April 14 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, 'THINK on THESE THINGS

April
Kawani
ᎧᏩᏂ

Monday
Dodaquonvhi
ᏙᏓᏉᏅᎯ

2014

April 14 - Daily Feast

What starts out to be an exaggeration and even a great joke, can turn into a lie. The worst lie is to hurt someone intentionally, but equally sad is the lie told for pure self-defense, or to spare someone the truth. There are those who will believe a lie - which is more in their understanding than the truth. So much drama and so much pretense makes lying acceptable to those living in false existence. To find the right path, get rid of the habit of lying. It is a trap that looks innocent but the efforts lead to wrongdoing.

~ Our fathers gave us many laws.... That it was a disgrace to tell a lie; that we should speak only the truth. ~

CHIEF JOSEPH - NEZ PERCE

"A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II" by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Elder's Meditation of the Day - April 14

"The base of all things is love, respect."

Vickie Downey, TEWA/Tesuque Pueblo

The greatest weapon of any Spiritual Warrior is love. Love will change minds; love will forgive; love will let go; love will cause good luck; love will heal; love will cry; love will get rid of resentments; love will overcome fear. Love loves love. Any human who is loving will be guaranteed respect. Respect loves love. We need to love and respect ourselves.

Grandmother, Grandfather, today, lead me on the path of love.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Most successful ventures have behind them some hardships. We as human beings, demand such experiences before we can truly appreciate the meaning of victory. No one promised that life would be one long gala event, but if we're made of durable stuff, we neither let it hinder us nor make us run roughshod to get ahead.

We must always recognize past hardships for what they are. We cannot ignore them, for they are a part of our makeup. But neither can we let them become crutches to lean upon when there's need for an excuse.

Bitterness over past experiences wastes valuable time. Perhaps it was those hardships that gave us the strength to rise above the mediocre things. However crude, ugly or unhappy, even tragic, some of the times may seem, as seen alone, when combined with all our 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."