March 13 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

March 13 - Daily Feast

There are special places in our lives that live on forever. Just entering there in memory makes them live again. We feel the heat and the cold, catch the fragrance so familiar, the aroma of certain foods, or even hear a bit of a song. There are too many reasons to count, too many feelings, for us ever to lose touch with some part of us that was then - and is now. People are part of our memories, too - living within our thoughts and influencing our thinking like the wind that we feel but cannot see. We are made up of many things, many experiences that we do not want to lose, but we also have the power to keep yesterday in its place and make the most of today. Yesterday was the foundation, but today is the house, and we're living there and keeping things in their proper order.

~ As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized. ~

OHIYESA

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - March 13

"I went to a holy man and asked him for help. He told me to get on the Red Road. `Pray to Wakan-Tanka (Great Spirit) to help you walk the Red Road."

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

All Indian traditions, customs and ceremonies help us answer three questions: who am I?, why am I?, and where am I going? Only on the Red Road can we find the answer to these three questions. When we can answer these three questions, we are on the Red Road. When we cannot, we have gone astray. That is why the Holy Men tell us to pray to the Great Spirit and to seek the Red Road. Why am I? My purpose is the serve the Great Spirit. Who am I? I am an Indian who walks the Red Road. Where am I going? My vision is to serve my people.

Great Spirit, when I know You, only then do I know me. Help me today to know You.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

What is the texture of life?

Texture is that finely woven fabric of life that demands we have a congenial environment. It asks that we be industrious toward success, and that we should have a way of life, a purpose. We should hear the music of life and taste the bitter and the sweet.

Texture requires us to research every experience and learn the lesson in it. It orders us to communicate with life and make discoveries about ourselves and progress toward a texture where the coarse has been refined.

Frequently we should examine the texture of life to identify the quality. How wide is my world? How high is my sky?

All of us should know our own makeup, our capabilities, our gifts with which we have been divinely endowed. And we should think long on these words from Edna St. Vincent Millays's Renascene:
"The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart is wide. Above the world is stretched the sky, no higher than the soul is high."