trust us with their friendship.

We cannot force friendship. It is something mutually understood and silently accepted. It is our opportunity to demonstrate our very best selves - to as no questions and to pass no criticisms.

"Before us is a future all unknown, a path untrod;
Beside us a friend well loved and known -
That friend is God."