October 7, 2016 Daily Feast Of Wisdom (Tsugitsvnvda Danalisdayvhvsgv Agadohvsdi ) (ᏧᎩᏨᏅᏓ ᏓᎾᎵᏍᏓᏴᎲᏍᎬ ᎠᎦᏙᎲᏍᏗ)

2016

October
Duninvdi
ᏚᏂᏅᏗ

Friday
Tsunagilosti
ᏧᎾᎩᎶᏍᏘ

October 7 - Daily Feast

We get to know ourselves when we are alone. What may have brought us to this place may not be as important as what to do now that we are here. When we are with other people we listen to them, but in solitude we follow our own way. Great strength comes from the quiet and it prepares us for times when the sands run very fast. Solitude is never withdrawal but being with ourselves, learning what affects us, and what of it can be given to others. We learn how to be a good friend when our attention is not divided - a good friend to ourselves and a good friend to another who needs it.

~ It is hard to fight people that live like groundhogs. ~

TECUMSEH - SHAWNEE

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

Elder's Meditation of the Day - October 7

"We have a biological father and mother, but our real Father is Tunkashila [Creator] and our real Mother is the Earth."

Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

Who really gives us our life? Who really gives us our food and nurturing? Who really allows us to be born? We are born through our parents who act as the vehicle of life for the Creator and Mother Earth. Our parents take care of us for a little while and when we are ready we must leave them and be faithful to our true Father, the Creator, and our true Mother, the Earth. Then we need to be of service to the Creator and be respectful to Mother Earth.

Great Spirit, thank you for being my Father. Teach me to honor the Earth.

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

At these times when we have planned for something and have our hearts set on our affairs going in a certain direction but they fail to materialize, we are disappointed. If we have any faith at all, we must remember that one door never closes but another opens. That which once seemed the right thing to plan for may not hold all the things that would be for our good in the long run. It may have been right in the beginning, but as times passes and other events come into being, a change may be necessary for the benefit of the over-all picture.

Sometimes we affix our attention so rigidly on one thing, one part of life, one person, that a change throws us into a state of extreme disappointment. But disappointment, like all of the emotions, can serve to strengthen rather than take away. The attitude with which we face life can determine its outcome.

We can look with woeful eyes on the negative mental attitude and wallow in self-pity, or we can flip the mind to the upper side and let the positive mental attitude bring to us the strength and peace we need.

Disappointment is something no one has escaped. The many plans we make sometimes fade like mist in the sunlight. A cherished dream may take another shape and to lose that vision can throw a dim view on all of life. Because one tiny part could not be fulfilled, we are so tempted to let all of the rest go with it.

But if only we could wait a bit. So often we then come to realize the reason for our change in plans.

Sometimes disappointment is the very thing that keeps us mounting the steps upward, keeps us stretching our minds to understand. And it may test our spirits. For if disappointment can make a spirit better, the joy of accomplishment would have soon soured.

There is no joy in disappointment, but it may be the thing to save us from a life of mediocrity.

English novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton wrote, "Man must be disappointed with the lesser things in life before he can comprehend the full value of the greater."