March 12 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

March 12 - Daily Feast

It is too easy to believe we are at the end of the line when it is only the beginning. One more step, one more effort may be all that is needed. It would amaze us if we knew how close we are to stepping past an old barrier - and it would shake us to know how close we came to quitting. Some would say it is too late - that too much has happened, we cannot go back and recapture what was lost. We have destroyed too much, bent the twig too far. And so it is true in some things. It is true that we have hurt and been hurt. We can't go back, but the spiritual basis on which we stand can lift us up. Sometimes we have to sift our own lives to see what is worth saving, and then we find the Great Spirit made us. What He made is good and we should not let it go to waste. It is the time to turn over a new leaf to rediscover Divine connections.

~ Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream." But we Indians didn't have a dream. We had a reality. ~

BEN BLACK ELK

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - March 12

"The old people say, `Learn from your mistakes'. So I try to accept everything for what it is and to make the best of each situation one day at a time."

Dr. A.C. Ross (Ehanamani), LAKOTA

The Creator did not design us to beat ourselves up when we make mistakes. Mistakes are our friends. It is from mistakes that we learn. The more mistakes we learn from, the faster we gain wisdom. The faster we gain wisdom, the more we love. The more we love, the fewer our mistakes. Therefore, mistakes help us to learn love. God is love. Mistakes are sacred and help us learn about God's will for ourselves.

Great Spirit, help me, today, to learn from my mistakes.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

This is a day that God has made, rejoice and be glad in it.

What we do with each day is largely decided by the thought we give it in the beginning and how we start a new day plays an immense part in the success or failure of either carefully laid plans or helter-skelter activity.

We should open this day with as much reverence as if it were gift wrapped and presented to us personally, which it is.

What wonderful thing can I do this day that no one else can do! Shall I spend these precious moments complaining? Shall I sit glum at my work to make others feel morbid? Should I continually acknowledge how little I have and how badly I feel?

Or should I speak kindly, think kindly, feel kindly, and be so grateful that I have another opportunity today to do something for others that will bring them joy and lift their spirits?

This day is in your hands. You will reap from it what you plant. If you would be loved, then be lovable; if you want peace, be peaceable; and if you would ask freedom, grant freedom. And learn to forgive without reservation.