‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for Feb. 11th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

If you could remake your personal world, how would you want it? Very few can answer that question immediately. Many cannot answer after a great deal of consideration. Maybe we are drifters to a degree. There seems to be a certain amount of apprehension and fear about saying, or even thinking of what we want out of life. It must be that we feel some of it isn’t right to want, or that maybe we are asking more than should be our share.

Money is probably the first thing that most people think about, because of what they could do for themselves and for others. But what of health and peace and love? Without these all the fame and money in the world would be entirely meaningless. Without a spiritual foundation to one’s life, all our desires are built on sand. Without knowing where we’re going, we are drifters.

To know what we want with good is the first and most important step. As Carlyle wrote, “The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder – a waif; a nothing. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.”

Tennyson wrote these beautiful words: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. What are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift no hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends!”

What on this earth could we possibly have of good that has not come from the Almighty? What inroads are made into disease and sickness, what light has focused more understandingly on mental illness and weaknesses, without having been revealed through something greater than we are?

And indeed, to what can we contribute the smallest or greatest amounts of success, the love we share, the true joys, the peace, and our very breath. How presumptuous of us to believe we own one thing of lasting value that does not come from God.

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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
Click Here to Buy her books at Amazon.com

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 11 – Daily Feast

February 11 – Daily Feast

Many things from the past echo faintly within us – voices, sounds, thoughts. Only a few ring clear like a bell from many long ago seasons. Persistent memories call us back to deal with details – some of them best forgotten. Why do we remember? Perhaps to clarify what we feel, to help us be more objective about the present moment. Or maybe to force us to see that pattern of our own lives so that we may throw out events that have been obstacles. Sometimes we remember just so we can be grateful. Like the well-fed dog that turns primitive at the sight of a bone, we pick up on our own instincts and react before we think. If we see what is about to happen we can meet it with good humor and have less need to make everyone in the present time pay dearly for what happened so long ago.

~ I want peace, that we may……sleep in our houses and rise in peace on both sides. ~

BLOODY-FELLOW

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for February 10th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The longest face and the saddest cry
Always seem to come with the question why
Why did you take what belonged to me?
It has always been mine, or can’t you see
That you have no rights, not right to claim,
And you did just that, you’re to blame
For all my unhappiness, all of my tears.
Well, perhaps not all, part were my fears.
And I suppose if I think I can also say
That if I’ve lost anything, it’s really the way
That I treat the things that used to be mine.
I saw clouds on the days where there was really sunshine,
I turned often to darkness instead of the light,
I saw all of the wrong, but never the right,
And in all honesty I suppose I must say
If I’ve lost anything, I gave it away.

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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 8th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Do you want to know the truth about worry? It hits everyone. It is not an ailment just for weaklings or cowards. Worry is the cat you throw out only to have it back in before you can close the door.

Worry has another side. It proves we care very much, and that we appreciate our God-given gifts and loved ones. In a way, it is a sign of strength, for if we can turn it to faith, then faith can be just as strong. And to overcome worry, or to at least control it, there must be faith.

Faith, and the knowledge that if you could be in all the places, watching closely all the things about which you are concerned, you couldn’t do a tenth as much good as one simple prayer.

We are taught, “Be not anxious,” “Fear not,” and “Be not afraid,” and too quickly we become anxious, fearful, and very frightened. But even then we have only to put worry to flight by remembering those quieting words that are so absolutely true, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Recently we had a summer storm. It was rumbling and heavy with darkness. The lightning flashed across the sky, and trees bent back and forth in the uncertain currents. When the first huge drops of rain spattered across the walks and lawns, our thoughts turned to the safety of anyone or anything that might be caught out in the wind and rain.

We’ve been through many summer storms. Some of them left permanent marks upon our memories. The threatening, the darkness, the pressure of the atmosphere are not so different from the emotional storms of the human life. We see lives under pressure bend to and fro in the uncertainty of life. We know concern for the safety of those who experience emotional storms. Then we know the only answer is in God’s hands. There is no other way.

The good earth rights itself quickly after a storm. Nature comes forth more richly for having gone through the storm, and the scars are lost in new growth. And blessed are we when we lift ourselves up to a new, deeper radiance and peace.

