April 3 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

April 3 - Daily Feast

Why must we judge ourselves by what someone else is saying? They only think. Is it possible to fit our lives into the narrow confines of theirs? Let us search our souls. We have spiritual connections uniquely our own - deeper in many ways than those of people who want us to be like they are. But there is no way we can be like another person. We can only be better people in our own way. We know right from wrong, regardless of how the world-at-large has tried to condition us. Nothing can keep us from hearing our own voices of common sense - nothing, that is, but the noise and clamor of outside voice. And yes, maybe some are inside. But they have no good purpose; they mean to destroy. We need not dally with trouble. We can refuse to be a part of anything that was not a gift of Galun lati - the Great Spirit.

~ To fight is to forget ourselves as Indians in the world. ~

MONTEZUMA

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - April 3

"We know that in all creation/Only the human family/Has strayed from the Sacred Way."

OJIBWAY Prayer

How have we gotten so far off track? What has happened to us? What is happening to our family? How did it happen so quickly? Every individual needs to answer these questions for themselves. What do we need to do to start living the Sacred Way again? Pray! Today I will start praying. I pray the Creator will lead all Native People to a great healing. I pray we'll be free from alcohol and drugs. I pray we will return to the culture, to spirituality and to unity.

My Mother, help us to heal ourselves. Make us strong again.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Frequently quoted American editor and author Christian Nestell Bovee wrote that sensitiveness is closely allied to egotism - indeed excessive sensitivity is only another name for morbid self-consciousness.

He wrote that the cure for it was to make more of our objectives and less of ourselves. And it isn't easy to make less of ourselves.

Everyone at some time has felt extreme sensitivity toward people and surroundings. It is a sensitiveness that does not always have a good effect - seemingly for no reason at all we exercise no control over the emotions. It can be frightening to realize that we are quite as capable of destroying as we are, at other times, of building.

It is written in the essays of Aristotle that there are right things to say and a right way of saying them; and the same is true of listening. So often we make a casual remark, not mean to be tactless, but somehow it turns out that way. When there is a desire to appear witty, or clever, at someone else's expense, there should be no pride in the results.

And when we listen to someone's casual remark and take offense, we must examine our own thoughts. If we allow our minds to run in channels of vulgarity and mockery, then we can also expect to interpret others' words to mean the same things.

We can so easily read the wrong things into others' conversations, and in our own efforts to express ourselves say such foolish things that we lose the priceless gifts of relaxation and fun of conversing with other people. And for these reasons we must cultivate the art of speaking and listening with the warmest heart - which harbors nothing that is not right.

It is a good idea in the most sensitive times to recognize them for what they are and to make a pact within one's self to by pass this time for serious thought and decision making. This, above all, should be a time for relaxing against the wind of oversensitivity. To resist it only strengthens it, and to look at it clearly and coolly will take away its mystery and its heat.

It is well to remember that the too-sensitive person is not the true self, but the one with the marvelous mental attitude most certainly is - wait for that person!