‘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.

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

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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.

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

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Your Animal Spirit for January 16th is Mockingbird

Your Animal Spirit for Today
January 16, 2014

Mockingbird

Mockingbirds are master imitators, and can mimic the calls of many other birds. They’re also fearless protectors of their nest, and will attack any bird (no matter how large) to protect their young. Mockingbird’s lesson for you today is twofold: to listen to how you might be mimicking others—instead of listening to your own true voice; and to examine the value of what you defend. Hmmm?

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‘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.

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

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Your Animal Spirit for December 31 is The Mockingbird

Your Animal Spirit for Today
December 31, 2013

 

Mockingbird

Mockingbirds are master imitators, and can mimic the calls of many other birds. They’re also fearless protectors of their nest, and will attack any bird (no matter how large) to protect their young. Mockingbird’s lesson for you today is twofold: to listen to how you might be mimicking others—instead of listening to your own true voice; and to examine the value of what you defend. Hmmm?

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for December 30

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Henry David Thoreau, whose cry was “Simplify! Simplify!” went to great measures to prove to himself, and perhaps to society, that life could be lived in the most simple manner and at the least expense. With only a few dollars he managed to provide for himself the things of absolute necessity for quite a long period of time.

Not many of us would care to exist on the absolute necessities. We have become too much accustomed to easier living. Things that were once thought of as luxuries are now considered necessities. And yet, with all of this, life is anything but simple. We seem to have the ability to complicate the best laid plans and find ourselves shadow boxing.

Like many of the trite old adages, “Life is what we make it,” is so true. By our own minds we accept or reject, by ignoring or by searching out the causes of shadows and removing the cause. It is whatever we elect to do about our individual lives that makes the difference. But we shall make great strides when we recognize the supreme excellence in all things of simplicity.

We don’t need to worry about doing without the necessary things in life – if we have a grateful heart. A grateful heart is not just remembering to write a few words to someone who has done a kindness, or saying thank you graciously and at the right moment. A grateful heart is the feeling of great blessings which precedes that thank you note and that verbal expression.

A grateful heart is one that always knows the fullness of that rich feeling of first being grateful without cause. And then, all other gratitude and its expression comes naturally.

Perhaps true gratitude is a grateful though toward heaven that I should be chosen to fill this spot, do this work, and have been given the strength to do it.

It was Romaine, the English theologian, who said, “Gratitude to God makes even a temporal blessing a taste of heaven.” We can have so much more heaven with a grateful heart.

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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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for December 12th

‘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.

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for December 5th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Henry David Thoreau, whose love for simplicity often took him into solitude, also wrote of the sensitive side of human nature. “The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling.”

How easy is it to destroy the only approach to our true selves. And how often communications are broken down by the brutal force of “getting to the point” and speaking “frankly.”

The only time an agreement has been reached by the frankly route is when two people already believe in the same thing. And it is a most infrequent occasion when two people can meet head-on and believe the other honest because that person is direct and wordy.

More often, there must be some thought given to the sensitivity of the other person. First, that person is a human being with human dignity; feelings and thoughts, strong likes and dislikes. And it is a considerate person who has the sensitive perception and insight into the heart of another, and because of that thoughtfulness can be more honest and direct and progress by it.

Nevertheless, if one has to be constantly on the outlook to keep from offending a friend, then that person is not really a friend. It isn’t difficult to be a friend to someone who is endearing to everyone. Indeed it is a pleasure to be counted among the person’s friends. But it is another thing altogether to be a friend to someone who finds little friendship anywhere.

Other people seldom see us as we are. In fact, who we truly are is lost somewhere among our daily contacts. We react differently to nearly every person we meet. Their personality DNA ours may blend beautifully or they may clash horribly. And we can rather tell where the faith lies when we balance out the blends and the clashes. Are we easy to be friends with, or are we merely acquaintances and nothing more?

If people have to dodge around so many issues in order to keep us sweet, we need to hear some truth about ourselves. If we can’t do it, it may have to come from a friend. Then, we must remember the words of Thomas a’ Becket, “Better are the blows of a friend than the kisses of an enemy.”

