May 25 Daily Feast, Elder's Meditation, THINK on THESE THING

May 25 - Daily Feast

Greatness is in having a purpose - not in just having a personality. Purpose shapes personality, not the other way around. Chief Joseph, Chief John Ross, and Sitting Bull were al great leaders, but their central purpose was even greater. Every seed of knowledge, every ounce of wisdom, was to lead and guide their people. They were constantly reminded of how much was yet to be learned. When a purpose and a goal stand for the good of the people, it carries a seed of greatness. In its simplicity it has no time for constant limelight, but only to accomplish more and reach farther. In areas of service, doing something to help other people humbles willing workers. They know they only scratch the surface of what there is to do - and unbelievable barriers are set in their way by ignorant people.

~ We are peaceful, we are not aggressive. In this lies our strength. ~

AN INDIAN ELDER

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day May 25

"If you listen close at night, you will hear the creatures of the dark, all of them sacred -- the owls, the crickets, the frogs, the night birds -- and you will hear beautiful songs, songs you have never heard before. Listen with your heart. Never stop listening."

Henry Quick Bear, LAKOTA

The night time is full of life, full of song and full of beauty. Have you ever gone outside at night and listened? One has access to serenity and peace. At night all our senses change their roles. Because we can't see, our hearing is much stronger, our smell is even more enhanced, our sight is different. We are able to join nature through sounds and smells, through the songs of the night birds and through the night winds. We can close our eyes and experience interconnectedness in a different way. Try it tonight and experience oneness with the Creator.

Great Spirit, allow me to listen to the teachers of the night.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

True forgiveness could be described as a divine amnesty where we receive a pardon from the unworthy things we've done, and have another chance to prove our worth. Forgiveness is something we must give in order to receive. And we have a tendency to linger over old grudges, using them to bolster our reasons for not forgiving. But we cannot return to the past, nor can we change one whit of anything that happened then. We cannot make up for resentments we've caused in others, no more than they can make up for ours.

To forgive is divine. God is above punishment, but we are not. It is we, not God, who punish by taking things into our own hands and making them work for our own selfish reasons. We demand punishment by hanging on to painful past experiences that produce self-pity. We are the ones who blame God's will for our illnesses, our poverty, our lack of friends. But we are wrong, for there is a moment of truth when we face ourselves and know that we are the guilty.

And there is a time such as William Wordsworth wrote about, "That blessed mood, in which the burden of the mystery, in which the heavy and weary weight of all this unintelligible world, is lightened"....because we've been forgiven.