August 23 & 24, 2016 Daily Feast Of Wisdom (Tsugitsvnvda Danalisdayvhvsgv Agadohvsdi ) (ᏧᎩᏨᏅᏓ ᏓᎾᎵᏍᏓᏴᎲᏍᎬ ᎠᎦᏙᎲᏍᏗ)

2016

August
Galoni
ᎦᎶᏂ

Tuesday
Talineiga
ᏔᎵᏁᎢᎦ

August 23 - Daily Feast

Too many of our efforts are like scrambled eggs all thrown in together, whipped and beaten and without much substance. What we do overlaps too much - sleep lets worry in, eating is not prepared but brought in with its ingredients totally beyond our knowledge. Walking has become a contest, a thing of speed and clever costumes. Talking is chatter and boastful - and prayer is too often listening to someone else who "knows how." Whatever we choose to do should be done with all our hearts. Not done so we can feel important by running here, running there - but done in love for the sake of love, and not for competition. Who we are, what we are, where we are going and when we get there has to do with the mind and spirit more than what the Cherokee calls nu s di da nv - how people see us.

~ You can count your money....but only the Great Spirit can count the grains of sand and the blades of grass. ~

BLACKFEET

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - August 23

"They also learned, and perhaps this was the most important thing, how to look at things through the eyes of the Higher Powers."

Fools Crow, LAKOTA

Our eyes can only see our beliefs. Our beliefs cause us to make assumptions, draw conclusions and cause confusion. Our five senses are very limiting. The Creator has a way of allowing us to see or know in the spiritual world. This is called the Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense is like a radar system; our personal radar system. It will help us "see" opportunities and help us avoid disaster. This Sixth Sense is controlled by God. We must learn to listen to it. We must learn to trust it. We must learn to act on it even if our head says differently. We must learn to look at things through the eyes of God.

My Creator, guide me today. If my eyes cause confusion, let me close them and see through Your eyes. If my ears hear confusion, let me listen to my heart. Let me let You guide me.

"THINK on THESE THINGS"
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

When you hear geese honking their way southward in the quiet of the night, when you hear church bells ringing through the crystal clear autumn air, then you've heard the sounds of Thanksgiving.

Perhaps memories of Thanksgiving are not the same for all of us. We all carry our own memories within our hearts, and some live only for past Thanksgivings when a family was more complete. And so this day serves only to remind them of happier times. Those times should be remembered in all their glory and yet, there is the now. It is important too. Perhaps in some ways it is more important, for the challenge to quit thinking of ourselves and to consider how sorely needed is every last person. How memorable we could make this day for someone who hasn't even a happy memory. How strong we can be, not for ourselves, but for that memory and for those who do not have the strength.

Some young child or some young adult may be looking for a pattern to go by, some reason to be truly thankful, and here is the opportunity.

Some of our most delightful hours are spent in conversation with those people sometimes known as senior citizens, our elders, and lovingly, grandmother or grandfather. But whatever their titles they still have a wealth of wisdom and experience to share with us.

Whether we accept the experiences of our elders to profit by, or if we choose to ignore them, will determine a great deal how alert and aware we are of life. For this is life, this experience, this knowledge.

And within these lives we find so many things small though they may be, that have a great part to play in our success or failure as human beings and parents. For they have learned what still remains sacred in man's heart, though years may pass and times may change.

To most the unhappy times are forgotten. And left to live are the beautiful beloved things that work as well today as yesterday. Things like cheerfulness, and refusal to take unpleasantness as final; a warm and friendly kitchen where guests had rather be, and a Bible well read; a shining faith and a belief that the impossible only takes a little longer; and, a good broad shoulder to catch our tears - and love, which after all was the beginning of all of this.

2016

August
Galoni
ᎦᎶᏂ

Wednesday
Tsoineiga
ᏦᎢᏁᎢᎦ

August 24 - Daily Feast

Never let another person tell you what to think and what to do. Start now to think things through and get ready for what you want. You have to be prosperous in your thinking long before you see the money. Your health must have the support of your mind and words before it can keep its good condition. You have to be lovable before anyone can love you. We think "instant" when it takes time. Remember the flower - first the bud and then the bloom, and all the steps that go in between. What do you want? See it now in your mind, and keep on seeing it so clearly that it becomes a treasure map. Enjoy looking at it and stop questioning whether it is going to work. It is your map - give it your attention.

~ We talk to Wakan Tanka and are sure he hears us. ~

CHASED-BY-BEARS - SANTEE-YANKTONAI SIOUX

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - August 24

"The mind's eye changes the way we judge things."

Fools Crow, LAKOTA

"What you see is what you get." Our head has inside it a movie projector that projects out from our foreheads and shines on a screen a picture of our true thoughts. This is our reality. We can only see what we project (our beliefs). If we believe someone is a jerk, every time we see them we reflect our beliefs about what we think about that person and that is all we can see. Even if someone tells us this person is a kind, loving, caring, intelligent individual, we wouldn't be able to see it. If we change our belief about them, that person will change and so will our judgment about that person.

My Creator, let me realize the power of choice. Let me see the advantages of changing my beliefs. Today, if I am judging my brother, let me change my beliefs to acceptance. If my thoughts are of anger, let me change them to love. Let my eyes only see you in everything and every person.

"THINK on THESE THINGS"
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It takes such a little whiff of memory to carry us all the way back. Small things tucked here and there remind us of some place, some thing, some person who has played a special part in our lives.

We want to go forward, try new things, know new people, visit new places, yet how nice to slip on those comfortable old slippers of the familiar bygones and remember loving faces and happy times.

It is said that we should never return to places that have a sacred spot in our memories. Everything changes with time, so little remains recognizable to us. We begin to think that perhaps those hallowed places were not so wonderful as we remember.

But they were, for in their time and that place it was as it should have been, happy and meaningful. They may have changed, but so have we.

A little of every place and every person goes with us in the building of even happier times. We have not lost anyone or anything but it is the combination of all that we have lived and learned that builds our character and teaches us the way of life.