April 19 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

April 19 - Daily Feast

A woodland path is good medicine for a weary walker. Soft, rolling steps along the path do not interrupt the harmony of the woods. Even the snort of the doe before she bounds away is to tell her fawn to lie low. Many pauses give time to hear and see in detail the call of a busy titmouse and the high-pitched whistle of the finch. This is Cherokee paradise - to stand quietly in aged timber and be so much a part of it. Even the tiny creek plays water-harps as it winds its way around clumps of dried leaves and slips over round stones that are a part of its past handiwork. This is a green cathedral with shafts of sunlight cutting through thick foliage to turn droplets of water into prisms of color. Nothing is out of place - not even the walker.

~ Indian's pictures last forever. ~

INDIAN GUIDE, PIPESTONE CREEK 1882

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day April 19

"We all come from the same root, but the leaves are all different."

John Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

We all come from one Great Spirit but we are all different and unique. Nothing in the Great Creation has a twin that is identical. Even children that are twins are different. Every single person is extremely special and unique. Each person has a purpose and reason why they are on the Earth. Just like every leaf on a tree is different, each one is needed to make the tree look like it does. No leaf is better or worse than the otherâ€” all leaves are of equal worth and belong on the tree. It is the same with human beings. We each belong here and do things that will affect the great whole.

Great Spirit, today, let me see myself as a valuable contributor to the whole.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Others don't seem to be interested in our excuses - they merely want performance. Alibis for lack of service, for lack of ability to give a full measure of trust make a bad servant. And we are all servants, serving each other in one way or another.

It is an unhappy one who is not depended upon for something. There is great satisfaction in being needed, even to the point of doing more than one is capable of doing.

English divine Sidney Smith once wrote, "Try to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment."

We cannot move a step upon this earth without finding someone to serve. And as we serve each day, we never stop to consider how many we've made happy; but it should be very vivid in our minds how many we've made unhappy.