July 1 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

JULY = Gu-ye-quo-ni

Tsa lu wa'nee
CORN IN TASSEL

My people have kept me in the harness....I have never deceived them....I have done the best I could.

CHIEF JOHN ROSS

July 1 - Daily Feast

In these times of instant everything our patience wears thin when we have to wait. Who has not pushed an elevator button a number of times to get there faster? Waiting may well be the hardest work we do. We are less than tolerant of those who keep us waiting. Is their time more important than ours? So we keep pushing, racing our engines and taking chances in order to save five seconds. We can wait wisely - seeing that, sometimes, delays save us from a problem we could have met. How long has it been since we have had such a good excuse to just sit quietly and watch others trying to beat the clock. Time was when our mothers sat all afternoon and embroidered, while their heads and feet rested. Could we not take thirty minutes?

~ We are hoodwinked, duped more and more every year; we are made to feel that we are free when we are not. ~

WASSAJA

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day July 1

"I'm an Indian, I'm one of God's children."

Mathew King, LAKOTA

My Creator, today let me remember the reason I'm here on Mother Earth. Let me look into my own eyes and see the beauty You have created. Let me have good thoughts. Being Indian is not the color of my skin. Being Indian is to listen to my heart, to think only the things You have taught, to watch nature and live in harmony. Being Indian is to walk in prayer, to talk to You constantly during the day. Being Indian is to act and to walk in a sacred way.

Today, let me think in beauty, let me walk in beauty, let me pray in beauty.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Why is it that we require so much scientific proof for the most ordinary things these days, when the very fact that we lie down and close our eyes at night is the highest proof that God's world is in order. Though perhaps our personal world may not know such sequence. There comes a time when our human limitations insist that we lay down our questions and accept by faith the only way to survive ourselves.

There are those who say they must have tangible evidence that the world and all its wonders be displayed before their eyes to see in wisdom the way things really are. And yet who said the human eyes could see or ears could hear more than one tiny bit of the wonder. Who could be so bold as to believe their senses were strong enough to know, except through faith.

Who could see with the visible eye the hand that changes the seasons, or hear Job's stars that sang together at dawn. Who set the day at rest and brings the morning in all its newness.

Only so far....then explanations know no more....and though we try to disbelieve when all goes wrong, there comes a time when we want no more explanation than that God's world is in order - and we cannot change it.

Surely if someone took our hand and asked us to walk along the world and view the wonders so magnificently displayed....If by some miracle we could see the vastness of it all at once, and still bear up under the beauty of it.....

If we can see the rolling rise and fall of the land - the purple, pink, and golden hues of shadows hung along the mountain sides....If our ears could hear the music of the rippling streams, the rushing waters, the graceful falls.

If by some mere chance we could sense the ebb and flow, the push and relaxing of the tides, the rise and set of the sun, the glittering stars and soft-faced moon that ignores the fact that other worlds encircle ours.....

And as the seasons sprinkle rain and flowers, golden leaves and snowfall....On this continuous circle....always new....always beautiful....

If we can see all this, how then, can we doubt that the earth that God created and saw as good is good. This is our land, and only our own forgetfulness of its source can make it different.

Donadagahv’I

Tawodi Unega
( White Hawk )

I will be going by My new true and traditional Cherokee Name From the Bird Clan . It will not be official, however, until I can have the ceremony for it By my Udo ( Brother ) Mashu: Tawodi Unega ( White Hawk )

"Be good, be kind, help each other."
"Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."

Abe Conklin - Ponca/Osage, (1926-1995)

May The Creator walk with you.