January 3 Daily Feast, Elder’s Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

January
Dunolvatni

Thursday
Ugineiga

January 3 - Daily Feast

When we last saw Essie she had been ashen and without the strength we see in her now. Now she sits flat on the ground, legs straight out in front, and reeds tumble across her knees and lie around her. Nimble fingers seek the perfect one to start a basket. Essie is close to our hearts. She has our Grandmother's name. Her reticence does not inspire idle talk, so we ask what happened to change her. With a quick glance, she says, "God heal." "Is it possible? So quickly and completely?" Hesitantly, she asks, "You got fast oven?" I say I do. "What make it work?" "Why, microwaves - energy. They change the molecules, the structure of the bread from cold to hot." Seconds pass. She says, almost too softly, "Prayer energy. Make me well."

~ I love a people who have always made me welcome to the best they had....who are honest without laws....who never take the name of God in vain.....who worship God without a Bible.... And I believe God loves them too. ~

GEORGE CATLIN, ARTIST - 1830

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - January 3

"We don't have to say or think what we don't wish to. We have a choice in those things, and we have to realize that and practice using that choice."

Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE

Having choices makes us fully accountable. No one can make us think anything we don't want to think. No one can determine our behavior and how we act. It's not what's going on but how we look at what's going on. If someone does something and we get upset, we can change how we look at it any time we want. We can tell ourselves in the morning that the day is going to be beautiful and that we have expectations that great things will happen. Doing this daily sets our mind to look for the joy and the excitement of each day.

Great Spirit, help me to choose my thoughts with Your wisdom.

THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

No hope? How foolish, for as long as there is a breath of life there is hope. How many people have sprung to their spiritual feet at the challenge of "no hope" and proved there is always hope. Perhaps there's nothing you can do for me, or I for you, but then again, perhaps there is.

As long as I do not impose the thought of hopelessness on you, and you do not convince me that your strength is all I can depend upon, then there is hope.

The things we sometimes call miracles are merely hopes activated by faith. And a wise teacher has said, "Give thanks for that which you need and soon you will have that for which you have given thanks."

If hope seems to elude you, let us give thanks that it is ours again. Let us speak words that are positive and reassuring and throw ourselves unreservedly into faith and trust, disregarding every emotion that seeks to convince us otherwise.

To lie down and be discouraged is our temptation, but to hope and have faith is our wisdom.