April 4 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

April 4 - Daily Feast

Our choices have brought us to this place. Other people affected us to some degree, but never so much as what we chose to do and how we choose to react. We are at the point the Cherokees call the hour of tsu du go at nv, the place where we decide who is to sit at the forefront of our lives to guide the way. The hardest part is to stop thinking dilemma and start thinking and talking solutions. There is no room in problem solving for self-pity, not even revenge. Past events may have been wrong, but now we have to see it as change, not always our doing, but we have to handle it anyway. It is here that we decide to be happy, to be examples so that younger ones will want to follow. It is a worthy thing to be a good example. We may never know who will be watching.

~ Convince the world by your character that Indians are not as they have been shown. ~

JOHN ROSS

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - April 4

"You can pray for whatever you want, but it is always best to pray for others, not for yourself."

John Fire Lame Deer, LAKOTA

When you are selfish and you pray, you are requesting things to flow only to you. When you are selfless, you are praying for things to flow to others. The old ones say this is the highest form of prayer. Praying this way is according to the Natural Laws.

Great Spirit, today, let my thoughts be about others.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Remember all those times when you made three trips to the other room to get something, and before you got there you had already forgotten what it was? Didn't the thought of age dimming your member enter your mind at those times?

There's really no need to waste time thinking that deep. It is not the case of a scattered memory, but a skittery mind, jumping from one subject to another with only circumstances to remind you.

And haven't you awakened sharply in the middle of the night because suddenly you remembered something you should have done, or something you must do? Age again? No, it was the only time your subconscious mind ever found you quiet enough to remind you of something you wanted to remember.

Life would be so much more orderly if we took several minutes night and morning to sit completely away from outside sights and sounds to recall the important things. As long as we are able to see and hear the activity about us we have difficulty thinking soundly. The conscious mind is capable of carrying just so much, and then the debris must be cleared away before the "filed away" things in the subconscious can be remembered.

"Be still and know...."