‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 26th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Life offers us a great deal of stormy weather. In the beginning we are quite strong about it, taking things in stride and moving confidently along. The things that test us seem to give us extra strength we didn’t know belonged to us. And quite suddenly there is an awareness that enough is enough. But life doesn’t know it, and the storm goes on and so do we.

Even though we are quite willing to give as long as we have to give, there seems to be no more stretch to the strength, either spiritually, mentally, or physically. We question how much longer, how many more times we shall be able to reach into our bag of reserves to borrow another ounce of strength.

Of course, the first thing we must do is take our minds off the thing as we do not want it, and begin to think steadily about how we do want it. It allows our creative minds to find the answers. It may mean we will have to wait a while in the dark, but when the light comes, it is radiant.

There are many things that stay our feet along the way, but faith that this too will pass can make that way serene.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet: http://www.hifler.com
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Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 25th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Don’t try to tell me what your enemy looks like. My enemy is lazy, a procrastinator that spends most of the time talking me out of success. My enemy says friends are fickle and true ones are most infrequent. Faith, I’m told, is not enough to carry me over barriers. And I’m not loved so much as others, but that’s all right because what good is love?

The day is dreary, my enemy says, and the flowers at my feet will soon wilt. I shouldn’t smile at anyone today because they won’t smile back at me.

This will be one of those days when everything goes wrong, my enemy tells me, and if I do anything right someone else will get the credit. I should watch the clock and realize how long the day is and how weary I am.

Don’t tell me about your enemy, I have one of my own. But the fact that I know my enemy makes all the difference. M enemy lies to me and wants to destroy me. So I’ll refuse to give my enemy power this day by giving a special measure of love to my friends and knowing that everything is exactly opposite of what my enemy tells me.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 21st

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

At night sometimes the world seems so topsy-turvy and you’re so weary of doing things the same old way. Then nothing seems to please….You try desperately for something new and different, something that doesn’t seem so much like you. Why? Tonight you are different.

One cannot expect the world to be top side up all the time. Such perfection does not come so easily to human nature. And always there is a search for something new and different. A change of pace….that thought that I don’t want to be me today, to think my thoughts and do my daily chores. I want to make a complete change now, to know a whole new way of life. And it is good to leave behind the many daily situations that sometimes stand too closely to be seen clearly, but to be wise enough to know which things should be left behind.

There have been clean sweeps that have left behind the dearest things….and have taken along the same dreary, dark unhappy things of the mind that should have been left behind.

A line from the prayer of serenity is “The wisdom to know the difference….” And wisdom says Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is common sense in an uncommon degree. If one has the wisdom to wait a bit, wait until morning – or several mornings – that uncommon degree of common sense will give us the wisdom to know the difference.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 19th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It has been written that an optimist is someone who can fall ten stories and call out to each floor in passing that everything is okay so far. It has also been said that an optimist is someone who refuses to see things as they really are.

It is far better, the pessimist believes, to look for the worst so as to be pleasantly surprised when things are better than expected. Then, if they are as bad as imagined, the disappointment won’t be quite so great.

But this is somewhat like backing into a rose so to avoid seeing the beauty of it, only to find it is an elevator shaft.

There can be no advancement where we expect the worst and believe that going outside the limits of ordinary thinking is only day dreaming. Thinkers, capable of forecasting and predicting answers before the questions arise, are in great demand.

Only the optimist can fill the bill. Only the optimist can dare to believe there are things waiting for discovery and further development.

An optimist questions life the same as a pessimist – the difference is that the optimist knows there is an answer and that the answer can be found. Optimists are aware that the cherries of life have pits, but they are prepared to remove them. Their minds do not dwell on the pits, but on the sweetness of the cherries.

There will be situations that will make us afraid. Fear is a common sense emotion that keeps us from walking in front of a moving car or from jumping off the deep end of anything. And there are periods of natural anxiety when we want too much to perform well, and the butterflies begin to flutter.

Then, there is another kind of fear that is unnatural. It has the ability to possess us and rule over our very lives. It is that “what if” fear that builds nests in our minds and hatches dire images that scare the daylights out of us. It can keep the lights off, the doors bolted, and the windows of our souls locked against the most beautiful things in life.

It is no disgrace in this day to ask for professional help in understanding our fears. Only the very foolish would consider this help a crutch. It is a brave person who admits the need for help and has the courage to go and find it.

