Daily Feast - May

[bluidkiti]

MAY

Ana-Sku'tee
Planting Month

We, the old settlers here in council with the late emigrants, they are perfectly friendly toward us.....we have full confidence they will receive you with all friendship.

SEQUOYAH

May 1 - Daily Feast

A country road in May hums with activity. Bees comb the clover fields for nectar. Buttercups and dayflowers open to the sun and a mockingbird sets out to mimic every sound it has ever heard - even the baby chick. Wild onions and pink verbena share the space and the buttery blooms of buffalo peas nod in spring breezes. Only now the air has warmed to the sun and the plants and leaves of oaks grow so much overnight that the sky closes in like a cocoon. Now is the time to slow down and enjoy the minute changes as they come hourly, the scents, the roadsides filled with new plants, and the green hills and valleys. They come quickly, the di ga ne tli yv sdi, changes, that sometimes mature before we see the difference. If we are not careful, our clouded thought and vision shut it out until we have missed the best part.

~ This brings rest to me heart. I feel like a leaf after a storm, when the wind is still. ~

PETALASHARO

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 1

"All living creatures and all plants derive their life from the sun. If it were not for the sun, there would be darkness and nothing could grow—the earth would be without life."

--Okute, TETON SIOUX

This is why we call the sun, Father Sun. Father Sun shines life on Mother Earth and from this Father and Mother all life forms exist and continue to reproduce. The Sun shines on all; it is not selective. We should not allow anything to block the Sun from shining on the Earth. We must not pollute the air because the pollutants block the light of life to the Earth. If the Earth cannot receive this light, then life will start to be affected. We must live in harmony with the Sun and Earth. Otherwise, we are harming ourselves.

My Creator, give me the wisdom to live in harmony with all things.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There's a song that says "....it ain't necessarily so," and it certainly isn't! How often we accept someone's casual remarks as fact. Even appearances can be misleading. But, knowing this, we still have a tendency to take a thread and build a yard cloth.

It makes all the difference in the world when we believe. To simply accept an opinion, even our own when hastily formed indicates a lack of sound thought.

We sometimes have the failing of believing everything we hear. But it is far wiser to know with certainty, the facts about a teaching by looking at its followers.

The eyes and ears of our hearts and spirits are often more accurate in determining right from wrong than we can expect from normal hearing and seeing. However blessed we are to have our faculties, we are still in dire need of that sixth sense known as common sense.

Only the very foolish can close their eyes to truth and accept without question the many issues of life that face us daily. Surely we must form opinions and carry on, but we need those who have the ability to think clearly and truthfully. All else is merely opinion.
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May 2 - Daily Feast

It is true that if we get past this one hard place, all our problems will be solved? But each day has its share of such places - if not in our lives, then in the lives of those we care so much about. We are so interchangeably connected that whatever touches one of us touches us all. A ne lv to di, one strong effort, one day at a time, one step, one question, Are we reliable? Or do we get other people to cover our tracks so that we can go on doing what we want to do? When a hard spot, a habit, an addiction dogs our tracks, it is because we have not made up our minds to turn around and face it. Trying to make it acceptable only robs us of what we need most of all - to love ourselves and to respect ourselves. But we cannot do it alone. Only the Great Holy Spirit, and He alone, can give us the power.

~ The Great Spirit does right. He knows what is best for His children. ~

SENECA

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 2

"Think only about what is holy. Empty your mind."

--Archie Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

If we let our minds wander, we will come up with a lot of junk: maybe bad thoughts about a brother or sister, maybe angry thoughts, maybe self-pity thoughts. Our minds are not the boss. We can instruct our mind to think about whatever we want to think about. We cannot stop thinking, be we can choose what to think about. The Elders say we move towards what we think about. That's why they say, "Think about what is holy, think about the Grandfathers, think about culture, think about values, think about ceremonies, and think about good."

Great Spirit, today, empty my mind and let me experience what it would be like to think about what is holy.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

All things in sequence, first the bud and then the flower. We can no more hold back the blossom than we can the daylight. It is inevitably there, beautifully delicate and subject to crushing. Only through very careful tending will it withstand the winds and rain and pressures of the outside.

Sequence is the order of human life. God intended us to unfold as the flower: first the seed in fertile soil, the birth, the growth, the learning, the discoveries, the knowledge, the desires, the fulfillment as each phase of life follows its own sequence. We hold back the flowering of life only if we want it to be nonexistent, for it must progress. And in some of the most tender spots progression must be slow, easy, and reverently handled, for it can be as fragile as the flower.

There is within us a delicacy of thought which entwines itself throughout our beings, crossing from phase to phase, creating within us conflicts not easily understood. Something out of sequence in one phase may postpone the flowering of another phase. The very roots of our souls must be watered with reverence to successfully follow the sequence of life. If no other human understands or cares to understand, if we do, then continue - first the bud and then the flower.

Of all the intricate and complicated creations in the world, humanity occupies the first place. Our lives are made up of such flexuous combinations of body, soul, and spirit that we do not even understand ourselves.

We all desire to know what makes us tick and how to go about making ourselves tick better. Whether we realize it or not, we are in search of the truth of our own being. Why are we here? What step should we take next? One problem after another, questions after question brings us to this place again and again.

They are our personal problems and the wisest of persons cannot give us the answers. We will always need help to encourage us in our search, but we must go within ourselves to cure, to live, to feel, to believe.

We must win our own hearts before we can find happiness with others. We must know what we want and be willing to share it with others, for it is written that life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses win and preserve the heart.

English divine John Mason wrote these words, "By these things examine thyself: By whose rules am I acting: in whose name; in whose strength. In whose glory? What faith, humility, self-denial and live of God and to man have there been in all my actions?"
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May 3 - Daily Feast

Living catches up with us quickly when we let everything become drudgery. We stop learning. We quit looking with interest, and we stop being aware of our own needs and feelings. Everything becomes routine and nothing new is on the horizon. We blame far too much on age. Age has little to do with the blue fog we let settle over us and the things we usually care about. It is our lack of energy brought about by our lack of vision. A ga yv li, the elderly, are held in high regard in all Indian tribes. They have to remember so they can tell the young - and they would tell us to watch our mouths so not to speak negatively. They would tell us to renew our vision. They say our potential is unlimited and we will know when something or someone lights our candle.

~ What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night....it is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset. ~

CROWFOOT

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 3

"But I have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit."