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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 8 – Daily Feast

February 8 – Daily Feast

It is interesting to see someone take one little idea and make it grow into something that benefits many people. Could it be that an idea hangs before us like a worm in a chrysalis that is able to emerge as a beautiful ka ma ma – butterfly? When we reach for the stars we should remember that we are rooted and grounded in little things. The basis for success that lasts is the knowledge that slow and careful construction cannot be toppled by fickle and fast-moving tastes. So much is made to be temporary – the fast-moving fads – and people jump aboard to ride them for the duration. In the process the ka ma ma is crushed before it ever develops, and the pupa-idea must begin all over again. But it remembers its beginnings, its basic purpose.

~ I may be forced to adopt a new way of life, but my heart and spirit spring from the red earth. ~

PAINTED WOLF

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for January 28th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There may be many reasons why man wants to conquer the world, but there is something youthful and soul-stirring to be able to do it for somebody. Living within oneself is barren and shallow, lacking in warmth and without understanding. But where we can be outgoing and giving, the importance of others becomes doubly strong.

It is impossible to even be selfish without the help of others. Who would we take from, blame troubles on, resent, and criticize? But more important, who would care when we’re ill, who would be happy when we’re blessed, and who would love us when we least deserve it?

The world may be deluged with problems and solutions, laws to live by, formulas, fear, faith, and the everlasting struggle to survive in the face of others, but it is just as necessary to share laughter in happiness, to know God in a sunset, and to feel joy in a sunrise, all more beautiful because of others.

Victor Hugo wrote that the greatest happiness in life is in knowing that others love us, for ourselves, or rather, they love us in spite of ourselves

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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 January 27th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There is much to be said of small things. Even in this age of emphasis on bigness we must realize that bigness is only a mass of small things. An idea is a small thing. With it we can change our world. We can take a tiny seed and give it careful attention and reap a hundred fold. We can take a little idea and give it our attention and build it into a fortune.

A smile is a small thing. Smile once at someone in passing and three will return the smile. Smiling is so contagious that it moves from person to person until a hundred smiling faces are the result of one.

A thought is a small thing. One thought inspires another and another until a mental image is formed. From that mental image blueprints are drawn. And from those blueprints worlds are built.

Hope is a small thing. One tiny glimmer of hope can lift us out of the deepest pit of darkness. One whisper of encouragement will help us to know that as long as there’s hope there is an excellent chance.

A wish is a small thing. Like a little prayer, it climbs the steps to an idea that makes a smile and gives us hope to make our wishes come true. For in small things are all great things formed, in little beginnings the possibilities of great events.

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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 January 24th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There must be a great many persons who have questioned their own wisdom in having fought for a principle. To so many, it seems all they gleaned from it was the title “different”. Isn’t this why so many refuse to stand up for what they believe? We look at them in disbelief, the idea that someone is trying to attract attention. If they are not twitted about their actions they are treated with cold indifference which can be even worse.

It seems that if persons have the strength to say they will fight for a certain truth, they must also have the strength to fight alone without depending on those around them to tell them how they should conform. They must not be embarrassed to be counted as unusual in the pursuit of their particular belief.

But the individuals who find themselves alone in the stand they take must remember that if it is truth they are following it will eventually win and at least they can live with themselves. Not everyone can say that.

H.W. Beecher has written, “It is often said it is no matter what a man believes if he is only sincere. But let a man sincerely believe that seed planted without ploughing is as good as with; that January is as favorable for seed-sowing as April; and that cockle seed will produce as good a harvest as wheat, and is it so?”

Sincerity, like trust, must be rooted in those basic truths that are for the good of everyone. If that which we sincerely believe in and live by is truly good, then the results will speak so loudly that all who really want to will see. Until we sincerely want to know good and do good, we will never know it. And until we do, we only half live
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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 January 22nd

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

The destructive hand is one that never finds a friendly hand to shake. Its finger is always pointed at someone’s face in a threat. The destructive hand is forever lifted against anyone who differs, ready to strike in disagreement, always lifted for attention to let them tell the wrong someone has done.

The destructive hand tries desperately to hold another’s good back….ready to sign a complaint….forever in a gesture of disdain.

But pity the destructive hand. It will never know the tenderness of love nor find the clasp of friendship. It will never feel the sun warm on its palm while it lifts someone….or guide another to happier things….or wave or cheer or praise and give thanks.