They are the pioneers in recognizing our existence as threefold: spirit, mind, and body.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 18th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

“There is no royal road to anything – One thing at a time, and all things in succession. That which grows slowly endures.”
– J.G. Holland

The first lesson we have to learn is that instant success in anything is a fantasy. The overnight success stories we hear about are really products of much preparation.

If we could view a life laid out before us, we could see it is much like a hand sewn quilt, built of many tiny pieces, colors of every hue, fabrics of every kind, and patiently joined together by tiny stitches to give many years of service. Maybe we missed a stitch someplace and it caused a weak place, but the strength of many other stitches will carry it through. Finally a complete quilt has been created and it is strong and lasting.

When we truly want to move ahead we build our lives a quilt block at a time, patiently adding to another part of life until we have the strength and courage to endure.

Take one step at a time, but take it positively forward! The patience will be rewarded. To have a dream come true we must first have a dream. Don’t look back. The past is gone, but the future is still in our hands.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 17th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Life equips us in many ways for very special purposes. Some never catch the right vision as to why they may be the objects of ridicule or the witnesses of cruelty – while others bear the brunt of many heartaches and still are capable of knowing compassion for those who cause it.

Jesus was such a man – He withstood more than we are able to comprehend, but He asked that His tormentors be forgiven for they knew not what they were doing.

It is our individual decision whether we choose to be one of the throngs of agitators who see only to confirm what everyone else is doing, or we can catch the vision of greater things and walk firmly in paths we believe are right.

To fall into the role of just another face in the crowd is an ill-chosen path, but to lead others to follow is the essence of parasitism – the need to have others be just as nameless and even more dependent.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 6th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Haven’t you heard someone say, after experiencing something either good or bad, “I knew it was going to be that way.” And perhaps the conviction was very strong that certain conditions would take a definite turn. But much of the time we say it not out of conviction, but resignedly, agreeing beforehand that something will be a certain way, and usually with dire overtones.

It used to be believed that we had no power to control anything coming to us. We were mere victims of circumstances, almost like stones waiting to be kicked aside. But we were taught, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

We must not be so presumptuous as to believe we know everything there is to know about the workings of the mind. But we attract a great many of our problems simply by dwelling on them in our thoughts.

Premonition, or “knowing” things are going to be a certain way, is merely giving us a little time to head off the trouble. Such things should be a challenge, not an accepted rule. “Know” better until you believe it into conviction and into being.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 27th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Autumn, described by John Keats as the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, is the most restful of all seasons. We are sensitive to a change of seasons. And at this particular time we stop to consider what our harvest is, and then the age-old promise to ourselves that next year will be better, and more productive.

But now the peace and serenity of the season is upon us, and the Artist has painted for our eyes to see the most beautiful of all seasons – the autumn.

Scattered frost has touched everything just enough to give a mottled pattern of brown and green. Early morning mists, blue and gray, hang low in the hills; brilliant red sumac and maples gold and burgundy stand out like jewels among the yellow elms.

There is a whole new world for those who wish to open their spiritual eyes. We need to insist that worries take the back seat while we sniff the sweet scent of wood smoke, and see the lavender-pink sunsets and autumn haze that settles like soft, blue fingers through the valleys. This is a picture for the soul by the Master Artist.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

February 27 – Daily Feast

February 27 – Daily Feast

It is important to have a vision that is not clouded with fear,” said a Cherokee leader. “As children we were able to see beyond the impossible by enjoying a vision of how we wanted things to be. It required unlimited joy, and life responded freely – until we grew up enough that everything had to be real.” Sometimes the vision is truer than that which comes from it. A pattern to make anything can be accurate, and if followed perfectly, can produce the perfect model of it. But bringing something forth is the problem. We have to have a steady hand and a mind that is willing to follow precisely. Few things are spelled out for us. We learn to focus on what we need, but there is still another step: Focus on fulfillment. See it completed. This is usually left out as we adopt a wait-and-see attitude, and this step is far too important to ignore.

~ Have a vision not clouded by fear. ~

THE CHEROKEE

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 21

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Everyone must have a way of life. The home, the position, the social level, the health of the body and of the emotions are all a part of daily living. But beyond that there must be a reason, a way of life. We must believe in something, live by something, and have a shelter within ourselves where there are no pretenses.