--Walking Buffalo, STONEY

Nature is the greatest teacher on the Earth. Nature produces many different plants, animals, trees, rocks, birds, insects and weather patterns. Nature designed all these various things to grow and multiply while at the same time live in harmony with each other. We can learn a lot of we observe and study Nature's system of harmony and balance. Today, go sit on a rock and quietly observe and ask to be shown the lessons.

Great Spirit, Nature is my teacher. Today, let me be the student.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Are you one of those people who degrades yourself in idle conversation until it becomes a fact within your mind? Has it become your belief that this is true humility, talking down your abilities, hiding your light, refusing to accept your rights as a child of God as being meek and humble?

This thing called life is given to us for a purpose, never to downgrade; no more than we should blow it out of proportion by thinking too highly of ourselves.

Each life is important, each breath for a purpose, each moment a time for learning. Walt Whitman has written in Leaves of Grass: "Whoever you are! Motion and reflection are especially for you; the divine ship sails the divine sea for you. Whoever you are! You are he or she for whom the earth is solid and liquid, you are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky, for none more than you are the present and the past. For none more than you is immortality."

By our words we reveal our minds. It is so easy to refuse to be a channel through which the best can reveal itself. And it is so easy to forget that our song of life, as Whitman has written, "The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him. I swear the earth shall surely be complete to him or her who shall be complete!"

Human beings worry a great deal about what others think. It is a nagging worry that somehow the curtain that protects our privacy from the eyes of the world will suddenly drop and allow us to see all the things our pride has hidden.

Why is it that we seemingly need to be clever in order to handle the world? Why can't we just live honestly and openly, without scheming and trying to appear that we are something we are not? The world is so heavy laden with priggish pride that the clean simple truth is lost in playing it cool. Why can't we quit being something pent up inside and be something like sunshine or showers right out here where we can enjoy it or get over it?

Socrates said that the shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be. And we may just as well, because if there isn't a good cake under all that frosting, someone is going to know it anyway. To drop all pretense and say with genuine honesty, "This is the way I am" would be to find a whole new way of enjoying the simplicity of being ourselves.
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May 4 - Daily Feast

Little things speak to our hurts. Sounds, fragrances, music that would mean nothing to others, reach into our souls to do a work that the obvious could not touch. Simple remedies can heal the deepest ills - a smile, a contented whistle of a passerby, the sounds of birds twittering at dusk - these things warm us and give us hope. But we have to listen for voices, inner and outer, to give us rest - and turn away the negative talk, the negative circumstance. We don't always believe we have a choice - but we have more space there to work than we know. We can no longer scoff at the power to help ourselves. We have a bigger hand in it than imagined, and it is our decision to get down to business and be open to help and healing from unlikely sources.

~ Day and night cannot dwell together. Your religion was written on tables of stone, ours was written on our hearts. ~

SEATTLE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 4

"Dead -- I Say? There is not death. Only a change of worlds."

---- Chief Seattle, DWAMISH

There are two Worlds that exist. The Seen World and the Unseen World. Sometimes these worlds are called the Physical World and the Spiritual World. The Elders say, when it is time to go to the other side, our relatives will appear a few days before to help us enter the Spirit World. This is a happy place; the hunting is good; the place of the Grandfathers, the Creator, the Great Spirit, God, is a joyful place.

Grandfathers, today, let me look forward to the Spirit World. Bless all my Relations.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Is there ever a perfect time? A wise mother says there isn't. She advises us to take life by the hand and march right into the middle, and then start digging out the corners. She says not to wait for a perfect time to do anything, because a perfect time never quite makes it. We simply have to go ahead and make it as near perfect as possible.

A perfectionist is usually someone who can never find the perfect way, and gives up in futility. But the one who aims at perfection and does not wait for it, is at least moving and there's nothing useless about that. Unless we are moving, we resemble Tennyson's description: "Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, dead perfection; no more."

We have to face life, not under the pressures of perfection, but by pure faith. We have to go on accepting and rejecting as we come to each phase.

"For perfection does not exist," said eighteenth century writer Alfred de Musset. "To understand it is the triumph of human intelligence; to expect to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness."

In the rush of too much to do, we stack up for ourselves things we are going to do, things we ought to do, and things we intend to do. We do first the things of necessity, we take time to think a little about what we ought to do, and the rest is left to good intentions.

Frequently the good intentions hold the key to our happiness. While we bog down in the necessities of living, the things that mean so much slip away unnoticed. We always expect other people to know that we intended to do this or that, but we must realize that they cannot read our good intentions. Good intentions have the same look as nothing at all. And we have to draw our own conclusions as to what our thoughts and feelings are. Only if we express them can we ever hope for others to know what we would like to do, even though circumstances may hinder us.

It has been written that intelligent beings have what it takes to surpass themselves. By sensible thought we can actively express our good intentions and this opens the way for fulfillment.
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May 5 - Daily Feast

Remembering can be painful and sometimes without any real benefit. But much of the time it helps us move ahead like a spur that tells us not to tarry but to go on and do what we have to do. It is far too easy to carry around, a u s ga nv tsv, a false guilt, a wrong idea, to override our good memories. We lose sight of the positive things we have done and the happiness we have shared by recalling a thousand impossible wishes we wanted to come true. But it does no good to dwarf the present time because the past was not what we hoped it would be. We cannot help but recall things and times and people dear to us - but to remember them with pleasure does them more honor than to focus on what we did or couldn't do in the past.

~ Our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch of our ancestors as we walk over this earth. ~

SEATTLE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 5

"There are many things to be shared with the four colors of man in our common destiny as one family upon our Mother the Earth."

---- Traditional Circle of Elders, NORTHERN CHEYENNE

The Elders tell us the time will come when the four colors of Man will unite into one family. According to prophecies, we were told this would happen when the Sun was blocked in the Seventh Moon. There was an eclipse of the Sun in July, 1991. We are now in a new Springtime called the Coming Together Time. Each of the four colors of man has knowledge that the other colors need to heal their families. Let us all be willing to sit in a circle and respect our differences.

Creator, let me be willing to have an open mind.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Realizing that there is a multitude of wonderful things to appreciate, we must shake them all together in our minds and wait for the chosen ones to rise up the top like bubbles. Life is such a challenge, such a joy to live when it is appreciated. If we could only realize who gave is life, we would understand even more why the Creator intended us to appreciate and love all that is about us.

