Daily Feast Of Wisdom (Tsugitsvnvda Danalisdayvhvsgv Agadohvsdi ) (ᏧᎩᏨᏅᏓ ᏓᎾᎵᏍᏓᏴᎲᏍᎬ ᎠᎦᏙᎲᏍᏗ)

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Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 22, 2012 at 6:33am

Elder's Meditation of the Day April 21

"Conciliation is the key to survival. Peace is the goal."

Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders

When we make decisions or experience conflict we need to look at the greater whole. The end result we want to accomplish is peace of mind. If we keep this goal in mind, we will, overall, live a happy and fulfilling life. Everything in the world is constantly changing so we should not resist this change. A good question to ask ourselves is, "Would I rather be right or happy?" If we would rather be happy, then it is easier to let the little things go. If we would rather be right, we tend to look for the WIN/LOSE.

Great Spirit, today, give me the tools to seek peace of mind.

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 22, 2012 at 6:33am

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

If you've ever been along in a strange place, you're bound to know how wonderful it is to have someone make you feel welcome.

Many people have the knack for being at home in whatever place they find themselves. And in this gift they find no loneliness to tug at them, but more often than not most of us feel like strangers. And in doing so we set ourselves apart, or make it sometimes questionable as to the wisdom of asking us into a friendly circle.

A friendly face and a friendly voice can make the most timid souls feel welcome. It can make them feel at home. For in the midst of many there is loneliness. Perhaps it is because our feigned look of self-sufficiency made someone question our need for help.

Many a door has opened, and many a sound friendship won when someone said, "We're glad to have you..." The very atmosphere can be charged with concern when we see others who cannot find their way. The warmth of divine love is for daily use in making someone feel welcome.

We should not forget nor fail to see the wisdom of Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unaware."

There must be no stronger feeling in the hearts of most people than the desire to belong. To belong to something, to someone, and in a place where the feeling is warm and friendly. The most blessed children in town are the ones born and raised in the same neighborhood, who have the tightly knit sense of belonging to everyone. Suddenly these children are not just the children of their parents, but the children of everyone in the church, in school, and anywhere where there is warmth and love and peace.

War rages within so many, disallowing then any connection or any strand of love that would tie them to anything that gives them a sense of security. And when people become insecure they become demanding. And in demanding they lose the most essential part - the ability to attract love to themselves simply by loving first.

In the words of William Blake: "Love seeketh not itself to please....Not for itself hath any care....But for another gives its ease....And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."

Some of my most productive moments are not when I consider how evil the world is, but how powerful is my God.

Some of the best times are not all when I'm enjoying life, but when those I love are knowing happiness.

The highest peak of wealth comes when the joy within surpasses anything I can create out here.

The bloom of good health is felt more richly when I let it flow through me rather than swelling on the possibility of sickness.

Friendships are strongest and most true when I don't worry about giving more than I receive.

In order that others forgive me, I must also learn to forgive.

I must never forget that negative thoughts feed on fear and starve on faith.

One of the greatest mistakes I can make is to believe myself to be without friend or faith or opportunity.

These personal proverbs belong to all thinking persons who want their lives to have more meaning, know more happiness and feel more richly the love that is the medicine for the sickness of the world.

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 20, 2012 at 11:16am

April 20 - Daily Feast

An idea is a rare butterfly that leads us through visual and spiritual experiences, and brings us out of the woods changed and ready to do something we never dreamed possible. Most people catch hold of ideas and immediately say they take too much time and money to be worth the effort. A quick excuse has cut more people out of doing a profitable and rewarding deed than all their other work put together. Fear of failure chips away at self-confidence until there is no heart to step into new territory. One needs the mind of a child to forget what happened an hour ago. If we cannot forget, we put it aside until we get to a place where we can understand. Otherwise, our creativity knows no bounds. We are caught up in a world of imagination - the thing that blesses all great inventors - playing what-if and finding great treasure.

~ The Cherokees' tribal vitality would again save them, as it had throughout their history. ~

STEELE-WOODWARD

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 20, 2012 at 11:15am

Elder's Meditation of the Day April 20

"You must be prepared and know the reason why you dance."

Thomas Yellowtail, CROW

Inside every human being is a need to dance. We dance to music. Have you even wondered why people are moved when they hear an Indian Drum? The drum is the heartbeat of the Mother Earth. Every Indian dance is for a purpose and a reason. Every Song is for a reason. The beat of the drum makes our bodies, minds and spirits join together in harmony. It allows us to connect to Mother Earth and to each other. The dance aligns our minds to think spiritual thoughts. Dancing to the drum is healthy.

Great Spirit, today, I dance to honor you.

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 20, 2012 at 11:14am

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

As long as there has been a human race, there has been someone crying out, "No one understands!" Somewhere along the way communications have broken down and the result is misunderstanding.

To be misunderstood is painful. We keep wanting to explain and explain until we get our message across. Sometimes it is the lack of the wise use of words. Then, it may be an unwilling ear. But whatever the race, the politics, sophisticated or home grown, everyone has the desire to be understood. They want every motive, every mood, completely and unquestionably understood.

But to be completely understood can also have its rebound. A goddess can turn into a woman and a hero can slip into a man when only one of their moods is completely understood.

Understanding breeds familiarity. Familiarity may not breed contempt, but it can certainly take the edge off the mystery. And, it is mystery that keeps life interesting.

In all wisdom, we should worry much less about being completely understood, and make a more diligent effort to understand others.

Something dies within us when no one cares. It is a circumstance of our own making when we have failed to give to another the thought and concern that would have helped when it was most needed.

Sorrows can be borne because others care. Greatness can be achieved because someone cared. To care is our purpose.