Life cannot be one carefree round of living on the surface. It is a thing of depth and width and height, and full of avenues never investigated. Like the body, it is made up of many parts. Beneath the skin there must beat a heart, a network of nerves, the strength of muscles, and much we cannot begin to explain.

As the body depends upon the heart we must have in our lives something to depend upon, something with which to identify ourselves. There must be a central point, a hitching post to keep all of life running smoothly.

We need something to help us retreat as well as to go forward. We must have something to live by, as well as something for which we would willingly die. We need divine wisdom to see, and the strength to break away, those almost invisible fingers of possessiveness that grip our lives.

We do not simply live, we live because. We live because of others, because of beautiful things and times and places. We live because God gave us life, to be happy in, and to find a special way.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

February 21 – Daily Feast

February 21 – Daily Feast

A young Indian boy named Slow was so brave in battle when he was fourteen that he was renamed Sitting Bull. He had a great love for birds and imitated their songs – finally writing songs of his own and chanting them. How many of us have been called slow? If not in one category, then in another. The change comes when we study something we love, doing what comes so naturally that we succeed in an area that was totally unexpected. Never underestimate the power of small beginnings. Sufficiency in all things more often than not begins in small ways. Little ideas and tiny steps evolve into greater accomplishment. Someone said it takes twenty years to become an overnight success, but it only takes seconds to recognize the beginning of one.

~ Let us look forward to the pleasing landscape of the future. ~

CHIEF ROSS

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 19th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

In those moments when we quietly sit with mind centered on the fact that God is only good, and that no situation devious or twisted in appearance, has any power except that which we give it by dwelling on how terrible it is – then, there is hope.

If we can become quiet enough in our own minds to know God is good, it will produce one of those times of sweet serenity that settles like an invisible veil between us and our troubles. In those moments of growth and faith will come peace that passes all understanding.

It is good to live an active life, but some of life’s most productive moments are not when the mind and body are hurled through hectic hours at a furious pace. Life offers many tender and beautiful times that demand nothing and give only a quiet calm that will never come in pill form.

Contrary to the belief in any power except God’s, there is a happy medium. It does not come simply by demanding, and there are times when it can be touched on only so briefly. But even in our sore travails there is a time when life finds balance and we live in harmony with God’s laws.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

February 19 – Daily Feast

February 19 – Daily Feast

We all discover at some time or other that it is painful to love. Caring about something, about someone, about some place is a great joy. It does make us vulnerable, easy to get to, easy to touch, and hard-pressed to hide our emotions. Some bit of us wants desperately to hide what we feel for fear that it will be taken the wrong way. But even more, we are afraid of revealing more than we are willing to share. A reserve of our own thoughts and feelings keeps us from depleting all that we are, keeps us from giving away that part of us which generates life. It keeps us able to love and care deeply. Despite all the pain that goes with caring, we would not have it any other way.

~ The earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love. ~

SITTING BULL

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 18th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

We all know that if it were not for the little kindnesses, the helping hands that we receive from those who touch our lives daily, we would fall more often and much harder. Yet, we must expect others to rush to our aid. It is then that we test the strength of our own self-reliance.

We should make every effort to be worthy of the concern and help of others. It is sharing all phases of life that makes living more than just an existence. But none of us can support others for long who have no will to use their self-reliance. It is said that God helps those who help themselves, but even God cannot help where help is refused.

Then, how much can we depend on ourselves? How would we react to the same situations we see other people experiencing daily? We, who depend so much on our external advantages to pull us through, cannot truthfully foretell our actions in a crisis. But we can have a reserve of faith and strength behind us so that when others reach our to lift us up, we will be worthy of their time spent in helping us to build our self-reliance.

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ on February 17th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It has become increasingly noticeable how the power grab has reached even the lower levels of living. It is a right thing for us to try to raise ourselves. To fail to try would earmark us for failure….and yet up the shaky ladder of success climb so many bodies without spirits, so little understanding of what is ahead….and often less of what is past.

If we could only realize our power comes not from grasping the coattails of others, but from a higher source that knows the way….that places before us the right steps, the correct manner, the much needed wisdom and inspiration.

Why is it that when all this guidance is available to us, we let the littleness of our souls hold us back, believing all the time that any forward motion is because we have learned how to twist situations to our own avail.