The things we can appreciate are never in any particular order, but mingled together as they are in our lives. We can so beautifully and joyfully appreciate the sound of our children's laughter when sudden happiness overtakes them; the tremendous and moving power of silent prayer; a strong voice singing a song of inspiration, or of sentiment; early morning sunrises, misty pink and fresh; a mockingbird singing out its heart in the depth of night; the touch of souls in understanding; violin music; and our children in prayer, in spells of delight, or in any other movement.

To name them all would be an impossibility, to live them all is a blessing. We must not pass these things by without appreciating them. We must not lose them by failing to give thanks. These are the things we always have near us, and we can appreciate them merely by attuning our senses to them.
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May 6 - Daily Feast

When we let down our guard, habit is waiting to reclaim its territory. It seems innocent and it is so familiar that we seldom suspect what teeth it has! Once we decide to change something, we can't expect to do it in one great sweep. What has taken us over by such tiny degrees must be edged out the same way. The fact that we are taking small steps does not minimize a very great commitment. Little by little, we reform our habits, making sure we leave no void for any other bad habit to fill. If we have, a ne lo at nv, made an effort or tried to change and failed, it is probably because we tried to do it along or denied the need to change. The Cherokees believes he needs, a u na li go sv, a help or a partnership, to give him support. It may be another, v da di lv quo at nv, a special or blessed person that is grounded in the Galun lati.

~ I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. ~

CHIEF JOSEPH

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 6

"We must remember that the heart of our religion is alive and that each person has the ability within to awaken and walk in a sacred manner."

---- Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

The Native Spirituality is full of life. When we seek it we become alive. Even if we have gone astray and have conducted ourselves in a bad way, we can look within and have a new awakening to life. Maybe we have drunk too much alcohol; maybe we have cheated on our spouse; maybe we have done things that make us feel guilty and ashamed. If we look outside ourselves, we will not find life; if we look inside, we will find life. Anytime we choose to change our lives, we only need to look inside. How do we do this? Take some sage and light it, close your eyes and say to the Great Spirit, I'm tired, I need your help. Please help me change.

Great Spirit, I know you exist inside of myself. Let me awaken to your teachings.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Henry David Thoreau, whose cry was "Simplify! Simplify!" went to great measures to prove to himself, and perhaps to society, that life could be lived in the most simple manner and at the least expense. With only a few dollars he managed to provide for himself the things of absolute necessity for quite a long period of time.

Not many of us would care to exist on the absolute necessities. We have become too much accustomed to easier living. Things that were once thought of as luxuries are now considered necessities. And yet, with all of this, life is anything but simple. We seem to have the ability to complicate the best laid plans and find ourselves shadow boxing.

Like many of the trite old adages, "Life is what we make it," is so true. By our own minds we accept of reject, by ignoring or by searching out the causes of shadows and removing the cause. It is whatever we elect to do about our individual lives that makes the difference. But we shall make great strides when we recognize the supreme excellence in all things of simplicity.

We don't need to worry about doing without the necessary things in life - if we have a grateful heart. A grateful heart is not just remembering to write a few words to someone who has done a kindness, or saying thank you graciously and at the right moment. A grateful heart is the feeling of great blessing which precedes that thank you note and that verbal expression.

A grateful heart is one that always known the fullness of that rich feeling of first being grateful without cause. And then, all other gratitude and its expression comes naturally.

Perhaps true gratitude is a grateful thoughts toward heaven that I should be chosen to fill this spot, do this work, and have been given the strength to do it.

It was Romaine, the English theologian, who said, "Gratitude to God makes even a tempered blessing a taste of heaven." We can have so much more heaven with a grateful heart.
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May 7 - Daily Feast

If we ignore everything beautiful and look down the road to some future time, chances are it will be the same. This is the time, the e to a, the now, the present, to see the dearness of other people, the chance to be grateful - to enjoy. Why wait? Perfect times are elusive. They create an atmosphere that life should be lived on some high emotional level instead of experiencing love. Time goes by. The peaks were not what made life worthwhile - but the in-between times that gave us a chance to stand in the quiet of a wooded glen, even if it is just in our hearts, and know that love made it all worthwhile. Love will continue to make each a giant of peace in our souls.

~ I want to tell you if the Great Spirit had chosen anyone to be chief of this country, it is myself. ~

SITTING BULL

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 7

"We must all become caretakers of the Earth."

---- Haida Gwaii Traditional Circle of Elders

Mother Earth is the source of all life. We should not only be concerned about the part of the Earth we live on, but we should be concerned about the parts of the Earth that other people live on. The Earth is one great whole. The trees in Brazil generate the air in the Untied States. If the trees are cut in Brazil, it affects the air that all people breathe. Every person needs to conscientiously think about how they respect the Earth. Do we dump our garbage out of the car? Do we poison the water? Do we poison the air? Am I taking on the responsibility of being a caretaker of the Earth?

Great Spirit, today, I will be aware of the Earth. I will be responsible.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Today I heard the laughter of children at play. Their voices filled the air almost like chimes. And I felt their arms about my neck and their sticky kisses on my face. How blessed I am! Today I heard a mockingbird trilling out every single song it ever heard from its winged friends. I closed my eyes and in the trees I heard all the voices I've heard since childhood, and it took me through all the happy, breathless, precious times I loved so much.

Today I heard my mother's voice calling to me happily. It was a good, strong, healthy voice that has called to me courage, and hope and peace, and shall continue to call down many lanes to me.

Today I heard my child's voice. I heard her singing, I heard her praying, I heard her laughing and talking. I heard her teasing and moving from place to place in all the activities I love to see her in.

Now, even more than ever I realize how grateful I am that God has given me the excellent faculty of hearing. I shall with all diligence try to hear nothing evil, but only love and peace which is my heritage.

[bluidkiti]

May 8 - Daily Feast

There is something very good about suppertime. Suppertime is more than just a time to eat - it is warm with happy memories. A few sunny hours to run barefoot after school, a time of homecoming and hearing what everyone else did during the day. Suppertime means watching Grandmother make, digalvnhi, Cherokee grape dumplings, and hearing her sing as she worked. A day, a time, an hour never stands on its own, but is bolstered by all those hours that have gone before. Nothing is ever lost - not even the simplest things - for time enhances what has been dear to us. We tend to look back and think something no longer exists. But it does, in all the lovely hours that wait for us - like suppertime - like singing in the kitchen and warm bread baking. This is not just memory, it is sharing life.