Who knows but that these small acts of sympathy and understanding may place another life into the one slot on the jigsaw puzzle of life.

If we were all the things we expect of others, the result would be perfection. We would be perfect in forgiveness, faithful in love, and devoted to the welfare of others. Such excellence has never been accomplished, except that we work continually for it. To work for it, we have to care. And for someone to care is the thing that matters.

"Instead of allowing yourself to be so unhappy, just let your love grow as God wants it to grow; seek goodness in others, love more persons more; love them more impersonally, more unselfishly, without thought or return. The return, never fear, will take care of itself." - Henry Drummond.

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 17, 2012 at 5:25pm

April 17 - Daily Feast

We want to do the right thing, say the right thing, be the right person. We try to be in tune with life, to find harmony within to blend with all that surrounds us. It just seems that so much has been borrowed from us - time, concern, spirit - until we cry for restoration. Like children, we want to ask, "Are we happy yet?" Is there a time of rhythm and order and an even beat, so that we may walk without running, laugh without tears, care without fear of giving too much? Yes, beyond the slightest doubt we can renew and we can overcome the feeling of being totally taxed to despair. Speak to yourself, said the little Cherokee grandmother. Tell yourself you are u wo du hi, fine looking, and your surroundings will see it and want you to be happy. In other words, change your attitude and the world will respond.

~ Why do you take by force what you could obtain by love? ~

POWHATAN

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 17, 2012 at 5:24pm

Elder's Meditation of the Day April 17

"Women know more about love than men do...Love is taking. Love is sharing. Love is learning things about each other."

Mary Leitka, HOH

The Elders say Mother Earth shares Her special gifts of love with the Women. The Women know about bringing forth life and nurturing their offspring. Through this gift of love the Earth really makes the Woman special. Men should look upon the Woman with a Sacred Eye. She should be respected. The Woman is a role model for love. When the Woman talks, we should listen; when she shares, we should be grateful. We should all learn about each other.

Grandmother, teach me to love with the power of the Woman.

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 17, 2012 at 5:24pm

'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The greatest tragedy of life is not that we quarrel with our fellows, but that we do not take time to know them.

In his great understanding of man and nature, Thoreau wrote, "Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed." Take time.

How often what seems to be an unfriendly atmosphere is only a lack of time. Some of our dearest friends are hidden behind the mask of hurry. And we need so desperately to know each other.

Understanding comes when people are allowed to talk to one another. They discover the ways and needs, the loves and hopes, and the despairs and fears when they take enough time to speak of them. All these things that make for understanding and compassion come from personal contact and the knowledge and practice of good will.

People become more civilized, more peaceful, more as God intended them to be when they take time to make friends out of acquaintances.

To be a good listener endears many a friendship. Everyone needs someone with whom to talk at length on all subjects without later regret. It has been written, "What a great blessing is a friend with breast so trusty that you may bury all your secrets in it."

And how often we need to be that friend and be the listener, and to make sure we are worthy of that trust.

Listening comes in many ways. We listen with all our sense, knowing many times without having to be told what someone's needs are. Charles Dickens said that no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. And it just may be by listening that we lighten another's load.

Sometimes we listen with our hearts and understand in silence. Sometimes we simply have to put ourselves into a situation to understand all sides of it. And we best do so by listening.

All our lives we carry secrets with us that we long to reveal to someone who understands.

There are relationships in our lives better and closer than the ordinary. Closer yet than brothers or sisters are those with whom we can share all our secrets, we think.

What a sad state of affairs when life imparts that others cannot always be trusted. What a shock to realize we have given all our hearts and bared our souls to people whose curiosity was the only motive that compelled them to listen.

Phillip Massinger, sixteenth century poet wrote, "I have played the fool, the gross fool to believe the bosom of a friend would hold a secret mine own could not contain."

Not one of us can testify that we have nothing within our lives and thoughts that we cannot reveal. And many of us have not expressed our innermost thoughts because we have found no one in whom we can confide.

As Shakespeare said, "Many a man's tongue shakes out its master's undoing." Sometimes the loquacious tell their secrets not out of a need to tell them, but out of a love of talking.

One of the greatest feelings in the world is to discover we haven't told something we cherish very much to someone we once thought we could trust.

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 15, 2012 at 8:16pm

April 15 - Daily Feast

Think and talk pleasant things. When pressures are too much, turn around and think and talk on another subject. Most of us are victims of our own emotions. We allow them to take over our peace of mind and there is nothing left to do but cry. And what we worry about becomes so real, so intense, that we believe it in all sincerity. The Cherokees say this is v yo-ho wa yi gi, something that is not true. When we are provoked to be negative there is no point in berating ourselves. Rather, say, "This is not acceptable. This is not my way and I refuse guilt, refuse being overwrought, and that is the end of the conflict."

~ You have spoken words of comfort....as though the Great Spirit was speaking through you. ~

LITTLE BEAVER

Comment by David White Hawk Administrator on April 15, 2012 at 8:16pm

Elder's Meditation of the Day April 15

"When people live far from the scenes of the Great Spirit's making, it's easy for them to forget his laws."

Walking Buffalo, STONEY

Society today is way off track. Unfortunately, many Indian people are caught up in these modern times. The Elders are telling us we must wake up! We must come back to the culture because this is where His laws are. If we don't follow these laws, we will be unhappy. We cannot do things just because everybody is doing them. This does not make it right. We must follow what the Great Spirit says we must do. We need to pray hard for the courage to come back and live according to the culture. It will be difficult at first but worth it in the end. We must teach our children the culture.

Great Spirit, today, let me listen to the warnings of the Elders.

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