May 24 Daily Feast, Elder’s Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

May 24 - Daily Feast

A thick layer of doubt like fog across the hilltops, can shut out the light. Without light, we are depleted of energy and vitality - and eventually hope. An elderly Cherokee woman said, "It is true that the Cherokee suffered when their houses and gardens and very way of life were taken from them. We loved the land and trees and treated them as family. It was not the Great Holy Spirit that caused it. It was the a s ga na(wickedness) of the world." It seems that no good time exists when we can despair. The Cherokees still dance - but to the Great Spirit in gratitude, the way David danced before the Lord. And it is high time we shout and clap our hands right in the face of trouble.

~ You have said to me....that I could send out a voice four times....and you could hear me. Today I send a voice for a people in despair. ~

BLACK ELK

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day May 24

"...in Tunkashila, there is no time. Everything moves in the blink of an eye. It's as fast as thought. So there is no speed there. There is no time in between."

Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

There is a relationship between thought and reality. Every thought is alive, and as soon as you think it a result occurs immediately. However, to make something happen it may take a series of 1,000 thoughts before you can actually see it with your eyes. This occurs because the Laws of the Great Spirit act immediately. When you tell a lie, you immediately experience fear. When you tell the truth, you immediately experience freedom. To the Creator, there is no time. For us to experience the meaning of this requires us to act on faith. Faith is belief without evidence.

Great Spirit, today, let me act on my faith.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

"Though we speak with the tongues of men and angels and give our bodies to be burned, if we are irritable or hard to live with, it all accounts for nothing," wrote Margaret Widdemer.

Wouldn't it be a blessing to ourselves and to others if we could be as gentle and considerate in temper as we expect others to be? It is not a good thing to keep pent up the emotions that rule us so continually, but neither is it good to be too quick and too constantly blowing off steam.

It may serve as a tension reliever to us, but it can also ruin our relationships with others. And without our realizing it, we can soon become chronic complainers.

Worry, physical ailments and weariness can cause a short temper that we think others should understand. And most have a way of knowing if that is the case, but prolonged impositions on other people will wear that tolerance very thin. It takes two to have an argument, but it takes only one to start it.

The need to forgive and to be forgiven should never be overlooked. To pass over a disagreement quickly without thought to the damage we've done can take the shine off any friendship. There can be no merit in forgetting if we cannot first forgive.

There are two voices in this world that will be forever unpopular. One is the voice of self-pity, the other the voice that yells all the time. One declares itself to be the victim of great injustice, the other yells to demand justice.

Those who believe themselves to be the victims of injustice - those who believe they are meant to suffer - will always find conditions to prove they are right.

And those who yell, "Look what I've sacrificed," and always with the theme, "What I've tried to do for you," have slowed another's progress and stopped their own.

True victims of circumstances are easily recognized, and do not care to be noticed as such. And those who tell their merits have received their rewards, so there aren't any others.

Both have their attentions turned inward, but to the sorrow of most....their voices are not.