The destructive hand is the negative approach to all of life. It can never do anything but discourage and frighten. The positive approach to life is found in every gesture of the productive hand; it builds unbreakable structure, unbroken peace, and joy to soothe the most savage heart.

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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 January 21

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Hardly any of us are without some jealousy. We like to think of ourselves about that painful emotion, because such a monstrous feeling is a destructive thing. But if we have not felt a normal amount of it, it is because we have yet to doubt something we love very much.

Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and sister of Francis I, King of France in the fifteenth century, wrote the following words:
“Love may exist without jealousy, although this is rare; but jealousy can feed on that which is bitter, no less than on that which is sweet, and is sustained by pride as often as by affection.”

Jealousy can rear its head when logic is giving you the facts, and throw the whole thing into chaos. But confidence is the enemy of jealousy. Confidence, trust, and faith are all strong parts of a nature where jealousy does not rule.

And jealousy, even in moderation, can introduce us to a serious problem with ourselves, if we let it grow out of proportion. It breeds rejection while maturity and understanding keep us safely within the bounds of permissiveness rather than possessiveness.

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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 January 16th

THINK ON THESE THINGS
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Vision to see, faith to believe, courage to do. With these things we improve living every day. Vision to see what we do want instead of visualizing all the wrong things. Faith to believe that good overcomes the bad. We give strength to whatever we believe in — good or bad.

It we let our doubts rule us and our fears control us, then we are believing in the wrong things. We need courage to go do the right things — the thing we know is right regardless of what someone is trying to suggest to us. Courage to be oneself, to have faith, to believe in good, to see beyond what seems to be and then to work toward what we are capable of 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

January 16 – Daily Feast

January 16 – Daily Feast

Use your imagination for its intended use – to create beauty and happiness and justice. If you use it for unfriendly reasons, it will eventually steal your wings and your feet. The Cherokee way of saying it is di gu yi s gi, the paymaster, the returns based on how it has been used. Do not envy another person, for your own imagination has grand gifts for you. Great suffering has been the lot of many who used their talented minds to bring hurt and pain where there should have been harmony.
~ There was nothing between him and the Big Holy. The contact was immediate and personal. ~
CHIEF LUTHER STANDING BEAR – LAKOTA
“A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II” by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for January 15th

‘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 time passes and other events come into being, a change may be necessary for the benefit of the over-all picture.

Sometimes we fix 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 us to 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 is disappointment can make a spirit better, the joy of accomplishment would have soon soured.

There’s no joy in a 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.”

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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 January 14

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

If you don’t know what to do about a situation – wait awhile, the answer will come. If weariness overcomes you before you’ve completed a difficult job, wait awhile, you’ll get your second wind.

If you do not agree with someone else’s philosophy, don’t fret, perhaps later you will come to know that the same philosophy can be reached from many different directions.

If you think the activities of another person or group are frivolous and unnecessary, wait a bit, they most likely will feel the same way about you sometime.

If you don’t like what others have to say, wait, they may clarify it – or you may change your mind.

If life hasn’t dished you unhappiness, wait a bit, if you’ve planted any happiness seeds, you will also reap.

We can’t always wait, but sometimes waiting is action, and action of the hardest kind. It is difficult to keep quiet when you have something to say, but it more often saves your face later and sometimes your life

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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

January 14 – Daily Feast

January 14 – Daily Feast

What we take for granted someone else thinks is beautiful. What we want to get rid of is someone else’s treasure. Sometimes we stand so close to something dear that we cannot see that it is dear. Our lack of awareness robs us of what we assume is ours forever. We have many eyes, but most are closed or glazed over. The eyes of the mind and spirit perceive far more than our physical eyes will ever see. The eyes of our hearing detect sound but also feelings and attitude – and the music of he sphere. There is a word in the Cherokee language, agowhtvhdi, which means sight. When we touch something we not only feel but we also see the gentleness or the hardships, the depths and the heights. No, we are never blind except when we close ourselves off and deny the very Spirit of Life.

~ Give heed, my child, lift up your eyes, behold the One who has brought you life. ~

CEREMONIAL SONG

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for January 13

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Bad feelings are burdens. When we get to the point of believing the whole world is sour because we don’t understand it, we have a lot of self-searching to do. Maybe we helped it to lose its sweetness. Maybe we’re the bad apple that soured the whole lot.

