A Cherokee Feast of Days
by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Sensible people do not get ruffled easily and are known to be reliable in a crisis. We want these stable people with us as friends and team members when the game is terribly important. We have heard the calm voice and felt the strong hand when our knees wobbled and our hands shook. It is easy to recall those who sustained us with their words, their caring. And sadly, we remember those who did not. Whatever common sense is, the heart has it, not the head. It is having the right priorities, knowing what is important, and giving as much as, or more than, we have received. Indians of old has this stalwart strength to stand like straight arrows to give support. They reached out to lift someone before they stopped to think whether he deserved it. The price is the same now as then - patience, love, loyalty - those things that seem so scarce.
~ I learned many English words....could recite some of the Ten Commandments. ...I knew how to sleep in a bed, pray to Jesus, comb my hair, use a toilet....I learned that a person thinks with his head instead of his heart. ~
SUN CHIEF, 1890
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 31
"In sharing, in loving all and everything, one people naturally found a due portion of the thing they sought, while in fearing, the other found need of conquest."
--Chief Luther Standing Bear, SIOUX
There are two systems of thought that are available for us to choose from. One is the love-thought system and the other is the fear- thought system. If we choose love, we will see the laws, principles and values of the Creator. If we choose fear, the results will be so paralyzing that it will cause us to take over and not rely on the Great Spirit. The fear-thought system will automatically cause attack, conflict, need to control over others. The love-thought system seeks peace of mind, unity and causes us to be love seekers.
Great Spirit,
today let me see only love.
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Morning Prayer:
Come on the trail of song,
Leaving no footprints there,
Over the rainbow bridge
Down the mountain stair.
Come on the trail of song,
Gods of the Navajo,
Out of the sky-land
And the five worlds below.
Aho , Amen , e-men . PASTOR COUGARMOON