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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

December 3 – Daily Feast

December 3 – Daily Feast

Much has grieved us, we cannot deny it. Strong as we are, believing as we do, we are still grieved, and we must overcome it. To stop grieving does not mean we no longer care, but that we cannot let this emotion consume us when we need a steady hand and a firm step. It will creep back in unlikely moments to make us cry but time will replace the pain with happy memories. Once we have a flicker of light we can know that grieving is at an end. It can no longer take our whole thought because we have things to do, places to go, and a life to live. This is the time.

~ He orders all things, and He has given us a fine day. ~

RED JACKET – SENECA

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for December 2nd

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Have you ever stood on the sidelines and watched the drama of your own difficulties being acted out in someone else’s life? Does it provoke a feeling of gratitude that here I will witness something that will help me solve my own problem? Or does it invite a feeling of smugness that they were not so capable of hiding theirs as I have been of concealing mine.

Hiding one’s difficulties can be compared to concealing an elephant. The only possible way to keep it a secret would be to keep it from those who could care less in the first place. If they were face to face with your elephant they would register little surprise and proceed immediately to forget it.

In fact, there is considerable danger in looking down on those who are trying to get their lives on the right track. At least they have the intestinal fortitude to try. And to pretend that one has nothing to overcome is merely polishing the front glass while the back door falls away.

Smugness or compassion? It was Cowper who reminded us, “Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.”

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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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for November 29th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

We all develop our own ways of centering our lives on something. In our minds we each have a design of what we think we are capable of being. If we want to be what we think we are capable of being, then we must hold our design firmly in our minds until it is secured as the focal point.

Each life must have that focal point, the center of interest where all phases of life come together. A focal point gives strength and meaning to the smallest details of everyday living.

Dimension and depth belong to the life that is centered. Though it may take many forms we must always have a “home” to return to, knowing that here are the roots, the things that really matter.

There must be a blending of our lives with others. But to be happy with one’s self, that focal point must be steady and true before we can feel contented that “all’s right with the world.”

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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

November 29 – Daily Feast

November 29 – Daily Feast

Too much looking back robs us of our natural ability to change things. We are too good at finding reasons for failing, too well trained in using logic to work out knotty decisions. Every thinking, praying human being has access to supernatural answers to his problems, but he cannot use only human reason. And more than anything he must not give excuses or blame others for his own mistakes. Not can we say that if we sit still long enough a miracle will happen. We have to use our minds and our hearts and our spirits – but we must also obey the rules.

~ Some of us seem to have a peculiar intuition. ~

OHIYESA – SANTEE DAKOTA

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

November 20 – Daily Feast

November 20 – Daily Feast

Always take into account what your mind has in it. What of the world have you taken in and stored in all the little crevices and avenues of your mind and thinking? Guard your mind, for out of it comes what you think is possible for you. If you have stored defeat and rejection, those are the only things you have to draw on. Our voices record everything we say within our minds and hearts. Blessing or swear words, sarcasm or snappy cynicism, all are there, and all have a part in ruling life. This is the hardest part to sweep out and control, but it can be done – and it is better than storing trash.

~ Neither anger nor fury shall be found lodging in their minds. ~

IROQUOIS – CIRCA 1570

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

November 16 – Daily Feast

November 16 – Daily Feast

Things have a way of growing out of bounds in the dark of thought. But we can control them by easing them out gently, the way steam escapes the kettle. The worst thing is to feed more fuel into our emotions than we can handle. Turn off the heat and the pressure will ease. Lay blame aside – especially self-blame. You can’t do any good if you are dwelling on what went wrong. Forgive yourself and others. Nothing removes the blocks like forgiving. This is survival time and no injustice should be harbored. Make a new beginning and don’t stop until it is done. You will know when that is.

~ The Great Spirit has heard me, and he knows I have spoken the truth. ~

KEOKUK – SAC AND FOX

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for November 15th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

There comes a time when we have to turn a firm and deaf ear to those people who have no other intention than to disturb our peace of mind. There comes a time when we have to turn ourselves about in our very tracks and ignore the bitter complaining voices of experience.

There comes a time when we have to get angry with ourselves for allowing bad to become worse when there is Someone bigger than we are who can handle everything.

There comes a time when we have to make a decision and to be so firm that it leaves no doubt in our minds that we know what we must do – and then do it.

There comes a time when we have to hear music and feel peace, or we have no foundation for living.

There comes a time when we must learn to appreciate and be thankful or lose all that matters to us.

There comes a time when we recognize the many faces of God as true blessings and give thanks.

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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