March 1 Daily Feast, Elder’s Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

A-nu-yi
MARCH

Unu 'la hee"
Windy Month

We the great mass of the people think only of the love we have for our land, for we do love the land where we were brought up.

CHIEF JOHN ROSS

March 1 - Daily Feast

We thought they would last forever - those old ones who taught us, bent us, sweetened our lives. We thought our questions would always go to them, and answers would return in familiar voices. Too many times we did not appreciate their humor, their words that chided us with lessons. Our differences were great, we thought. Our eyes wandered to other things, our voices mingled with strange ones. And suddenly, like the vapor mists that lift and fade on sunstruck mountain tops, they were gone. We did not see them go. They slipped past the boundaries to joy and rest without limit. Now the questions hang in the midair without voices to answer. And the differences fade like the mists but memory persists with genuine humor, genuine love, and we, in turn, convince our young to "Hear me now, my children..."

~ I have dreamed that he shall live to count many coups and be old. ~

GRANDFATHER OF PLENTY COUPS, 1848

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - March 1

"The beginning is purification, that's the first step.. And purification means purification of body and mind. You don't purify the body without cleansing the mind; that's the way it works."

Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE

If we have bad thoughts or poison in our minds, they will eventually show up in our bodies in the form of headaches, pains, and stomach problems. It works this way because we are interconnected. Our minds and our bodies are one system. So when we start to grow, or commit to the Red Road, we need to start cleaning up our thoughts and start showing respect for our bodies. We start purifying our minds by prayer and meditation, and we start cleansing our bodies by getting the right amount of sleep and developing good eating habits. Today, I'm going to observe my thoughts. Will my thoughts be clean today?

Great Spirit, let me focus on Your love today so my mind will be pure.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There is an old Arabian proverb that if you pitch a lucky man in the Nile he will come up with a fish in his mouth. Just to come up would be enough for most of us, but still we do so many things - perhaps half in jest - that we have hopes will throw off the evil spirits and bring good luck to the rescue.

The tokens we carry we've carried from childhood, when we were careful never to step on a crack in the walk, or pick up a pin - the silly poems that fascinate children, and sometimes follow them into adulthood when the laughter is gone.

Who are the wise? Those who can rise with the sun letting yesterday go....and feel within their hearts the gratitude of being alive....to have the opportunity to glean from their mistakes something that will take them far from over that place if ever they pass it again. They know that luck must have a "P" before it to keep them from waiting, to help them turn up something rather than waiting for something to turn up.

And yes, they are lucky who have love to give and the ability to receive it. They have faith in good. And no small amount of peace when they think not how lucky they are, but how blessed!