Our first thought should be to make amends. Sometimes we can’t, and when such is the case we need to get out of the way and let time and nature take its course.

Life is too beautiful to go on being a bitter pill that insists that everyone swallow it. As in the words of Caleb C. Colton, an English clergyman around the turn of the century, “the man who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the grief which he proposes to remove.”

We need to unburden ourselves by forgetting our problems and doing something that will put a smile on someone else’s face.

The quickest way to solve the problem of hurt feelings is to inquire if this situation is important to the whole of existence. Does this particular thing mean more than any of the other things of life? It is amazing how quickly trials fade into nothingness when faced with this question. It places before us the need to decide here and now the meaning of our whole existence.

There are not many things in our lives that we can truthfully say mean everything to us. The small things are important and very dear, but the really significant things we count on one hand – life, our loved ones, our good desires, our faith, and our nation.

One of the most magnified situations in this day is taking life too seriously. In the stress of too much mental confusion, we seem unable to laugh off so many little irritations. We let personality rule us into making each little problem the source of great anxiety and dramatically lay hold of it until it chokes us.

The worthwhile side of this life is too important to let ourselves become involved with things that mean little to us. Too much of the trouble in the world is caused from ego-building important that would never be missed in anyone’s existence.

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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

January 13 – Daily Feast

January 13 – Daily Feast

If we are not happy, it is because no one has given us permission to be. The hardships and stresses of those who went before us make us wonder if we have a right to do better. Do we have permission to outlive, outdo, outwork all those who went before us? Have we given our children permission to be stronger, better, and more intelligent than we are? The Cherokees have a word for it, adahenhdi, meaning the gift. Or have we told them to adhere to their roots instead of respecting them? Have we made them caretakers, or have we set them free to be strong builders on firm foundations? Permission is hard to come by when we wait and wait for someone to tell us we have done well, that we have earned the right to be mature, respected adults. No, we give ourselves permission to grow, to live long and well, to prosper and be in good health.

~ I can tell my children that the way to get honor is to go to work and be good men and women. ~

CHIEF RUNNING BIRD

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for January 10th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Whenever we stop to consider where we are on the road of life, we might also think about why we are there. Whether it is success or failure, or wavering in the middle of the road, we are where we are because of someone or something.

Nearly every person can pinpoint the time in their life when there was a turning point, a change for worse or for the better. And usually there is someone to whom they give the credit for such a change.

Throughout our lives we contact many people, and they each leave an impression. As living continues the combination of all those thoughts and feelings and actions forms our opinions, our likes and dislikes, our fears and our loves. But there is one basic factor in all of this that turns us one way or other – the individual, the personal self. It is how we take life, what we expect, how we do our daily tasks, where we place our values that makes the difference.

We are born with the right to choose – and whatever we choose there will always be someone there to help us be good or bad. But first, we must give credit where credit is due.

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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

January 10 – Daily Feast

January 10 – Daily Feast

When something in our minds rings a bell that warns us, we do well to listen. What is it that wants to lure us away from the chose path? Is it not from the good side? Then, run like a rabbit! Every one of us has a sounding board, as testing place that detects the way we are moving. Like a compass, it points the right way – and we are foolish not to understand – gohlga. To ignore the impressions that are within us is like trying to go through a door, but refusing to use the doorknob. It is one thing to be dense and another to be willfully determined to get lost in the wilderness. Listen to the alarm system. It is there for a good reason – and later on we won’t have to say that something told us not to go a certain way and we didn’t listen.

~ He hears voices other do not hear; sees visions that confirm his dreams. ~

EAGLE OLD MAN

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for January 9th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

It takes such a little whiff of memory to carry us all the way back. Small things tucked here and there remind us of some place, some thing, some person who has played a special part in our lives.

We want to go forward, try new things, know new people, visit new places, yet how nice to slip on those comfortable old slippers of the familiar bygones and remember loving faces and happy times.

It is said that we should never return to places that have a sacred spot in our memories. Everything changes with time, so little remains recognizable to us. We begin to think that perhaps those hallowed places were not so wonderful as we remember.

But they were, for in their time and that place it was as it should have been, happy and meaningful. They may have changed, but so have we.

A little of every place and every person goes with us in the building of even happier times. We have not lost anyone or anything but it is the combination of all that we have lived and learned that builds our character and teaches us the way of life.

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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

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