~ We do not want riches, we want peace and love. ~

RED CLOUD

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 8

"Anyways, with medicine there's a time and a place for everything. It only comes around once. You have to get it at the right time."

---- Cecilia Mitchell, MOHAWK

The old ones say two things must be present for a miracle to take place. One, the right time. Two, the right place. This is why we need to honor our ceremonies. Ceremonies are done in an order. This order is applied to open a "door" to the right time and place of the medicine. This door opens to the Spiritual World. The Spiritual World is available to us at the right time and the right place.

My Creator, let me be patient today so the timing is right.

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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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May 9 - Daily Feast

Sentences half spoken and beyond total hearing are the source of difficulty. Only in the bright light of reason and understanding can these cloudy mishaps be corrected. Some are simply tuned to hear the negative - even when it was never intended to be. They hear with an ear that is already bent toward trouble and only too willing to pass it on. We might consider what we want to hear - because everyone has moments when words tumble out with little meaning. Whether it is a slip of the tongue or simply filling in a quiet spell, we are sometimes guilty of speaking when we should have been listening. The tongue is a little member and sometimes kindles quite a fire when it should spit on the matches.

~ We are becoming like them.....all talkers and no workers. ~

BLACK HAWK

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 9

"Without a sacred center, no one knows right from wrong."

---- Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

In the center of the circle is where the powers reside. These powers are called love, principle, justice, spiritual knowledge, life, forgiveness and truth. All these powers reside in the very center of the human being. We access these powers by being still, quieting the mind. If we get confused, emotionally upset, feel resentment, anger, or fear, the best thing we can do is pray to the Great Spirit and ask Him to remove the anger and resentment. By asking Him to remove these obstacles, we are automatically positioned in the sacred center. Only in this way do we know right from wrong.

Great Spirit, allow me this day to live in the sacred center.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Have you even 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 there 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 was 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 to 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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May 10 - Daily Feast

We are complex combinations of many things. Mind, body, and spirit, yes, but with all the height and depth and feeling that make up the three. If one of these is not kept in shape and made to be harmonious with the others, we are out of balance. There is almost always more interest in one part rather than seeing the necessity of developing the whole person. What reading a book is to one person equals running a mile to another. It is natural to do what pleases us and makes us feel worthy. The Cherokee claims that if you, tso tle s di, sit down all the time or are idle in mind and spirit, the whole, I ya dv ne li da s di, complex system, suffers. Once upon a time, Indian dancing served the whole person, worshiping, exercising, and activating the mind. True fitness requires it all.

~ We work as hard as you do! Did you ever try skinning a buffalo? ~

OURAY, UTE CHIEF

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 10

"When you go inside that power, there's no fear. It's so beautiful!! There's no fear there. There's no pain."

---- Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

Imagine you are standing on the edge of a stage. In the center of the stage is a spotlight shining from above. If you stand anyplace outside the spotlight, in the darkness, you will experience fear. But as soon as you step into the light in the center of the stage, all fear and pain go away. When we stand in the power, fear cannot exist. How do we find this place of power? We pray our way into it. We ask the Creator to take our hand and help us. When we get to that place, we will feel the fear go away.

Great Spirit, hold my hand and guide me today.

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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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May 11 - Daily Feast

Honeybees that relied on early flowers in the garden can now feast all across the meadows. Red clover, honey locust trees, and rose-colored Indian paintbrush abound in clusters to feed the bees and give peace to the eye. An evening chorus of field sparrows trills in the wheat field and a nesting killdeer demands privacy by doing her broken-wing act to sidetrack walkers. The whole meadow teems with activity until dusk - and then a silence pervades, only to be broken by the throaty voice of the tree toad. It is common knowledge among the Cherokee that every animal, except man, knows the main business of life is to enjoy it, and he, the Cherokee, sides with nature.

~ Seed time is here but your grounds have not been prepared for planting. Go back and plant the summer's crop. ~

KEOKUK, 1832

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 11

"[The Old People] would gather words as they walked a sacred path across the Earth, leaving nothing behind but prayers and offerings."

---- Cleone Thunder, NORTHERN ARAPAHOE

Whenever we walk on the Earth, we should pay attention to what is going on. Too often our minds are somewhere else, thinking about the past or thinking about the future. When we do this, we are missing important lessons. The Earth is a constant flow of lessons and learning, which also include a constant flow of positive feelings. If we are aware as we walk, we will gather words for our lives, the lessons to help our children; we will gather feelings of interconnectedness and calmness. When we experience this, we should say or think thoughts of gratitude. When we do this, the next person to walk on the sacred path will benefit even more.

My Creator, today, let me be aware of the sacred path.

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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 son 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 a 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 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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May 12 - Daily Feast

Country people do not find it strange to hear the pond is turning over. They know it is not doing a flip but everything that has fallen in it suddenly comes to the top. It is nature's way of cleaning house. It isn't pretty but it does work. The whole pond of human affairs needs to turn over at times. When everything seems to happen at once, friends disagree, and coworkers are suddenly mired in stuff from the bottom of the pond, it is time to clean house. It isn't always, u wo du hi, beautiful or pretty, but it does work. The best part is that it doesn't last long. Everything rights itself with time - for a while. It helps to know that when something unclean falls in the water, eventually the pond will turn over to get rid of it. It just takes time.

~ We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other. ~

GERONIMO

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 12

"All the stones that are around here, each one has a language of its own. Even the earth has a song."

---- Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

To believe that every tree, plant and insect can talk takes an open mind. Go by yourself into nature and sit quietly. Then pick up a rock and listen to your thoughts. After a while, put that rock down and pick up another rock. Your thoughts will change. These are the voices and wisdom of the Stone People. Each one has different wisdom and they are willing to share their wisdom with you. Many of the Stone People are very old and very wise.

Great Spirit, let every rock and leaf be my teacher.

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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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May 13 - Daily Feast

Sometimes it takes another person standing on the outside of our emotional problem to do for us what we can't seem to do for ourselves. We need those who can see beyond appearances and will let us lean on them until we are in control again. It isn't the Cherokee's natural bent to discuss a problem openly with anyone. Silence is not only golden, it is safer and does nothing to make a problem grow as he believes talking will. But he knows the time, the place and the right person will avail themselves to him, and then he can talk. It isn't that we fear showing a weakness, but that we know the power of the word to make matters worse if we talk in a negative way about our needs. Even prayer should not be to reiterate our wants. Yoweh knows what we need. He waits for our adoration and thanksgiving that the needs are already provided for.