How sad the lot of those who discover all the rungs on their ladder are on the same level. “Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads,” wrote Caleb Colton. “No man is wise enough, nor good enough, to be trusted with unlimited power.”

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

February 17 – Daily Feast

February 17 – Daily Feast

Touching the earth is a lovely thing, a feeling of once again finding our beginnings, a knowing that this place where we stand, whether to walk or plow or plant, is something created for us, for the pulse of the earth slows our own and tranquilizes our confusion. The Cherokees believe that seeing the sky in all its limitless depths stirs our imaginations and stretches our awareness of how much simple beauty is provided for us. We can see that bitterness lasts only as long as we allow it, but we have reached beyond the ceiling of our minds and are as unlimited as the sky. As currents of air stir the fragrance of flowers, we may not be able to see all things but we sense the influence and know that life is ours to enjoy. It comes by Divine heritage.

~ Ka wat lee OS, tat gat he. Peace for the Cherokees, Oh America, peace for the Cherokees. ~

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 14th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Why is it that the things we love can cause us so much pain, and perhaps without realizing it? Why is it that we find so much to worry about in all the “what ifs” that cross our minds with such persistence? What makes fatigue follow us through the hours and drain away precious strength that we need to help us in our daily routine?

All the things that plague is daily have one common cause – fear. To some, fear is a constant companion. We may call it by many other names such as necessity, time, busyness, demands, but all of these can be forms of fear.

Fear produces the most mental, physical, and spiritual fatigue that has ever overtaken humans. It rushes us so that we have accidents. It drains us of strength to resist illness. It tells us we cannot produce enough to meet the demands upon us. And it builds within our minds such dire images so that we cannot face the simplest.

Fear has one antidote. It is not to stop worrying and take it easy, but it is faith. Adverse conditions cannot break us in the face of faith. Faith allows us to look fear in the eyes with such confidence that it loses its power over us.

English divine, Frederick William Robertson, wrote, “To believe is strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power.”

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

February 14 – Daily Feast

February 14 – Daily Feast

Our wounds need time to heal. And when it seems the healing has done its work, protection from further hurt is necessary, because our scars are on the surface. Physical wounds are bad enough, but when they come from mental cruelty and unfair treatment, pain returns again and again to reopen what no one should have to bear. It seems almost a sacrilege to ask someone so deeply hurt to forgive those who caused it. Yet unforgiveness causes damage almost as devastating as physical wounds, or more so. There is great stress on bearing grudges and the abused do not need any new pain or new problems. Forgiveness does not set the abusive free, but the abused.

~ I was living peaceably and satisfied when people began to speak bad of me. ~

GERONIMO

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 12th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Aim high, even though it seems at the moment you’ll never reach that cherished dream. It is your duty to lift yourself above mediocrity. And if you’re afraid your dream will sound foolish, then don’t talk about it, work for it.

Some dreams have gossamer wings, too fragile to discuss. We can be so zealous about our plans that we talk away the mystery and lose interest in the things we’ve begun. Zeal can burn itself out in one, quick, bright flame, or it can be nurtured into strength that is the basis for greatness.

If dreams have substance, then they may well come true. And if they are in line with the law of good, then there will be someone who wants to help. To have the desire to do something that will benefit others, the desire to serve, is to have a dream with solid possibilities.

The aims, then, must be deserving as to become duties. It falls to certain individuals to develop a gift and use it in helping other people. As German philosopher Immanuel Kant has written, “What are the aims which are at the same time duties? They are the perfecting of ourselves and the happiness of others.”

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Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

February 12 – Daily Feast

February 12 – Daily Feast

The Cherokee can agree with Sir Francis Drake when he wrote about the herb garden, “A perfect garden planted with herbs, when trod upon gives the very air a delightful fragrance.” But to the Cherokee it meant even more – food and medicine. As a child, I spent much time following my Grandmother Essie in search of herbs, mullein, lamb’s quarter and other things I hoped I wouldn’t have to eat in greens, but the hunt was a joy. Kneeling to dig the herbs, feeling the soil and the warmth of the sun, gave me the realization that the plants were only a part of a gift from Asga Ya Galun lati. I was also being given the day to enjoyment, the songs of dozens of birds, the little meal I shared with Grandmother, and her company away from others.

~ A Cherokee woman is never idle and has no time to tattle or to create mischief. ~

WILLIAM FYFFE

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

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