May 2 Daily Feast, Elder’s Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

Thursday
Ugineiga

2013

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

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.

'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?"