~ There is a dignity about the social intercourse of old Indians which reminds me of a stroll through a winter forest. ~

COCHISE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 13

"But the great spirit has provided you and me with an opportunity for study in nature's university, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and the animals which include us."

---- Walking Buffalo, STONEY

What we really need to learn is how to live life. Nature is the greatest university when we want to learn about balance, harmony, the Natural Laws and how to live life. But we will never learn unless we spend time in the "living university." Nature is full of examples, lessons, and exercises about life. Nature will help humans learn. Nature will help humans heal. Nature will help with Medicine, knowledge and healing. The reason our Elders are so wise is because they have attended the right educational system - nature's university.

Great Spirit, help me to become wise.

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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 shelter.

Until 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," reveal, after all, that patience does its perfect work.
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May 14 - Daily Feast

How many times she called me to her side to share something beautiful - the glowing embers in a sunset, the call of a whippoorwill, or one of those rare moments when Venus draws near the new moon. How many times she held my hand to comfort me through hope and fear, birth and death, happiness and unhappiness. How many times she taught me that no one is ever alone. We are always in the presence of Father-God who loves us - no matter what might appear to frighten us. How many times she said, "You can do it!" and how many times she refrained from saying, "You'll never make it." And how many blessings I wish upon her - my mother!

~ I will come with my family and pitch my lodge in your camp, that others may see....you are under my protection. ~

EAGLE WING

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 14

"Prayer is the best answer to all of the trials that face us, because without prayer, even if we succeed in accomplishing some great goal in the eyes of men, we have failed in our sacred responsibilities, and thus we have failed in what is truly important."

--Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

What are our sacred responsibilities? One is to be of maximum service to the Creator, and two is to serve the people. In a way, it's like the Great Spirit is the employer and we are the employees. We live each day, do what we do, accomplish our goals, face our difficulties, overcome them all to the Glory of the Creator. We do these things to make Him proud! Even if we work for a company, agency or tribe, they are nor really our employer; the Creator is our employer. Working for the Creator is better than working for a human being, because each night we can talk to the Creator and ask Him, "Well, how did I do today?" He answers back each night, "I'm proud of you, my child; sleep well, and in the morning I'll give you a new set of growing experiences."

Great Spirit, today, let me work for you. You will be my new boss.

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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, something, 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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May 15 - Daily Feast

Our willingness to work at whatever we can opens doors to new opportunities. Willingness breathes life into us and gives us vision. Hope is good but determination is even better. It sets the tone to move, to do the thing set out for us. And we can do anything when we do not stop to consider what if we were to fail, or what is we are not appreciated. Cherokee women were never considered inferior to the men. They were honored and respected and educated themselves so they could teach their children. It meant hard work and determination to perfect what they could so they could pass it on. Sometimes, the main objective of our work is not just to prosper us but to do a worthwhile thing well. We keep labor on a high level, never taking the easy way out. There is honor in work - even in the most menial job. Success is short-lived when the work is done for appearances.

~ If our children should visit this place.....they may see and recognize with pleasure the deposits of their fathers. ~

SHARITARISH

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 15

"We must have respect and understanding for women and all female life on this Earth which bears the sacred gift of life."

--Traditional Circle of Elders. ONONDAGA

At a gathering of Native Elders we were told that many men of today had lost their ability to look at the Woman in a sacred way. They said we were only looking at Her in a physical sense and had lost the ability to look at Her sacredness. They said the Woman has a powerful position in the Unseen World. She has the special ability to bring forth life. They told us to start showing Her respect and to look upon her in a sacred manner. We must start this today.

Grandfather, show me how to see in a sacred 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 make 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.

[bluidkiti]

May 16 - Daily Feast

There is a chance that a decision we make will lead us into battle, an inward and an outward battle against our own will and against the negative flow of the world in general. A cherished goal challenges us that we cannot do it - we can't possibly do what smarter people have tried and failed to do. But chances are we have a source of wisdom that others may not have had, though everything points to their advantages over ours. Maybe we have a source that is more reliable, that no weapon formed against us can prosper. Chief John Ross taught the Cherokees to be persistent. Not a moment could be wasted in apathy, but we had to be there with muscles and mind toned and ready. The tribe's willingness to follow through with honor and integrity helped us to survive.

~ Our cause is with God and good men, and there we are willing to leave it. ~

CHEROKEES

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 16

"It's time. If you are to walk the path of heart, then it is time..."

--Nippawanock, ARAPAHOE

If not now, when? If not me, who? To walk the path of the heart is a great honor. Every human has the choice to walk this path, but very few will decide to make it. Why? Well, because you can't act and behave like everyone else behaves. You must be the person who will learn to look within. You must be the person who will be fully accountable for yourself. You must be the person who prays and meditates. You must be the person who will sacrifice. You must decide to be a Peaceful Warrior. What will you decide today?

Oh, Great Mystery, lead me on the path of the heart.

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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 desires 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 give 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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May 17 - Daily Feast

It is useless to put a warped container inside a good one in hopes of straightening it. It only spoils the good one. The stuff they are made of has to be workable if either is to be saved. We can be affected, even encouraged by outside influences, but real change is from the inside. It is possible to wait a long time for a situation to change so that we can change. It won't happen. We have to change first - our thoughts, our attitudes, and very often, our reasons. If we are ever to be totally free of, u tso a se di, the Cherokee expression for miserable or unhappy circumstances, we will have to remold our own human spirit to the will of the Great Spirit. It is the only help that is not based on money or dependency on someone else who is equally weak.

~ Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and learn to hear my feeble voice. ~

BLACK ELK

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 17

"If the Great Spirit wanted men to stay in one place He would make the world stand still; but He made it to always change..."

--Chief Flying Hawk, OGLALA SIOUX

The Elders tell us change occurs in two directions. They say, "That which is built is constantly being destroyed; that which is loose is being used to build the New." In other words, change is constantly going on. Many times we hear people say, "I hate change." Does it make sense that the Great Spirit would design people to hate it? The Great Spirit designed people with change abilities such as visioning, imagery and imagination. Maybe we need to learn to use these tools and then we'll look forward to change.

Great Spirit, today, let me see the harmony of Yours, truly changing world.

