April 10 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

April 10 - Daily Feast

There is a delightful piety involved when the other person is caught in wrongdoing. Sometimes we don't give much thought to the idea that someone made a mistake. He should have been more clever! Far too many get a lift when someone falls. It makes the sideliners look so good, and self-righteousness flows with great solemnity. But when the limelight hits home and attention focuses on a closer problem - where did all the compassion go? What is happening to human kindness? After all, are we not all too human not to err? Kindness is a two-way street. Harsh judgment and joy in seeing someone else hurt because they seem to deserve it, opens the door to let others judge us. So, then, where is all the compassion?

~ Little pot, do not call the kettle black until you have been in the fire as long as he has! ~

SEQUICHIE GRANDMOTHER

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - April 10

"Together we can end the Holocaust against the environment."

Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders

We are all familiar with the Holocaust against the people. When this happens we feel bad and we vow never to let it happen again. We need to seriously examine what human beings are doing to the Earth and the environment. Many species are extinct and many more will become extinct during the next 10 years. We are methodically eliminating life that will never return again. Today, we should take time to pray real hard so we wake up before it is too late.

Great Spirit, today, I pray for us to awaken to what we are doing.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Have you ever stood on the sidelines and watched the drama of your own difficulties being acted out in someone else's life? Does it provoke a feeling of gratitude that here I will witness something that will help me solve my own problems? Or does it invite a feeling of smugness that they were not so capable of hiding theirs as I have been of concealing mine.

Hiding one's difficulties can be compared to concealing an elephant. The only possible way to keep it a secret would be to keep it from those who could care less in the first place. If there were face to face with your elephant they would register little surprise and proceed to immediately forget it.

In fact, there is considerable danger in looking down on those who are trying to get their lives on the right track. At least they have the intestinal fortitude to try. And to pretend that one has nothing to overcome is merely polishing the front glass while the back door falls away.

Smugness or compassion? It was Cowper who reminded us, "Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God will never."