Daily Feast - January

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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."