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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 of 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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May 18 - Daily Feast

Have we lost control of who we are? Have we allowed ourselves to get in a position of little or no control - believing that we must forfeit bits and pieces of who we are to get along? The one weapon against us that has the total respect of the world is the business of weight loss. Never have so many fought so long to lose so little. Think of the dollar value put on a pound of flesh - the hype, the remorseful tears, the acceptance that we cannot control our eating. Though overindulging in anything is dis-ease, it is not disease. It is the silent enemy, the spirit of destruction that the Cherokee calls, u so nv I, which is not good but downright evil. It is the enemy with no power except subliminal suggestion. But enter the Great Holy Spirit, and its great roar is but a pip-squeak. We have to care, but we also need to know the truth to be free.

~ When the Great Father sent out men to our people, I was poor and thin,; now I am large and stout and fat. It is because so many liars have been sent.....and I have been stuffed full of their lies. ~

RED DOG, 1870

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 18

"...Grandmother the Earth. That power is here all the time. It is continuous, and nobody controls it."

--Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

There are certain powers that the human being has no choice but to obey. We cannot negotiate or barter with this power. Our choice is either to conform or to live out of harmony. Whatever our choice, it will be the end result in our lives that we notice. So it is with the powers of the Earth which produce life. The Earth has the life force power. If anyone plants a seed, the seed will grow. The Earth treats everyone equally. The human cannot interfere, only obey. We should all show great respect for the Earth and Her powers.

Great Spirit, today, let me honor and respect the power of the Grandmother, the Earth.

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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 importance that would never be missed in anyone's existence.
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May 19 - Daily Feast

If there is one thing that scares us, it is the thought that any part of life has been wasted. We look back and ask why we let it happen - what was so important that it could steal our youth, our strength, our capacity to be somebody - to just be happy. Is it too late to begin again? Never. It may be with a different set of rules, a standard of values that has changed drastically, but begin again? Yes, Many have started over and have had more happiness and contentment in a short time than in all of what is known as the wasted years. Anyone who has ever traveled a trail of tears wishes they had known then what they know now. But we did not know, and life is not lived by hindsight. We did what we knew to do - sometimes with great ignorance. But if we know the difference now and want to begin again - then why not? And why not now?

~ Years of trial and anxiety, of danger and struggle, have maintained the ....Cherokee people as a distinct community....and such must continue. ~

CHIEF JOHN ROSS

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 19

"To be able to greet the sun with the sounds from all of Nature is a great blessing, and it helps us to remember Who is the real provider of all of our benefits."

--Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

The Elders say we should pray to the East every morning. Just try it! Get up early in the morning, watch the sun and listen to the morning sounds, the birds, the winds; smell the air, feel the breeze and the warmth of the sun. Your mid will expand and you will experience oneness with the Great Spirit. You'll realize who is really in charge. You'll realize an interconnectedness. You'll realize how much the Creator loves you! Just try it!

Great Spirit, today, let me feel the Earth, the Father Sun and your presence.

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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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May 20 - Daily Feast

Many of us would gladly take the responsibility of hurt for those we love. We feel we would be more capable of bearing it, more apt to handle it. We want to leave them as unscathed and near perfect as possible. But we cannot take some people's problems. They must use their own strength and learn what is true and false in living. Not so different from us, they might not take the wisest steps. It many also be hard for them to believe that our experiences have ever been as wretched as their own. It is difficult not to cry with those we love. Our hearts cry, even when frustration makes our faces stern and stoic. But we have to allow other people to put down their feet and take a stand. How can they become strong in their own right if we try to be in their legs?


~ Sometimes we prayed in silence; sometimes each one prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us....and to Usen. ~

GERONIMO

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 20

"...the sacred ceremonies given to us by the Creator are the Heart of our existence. These ceremonies are our first duty."

--Traditional Circle of Elders. NORTHERN CHEYENNE

Hidden in the ceremonies are many truths, many principles, many guidelines for living - our access to the Unseen World, healing and visions. Because the Indian People didn't have schools or books, the Great Spirit gave us Ceremonies. The ceremonies are handed down from generation to generation to learn their meaning. Today, many Indian People live in cities or urban areas where it's hard to learn the ceremonies. We need to go to the Elders and learn the ceremonies so we can pass them on to our children.

Great Spirit, teach me the Secrets of the Ceremonies.

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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 Fables? 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 the lion 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."
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May 21 - Daily Feast

Many are gamblers without knowing it. They demand their right to do something - even when it is not expedient. We can insist on our right to turn at the stoplight, but if someone else has never heard of our right and takes his chances at going through, it is dangerous business. Having rights holds only of the responsibility of them goes with it. Sometimes a right is a privilege we don't dare demand. The Cherokee calls this, u na du da lv, acting in a way that is mature and careful of others. Some people tend to believe they are above the basic rules of living. But when life drops a rock on the one who so freely takes advantage, it can be a well-deserved rock. It reminds us to stay within the limits of everything from good taste to common sense.

~ The good road and the road of difficulties you have made me cross; and where they cross the place is holy. ~

BLACK ELK

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 21

"A vision could put you on a path you don't want to follow."

--Archie Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

There is a saying, "You move toward and become like that which you think about." If we keep thinking about a bad thing, we will move in that direction. If we think about fear in some area of our life, we will probably experience this fear. We move toward and become like that which we think about. If we think about secret things, these secret things will come to pass. Our visions are very powerful. Visions determine our direction, our lives. If you think about lustful things, it's a matter of time before you'll be wrestling with it. We should think about our visions to make sure they include the Great Spirit in every area.

Great Spirit, today, give me Your vision to follow.

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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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May 22 - Daily Feast

The past is to be respected for its rich store of experience - mistakes and all - believes the Cherokee. In it are all the trials and wisdom of our elders, the timeless suffering and seasoning that came to us with a brave front. But we, with less experience and far less wisdom, question why they did certain things. We have only to look at our own recent history to know that many circumstances come in to dictate some of what happened. We do not relate it to our offspring word for word - why we did something, wise or unwise. It is better they take what we have learned and build on it. The young have a tendency to see themselves far more shrewd and able than their elders. But one day, they too will see and understand the patterns that have been laid down. They will forgive and hope to be forgiven for not being miracle workers. The fact that we are here with a load of experience and wisdom behind us speaks positively of the past.

