Tag: Daily Feast

October 24 – Daily Feast

October 24 – Daily Feast

Though summer still lingers in the last of vegetables in the garden, cooler air pushes down from the North and with it the subtle changes that color sumac and woodbine with brilliant reds. Some song birds stay during the winter, but their songs are different. This is the season of tart red apples and wood smoke twirling through the tops of tall evergreen trees. It seems only yesterday that spring broke through with her wild colors and thunderstorms. And it will seem only another day until this season has passed and the woods will green once more. Use this tranquil time to rest and walk and to enjoy seeing nature in her bare bones.

~ The Indian, essentially an outdoor person, has no use for handkerchiefs; he was practically immune to colds, and like the animal, not addicted to spitting. ~

LUTHER STANDING BEAR – LAKOTA

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

October 22 – Daily Feast

October 22 – Daily Feast

Life is a decision, a personal decision. We can stand on drifting sand and believe that whatever will be, will be, or we can stand firmly on principle that if something is wrong we can change it. Instead of nursing pulse-taking tendencies and listening to every commercial on what is available for medical treatment, remember our instructions: Let the weak say, “I am strong.” We can become victims of temporary relief or we can separate ourselves from the hype and discover renewal that is not temporary – but eternal. Relief by the Spirit is a reality – and totally free.

~ This house, the home of the English, is a medicine house, and you come here to tell us lies. ~

SITTING BULL – SIOUX

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

October 21 – Daily Feast

October 21 – Daily Feast

Don’t condemn yourself. Who of us have not made mistakes? No one is perfect, but we are too quick to call ourselves stupid. We have condemned ourselves for eating – even though that is what we have to do. It’s just that we eat because it is convenient, we see it, we eat it. If we can get it without having to cook it – all the better. And all the worse – because it doesn’t have in it the nutrients we need and it is gone too quickly and we are not satisfied. Laziness has overtaken our good sense. We let ourselves fall into making it easy on ourselves – and in turn we open the door to making it hard. It is a matter of choices, but not solved by self-criticism.

~ The ground says, “The Great Spirit has placed me here to produce all the grows on me, trees and fruit. ~

YOUNG CHIEF – CAYUSE

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

October 18 – Daily Feast

October 18 – Daily Feast

The plain and simple doorstep has tremendous value. At any time of day or night it offers the finest view, the tranquil quiet of the autumn woods and the flickering pattern of dancing leaves. Sit here for a few moments and leaves drift down, a monarch butterfly feeds on a pot of petunias and wispy clouds show through holes in the trees’ canopy. A few industrious ants are still at work around the doorstep and watching them slows the heart beat and paces the spirit. If it were not for this doorstep, much would slip by without notice. Peace would escape us, and time would be used in ways that took all and gave nothing.

~ I have learned a lot from the trees; sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit. ~

TATANGA MANI – STONEY

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

October 17 – Daily Feast

October 17 – Daily Feast

We forget the road we have been over together….how difficult it was and how good. We matured together, giving courage and understanding. Undoubted loyalty is there between us, knowing always that we can rely on kindness. We put aside anything we could not understand until it became clear. The divine wrote in our contract to take care of this person, to load every rift with good humor and good words and always with the knowledge that we are not alone. We have planted good seeds, we have cultivated – so now comes the harvest. The joy of it is knowing we are not alone.

~ It is the same with human beings – there is someplace which is best adapted to each. ~

OKUTE – TETON SIOUX, 1911

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

October 16 – Daily Feast

October 16 – Daily Feast

There were ducks on the pond this morning, a pair of blue-winged teals gliding smoothly along and stopping only to feed. They were oblivious to cattle feeding along the slopes – and even to footsteps on the grass. It is a calm peace of mind that is not easily startled. Everywhere is beauty, the cottonwood tree white against the oaks and evergreens, the ungainly heron wading at the water’s edge. So common and so unlikely to attract attention because it all fits together in a picture so easily taken for granted. But the peace cannot be taken for granted because it seeps into the soul like sunlight pierces the deepest shadows – and rests.

~ I questioned the trees and bushes….Who made you? In dream Wakan Tanka told me I must honor his works in nature. ~

BRAVE BUFFALO – SIOUX

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

October 15 – Daily Feast

October 15 – Daily Feast

Some of us go to great lengths to keep from doing detail work – anything from flipping through a directory for one name in ten thousand to guessing at amounts in a recipe. No time, no time. Time isn’t saved by guessing. Even when we hit it right once in a while – most of the time we are just a little off. How many of us take our basic instructions from hearsay – how many don’t really want to know anyhow? Life itself has an instruction book. There’s no reason to guess at what is right or wrong. We have a script for every part we play in life. When we have a need of any kind, the script has the wisdom to handle it. The Scriptures leave out nothing – and the biggest mistake we can make is to say we don’t believe it – and go off to figure it out by guessing.

~ We were put here by the Creator and these were our rights. ~

CHIEF WENINOCK – YAKIMA, 1855

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

October 14 – Daily Feast

October 14 – Daily Feast

Contentment happens when our emotions give place to common things that in other times can draw little attention. It is releasing a deep inner peace that heals sadness and lifts a sagging spirit. Contentment is an intensely personal thing, adjusting to different people in its most effective way. It rides a shaft of sunlight to put on the gray bark of a tree, or it rises from laughter, deep and kind. It is nearly always unexpected and settles as softly as a bird lights on a limb. It is a remarkable fact that we simply let contentment happen. Socrates called it a natural wealth, but most have called it a miracle.

~ Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. ~

CHIEF STANDING BEAR – SIOUX, 1800s

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

October 7 – Daily Feast

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

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