~ Grandfathers, Great Spirit, you have given me the cup of living water, the sacred bow, the power to make life and to destroy it. ~

BLACK ELK

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 22

"The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was... The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it..."

--Chief Joseph, NEZ PERCE

There is danger when we start to draw lines and boundaries. This is true whether outside ourselves or inside ourselves. The danger is losing sight of the interconnectedness. When we lose sight of interconnectedness, separation, possessiveness ( this is mine, I can do what I want) and infighting results. Even at an individual level, if we don't believe we are connected to all things we get self-centered and have self-seeking motives. We must think in harmony, balance and integrity. We must see our relationship to the great whole and conduct ourselves accordingly.

Great Spirit, today, let me think beyond boundaries.

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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 fist 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 experiences and knowledge that will hurry in to help. But only after we've admitted the need for it.
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May 23 - Daily Feast

Pride so often makes it hard for us to ask forgiveness. Instead of saying we are sorry for a mistake, it is easier on the pride to pretend it did not happen and quickly change our behavior. Words are important in love and forgiveness - and courage. It is good to hear them - better to speak them. Forgiveness is not just to make someone else feel better about us but to help us think better of ourselves. To make amends, set things straight,is go tlv so di, to change - not just outwardly for effect but inwardly for good reason. When we forgive someone we stop resenting them. It takes a little while longer to forget - and even longer to forgive ourselves for having been so foolish.

~ We want to keep peace. Will you help us? ~

CHIEF RED CLOUD, 1870

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 23

"To me, if you're Indian, you're Indian. You don't have to put on your buckskin, beads, and feathers, and stuff like that."

--Cecilia Mitchell, MOHAWK

The most important thing that determines who we are is on our insides, not our outsides. If we are Indian inside, that's all that matters. Being Indian means to think right, to be spiritual and to pray. Feathers and beads don't make us Indian. Being Indian means to have a good heart and a good mind.

Great Spirit, today, let me think Indian.

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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 human 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 am 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.

[bluidkiti]

May 24 - Daily Feast

A thick layer of doubt like fog across the hilltops, can shut out the light. Without light, we are depleted of energy and vitality - and eventually hope. An elderly Cherokee woman said, "It is true that the Cherokee suffered when their houses and gardens and very way of life were taken from them. We loved the land and trees and treated them as family. It was not the Great Holy Spirit that caused it. It was the, a s ga na (wickedness) of the world." It seems that no good time exists when we can despair. The Cherokees still dance - but to the Great Spirit in gratitude, the way David danced before the Lord. And it is high time we shout and clap our hands right in the face of trouble.

~ You have said to me....that I could send out a voice four times....and you could hear me. Today I send a voice for a people in despair. ~

BLACK ELK

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 24

"...in Tunkashila, there is no time. Everything moves in the blink of an eye. It's as fast as thought. So there is no speed there. There is no time in between."

--Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

There is a relationship between thought and reality. Every thought is alive, and as soon as you think it a result occurs immediately. However, to make something happen it may take a series of 1,000 thoughts before you can actually see it with your eyes. This occurs because the Laws of the Great Spirit act immediately. When you tell a lie, you immediately experience fear. When you tell the truth, you immediately experience freedom. To the Creator, there is no time. For us to experience the meaning of this requires us to act on faith. Faith is belief without evidence.

Great Spirit, today, let me act on my faith.

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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 the emotions that rule 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 also 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 the voice that yells all the time. One declares itself to be the victim of great injustice, the other yells to demand justice.

Those who believe themselves to be the victims 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 circumstances are easily recognized, and do not care to be noticed as such. And those who tell 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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May 25 - Daily Feast

Greatness is in having a purpose - not in just having a personality. Purpose shapes personality, not the other way around. Chief Joseph, Chief John Ross, and Sitting Bull were all great leaders, but their central purpose was even greater. Every seed of knowledge, every ounce of wisdom, was to lead and guide their people. They were constantly reminded of how much was yet to be learned. When a purpose and a goal stand for the good of the people, it carries a seed of greatness. In its simplicity it has no time for constant limelight, but only to accomplish more and reach farther. In areas of service, doing something to help other people humbles willing workers. They know they only scratch the surface of what there is to do - and unbelievable barriers are set in their way by ignorant people.

~ We are peaceful, we are not aggressive. In this lies our strength. ~

AN INDIAN ELDER

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 25

"If you listen close at night, you will hear the creatures of the dark, all of them sacred - the owls, the crickets, the frogs, the night birds - and you will hear beautiful songs, songs you have never heard before. Listen with your heart. Never stop listening."

--Henery Quick Bear, LAKOTA

The night time is full of life, full of song and full of beauty. Have you ever gone outside at night and listened? One has access to serenity and peace. At night all our senses change their roles. Because we can't see, our hearing is much stronger, our smell is even more enhanced, our sight is different. We are able to join nature through sounds and smells, through the songs of the night birds and through the night winds. We can close our eyes and experience interconnectedness in a different way. Try it tonight and experience oneness with the Creator.

Great Spirit, allow me to listen to the teachers of the night.

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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 illnesses, 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 the heavy and weary weight of all this unintelligible world, is lightened"....because we've been forgiven.
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May 26 - Daily Feast

Does a child look at an older person and say, "I want to be just like you?" Not usually. More than likely they say to themselves that they hope they are doing better than what they see when they reach the same age. It is a fear thought. Time is getting away and this is what I fear I will be. We are one with other people, we need each other, but we are not all destined to be exactly alike. Common sense and individuality were put in us when we were created - not to be idle but to be used. Why give in to every negative suggestion when all we have to do is tell ourselves it is not, and never will be, acceptable. Tradition is strong in the Cherokee family. Old ones are thought wise and they are respected. But we are all individuals with different gifts that are enhanced by heritage.

~ We never made any trade. Part of the Indians gave up their lands; I never did. The earth is a part of my body, and I never gave up the earth. ~

TOOHULHULSOTE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 26

"The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization."

--Luther Standing Bear, OGLALA SIOUX

There is a concept that says you move toward and become that which you think about. If we think about everything as interconnected and interrelated, we will begin to accept the greater whole and that there is a power who is in charge. If we see the cycles of life, if we see the inner powers, if we see the interdependence of the universe, then we will participate in a harmonious way. We all need to pray and meditate on this. We need to understand the property of unity.

My Creator, let me have the insights of nature and give me the power of acceptance.

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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 above 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 may exist without love, and that is common; for 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 breed rejection while maturity and understanding keep us safely within the bounds of permissiveness rather than possessiveness.
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May 27 - Daily Feast

Suddenly the hour is gone - and it is anybody's guess what we did with it. Did we enjoy anything? U li lo hv s gi, pleasant times are for a purpose, the Cherokee believes. It is not just u wo tiv di, something to amuse us, but pleasure slows the heart, lowers the blood pressure, and gives ease to the mind. Something beyond the awareness tries to slow the human spirit from living so intensely. It is not natural to push the mind and body until such weariness takes over that there is no natural relief. A pause, a a Tsa we so lv s di, which means a reprieve or rest, will give us strength and renewed vision. Without it, we are burned out and we enjoy nothing.

~ Lots of us may not have learned yet....we all have brains and are anxious to work. ~

ASA DAKLUGIE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 27

"One of the things the old people taught me about the spirits was to never have a doubt."

--Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

The spirit world is sometimes hard to believe in because we can't see it. Out minds convince us to seek proof for everything. We need to believe that the Unseen World exists and the Unseen World is guided by principles, laws and values. If we have doubts, we can pray to the Great Spirit to remove the doubt. He understands how difficult it can be sometimes, so He's always ready to help us during our doubtful times. We are lucky to have such an understanding and helpful Father.

Great Spirit, today, divorce me from doubt.

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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 in an accusation. It is shaking in 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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May 28 - Daily Feast

Too much is learned that adds nothing to life. With the advent of "tell it like it is" the flow of troubled water washed in a mountain of debris. The unlearned feel it necessary to empty their garbage into the ears of other people without considering whether anyone wants to hear it. U yo tsv hi, the Cherokee calls it - not music, not poetry, not gracious words - but pure trash. The container may be new and shiny and touched with bits of colorful paint - but inside is the same old decaying, ga da ha, (spoken with disgust), and the word is filth. Little things reveal much about a person - but none more than what he talks about, what he laughs at, what he finds amusing - or even helpful. No matter how beautiful or handsome - the tongue tells all.

~ Yesterday I heard something that made me almost cry. ~

LITTLE WOUND

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 28

"The land is a sacred trust held in common for the benefit of the future of our nations."

--Haida Gwaii - Traditional Circle of Elders

The Creator made the Earth to support life so that life would continue to reproduce, everything would support one another, and future generations would have the same benefits of supply and beauty as the generations the proceeded them. This cycle will only continue to the degree that we make choices and decisions for the future generations. Today, we are too greedy and selfish. We are cheating our children, grandchildren and the children unborn.

Creator, let me see the consequences of my decisions, and show me how to make healthy corrections.

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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 the 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.
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May 29 - Daily Feast

Little is more symbolic to the Cherokee than a crystal-clear flowing stream. The banks of such a stream have known the most meaningful prayers, the worship and gratitude of the innermost soul. It is here that the Great Spirit speaks to us in supernatural ways, a da to li s to di, for the Cherokee. The stream not only cleans and washes away wrong and error but it is the tongue over which slip the words that have been fed there by the last rain. The words are a direct form of communication to the Great Holy Spirit, Who so centers our lives. All rivers run to the sea - whether it is a person's life or the flowing stream. Some of it is turbulent, some peaceful - with depths and shallow places, with swift mainstreams and circling eddies. But it is always moving, always gathering into its flow the experiences that make us who we are.

~ The springs....to bathe in them gives new life; to drink them cures every bodily ill. ~

CHEROKEE WISDOM

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 29

"Humility is probably the most difficult virtue to realize."

--Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

Two definitions of humility are (1) being aware of one's own defects of character, and (2) giving credit where credit is due. This means if you do something and are successful because God gave you certain talents, give credit to God when someone tells you how well you did; this is being humble. If you are successful at something, but had help from friends, spouse, neighbors, give credit to those who helped you; this is being humble. If you have done a task and you alone accomplished it, give credit to yourself; this is being humble. Say the truth and give credit where credit is due.

Grandfather, let me walk a truthful road today.

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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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May 30 - Daily Feast

When we have lived a long time with trouble we learn to recognize it a long way off. Sometimes it hides behind the look of serenity, sometimes in laughter - but nearly always in the way a person jokes. It takes some understanding, some go li s di yi, some recognition or reckoning, to sense the pain that is so well hidden. In such cases, it often takes one to know one. We need each other. This unusual ability to see and form a kinship with another person makes us friends and loving partners. We have to be true to ourselves, to keep a part of the innermost heart sacred. A friend knows and respects in us what he, himself, must have as well.

~ I speak straight and do not wish to deceive or be deceived. ~

COCHISE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 30

"Power comes and goes. It can vanish in the twinkling of an eye, like smoke dissolving in the air."

--Archie Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

The East, South, West and North are the powers of the four directions. The Creator makes these powers available to do things. We pray to the Creator to give us the power to do these things. Often, we are given these powers for a while, then these powers disappear. Power is given and taken from us by the Great Spirit, the source of power. During the time we have this power, we should be responsible and use the power in a good way. Many good things can be accomplished when we realize where this power really comes from.

Great Spirit, today, show me how to use Your power.

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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 comes not 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 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 existence's 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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May 31 - Daily Feast

In this age of defending and demanding rights, we are often faced with the question of who holds us back more than anyone else....and in all honesty we must admit we are the ones. We narrow our vision and develop helpless and hopeless attitudes to defeat us. And yet, we are the ones who speed us on as well. Our good attitudes keep us moving and active and able to do everything without reacting to the smallest incident as a barrier in our way. We are willing to work, to initiate and set in motion the good of life, and do it by not stepping on others. We keep a constant vigil over our, lo quiis, star, and reach up that we may lift others up with us.

~ Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our path. They grow everywhere. ~

BIG ELK

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day May 31

"Sell a country? Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?"

--Tecumseh, SHAWNEE

The White Man's way is to possess, control and divide. It has always been difficult for Indian people to understand this. There are certain things we cannot own that must be shared. The Land is one of these things. We need to re-look as what we are doing to the Earth. We are digging in her veins and foolishly diminishing the natural resources. We are not living in balance. We do not own the Earth; the Earth owns us. Today, let us ponder the true relationship between the Earth and ourselves.

Great Spirit, today, let me see the Earth as you would have me see Her.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Human dignity is that silent something in us that keeps us 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 other impose their superiority upon the 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 a 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.