Tag: World Literature

Today’s Affirmation, Thought & Meditation for March 17th

St Patrick's Day Comments
Today’s Affirmation for Saturday, March 17th

I have a wealth of knowledge and talents. Each day I spend some time in quiet contemplation to allow these riches to emerge.

 

Today’s Thought for Saturday, March 17th

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 62)

 

Today’s Meditation for Saturday, March 17th

Draw Spontaneously

Give yourself free rein to draw whatever images suggest themselves to you. Try not to censure what comes, simply express whatever surfaces from your consciousness. Now spend some time meditating on the images that you have drawn. In doing so, you may discover a deeper level of self, authentically expressed in the drawing.

If you are feeling adventurous, paint spontaneously or use another artistic medium, such as clay, to express yourself.

 

Reference:
Magickal Graphics

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for March 13th

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

What is the texture of life?

Texture is that finely woven fabric of life that demands we have a congenial environment. It asks that we be industrious toward success, and that we should have a way of life, a purpose. We should hear the music of life and taste the bitter and the sweet.

Texture requires us to research every experience and learn the lesson in it. It orders us to communicate with life and make discoveries about ourselves and progress toward a texture where the coarse has been refined.

Frequently we should examine the texture of life to identify the quality. How wide is my world? How high is my sky?

All of us should know our own makeup, our capabilities, our gifts with which we have been divinely endowed. And we should think long on these words from Edna St. Vincent Millays’s Renascene:
“The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart is wide. Above the world is stretched the sky, no higher than the soul is high.”

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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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

James Russell Lowell once wrote, “No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him.” Each of us has been given a talent. It may not be some great shining thing that will attract attention and bring fame. But living has become so intricate, so great in detail, so fine in its workings, that it requires that skill of all men.

Every time we touch something, hear, see, and feel, we are using the results of other people’s talents. Too many take their own abilities for granted and see a task as just another job. But that isn’t true, because no matter how small your part may seem, it takes its place in the world of living as important and necessary as the greatest talent.

The secret of a successful talent is in its use. The most minute gift was put there for a purpose and we should never belittle it but gratefully devote our attention to developing its perfection.

There are a number of self-improvement books on the market today. Among them are excellent etiquette books teaching us the correct way of doing things and how to live more graciously with our fellow man. But one can be quite learned and lose the benefit of keeping the social graces with oneself.

You owe it to yourself to quit belittling your abilities in thought or word. Self-respect is a necessity in order to keep on good terms with oneself.

You owe yourself spiritual growth – the ability to enter a church reverently and to sit quietly in your own preparatory service before the formal service begins.

It is your duty to fill your mind with the better thoughts, the sweetening of the nature and a measure of tolerance – for you will make mistakes, but there should also be the power to forgive oneself, to go on from there.

To be on good terms with oneself is to worry less about violating the rules of good behavior with all others.

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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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

First things and first times….the newness of the present moment holds such a breath of youth, such a challenge, there are moments in everyone’s life they wish they could relive. Just to recall those times when the newness, the memory of first things were beautiful and exciting.

But life never stands still. It moves forward or it decays. It cannot hold on to the past in any way. If the newness of first things has not grown into finer and more beautiful moments, then it cannot go on.

Everyone can recall something so dear that it becomes new again just by thinking about it. Courage, love, joy, contentment, all these can call to mind the special moments that were beginnings of new eras, new times in living. The scales of life tip this way and that to make those times full of meaning and sometimes vividly painful. And then sometimes it takes a season to mend the heart and spirit. When they are ready, the experience of new times and new beginnings and first things will bloom once more and the youthful challenge again enchants.

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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

March 4 – Daily Feast

March 4 – Daily Feast

Few things that count in life are taken by great strides. Little by little, step by step, we inch forward. Great progress in a short time is so often short-lived and gives us the wrong idea of how things work. We build a consciousness, use good judgment, di gu go at nv in Cherokee, to move slowly and with awareness. But as we build, it is important to override the negatives that try to lodge in what we are doing. Our thinking is like a garden that needs to be cultivated. And our talking is even more important. The two go I tsu la, hand in hand, and what happens is a direct result of what we have dwelled on for many seasons. But it is in our power to make corrections and edge out trouble – little by little, but very surely.

~ Certain small ways and observances sometimes have connection with large and more profound ideas. ~

STANDING BEAR

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

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March 3 – Daily Feast

March 3 – Daily Feast

A great man once said that a human soul may be thought of as seeking a creative outlet. If that outlet is clear and free, all is well. But if the channel is clogged with fuss and worry, we can forget the creativity. Even in quiet, we can be in a frenzy. Quiet desperation, Thoreau called it. True silence comes from directing thought to quiet places and still waters. If we allow our minds to drift toward something that could go wrong, then it steals our peace and clogs our creative capacity. Sit quietly and think of softly flowing water, gentle breezes, and the call of the whippoorwill. Reflect on the joy of thinking freely, of unlimited vitality – and don’t tell yourself that it couldn’t possibly happen.

~ The American Indian is skillfully artistic, a refined sense that springs from deep wells of ancient vision. ~

MURPHY

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

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THINK on THESE THINGS

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 in an accusation. It is shaking in 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 structures, unbroken peace, and joy to soothe the most savage heart.

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

February 18 – Daily Feast

February 18 – Daily Feast

There’s no wisdom in judging too quickly. The overall picture may be an illusion and what we think we see is in our own minds. Our judgment is poor when we get emotional and fall in love with someone, or call him bad before we know. Silence is a blessing until we are stable and have our perspective in balance. It is true that we have to judge sometime, but a little time can give us wisdom, which comes slowly.

~ The more I consider the condition of the white men, the more fixed becomes my opinion that they lose much by subjecting themselves to what they call laws and regulations. ~

TOMOCHICHI – CREEK CHIEF

“A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II” by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

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‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ (Feb. 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.

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Human dignity is that silent something in us that keeps from falling below the level where others look down on us to make light of our very existence. None of us exists who cannot sense to some degree the feeling that others hold for us. It may create in us a “show them” attitude that takes us through life more successfully, but it will more likely destroy our desire to be anything more than what is expected of us.

It is an appalling thing to see others impose their superiority upon human dignity of those whose literacy may not be equal to their own. Only profound ignorance could convince anyone they have the right to see and idly judge another’s intelligence, or to insult the dignity of any human being.

The little silent people who have not yet discovered within themselves the abilities they need to lift themselves, still have the right and dignity of being human. A small amount of respect and direction might start them on the road to better things, though it might be all uphill. At least if they know it is all uphill they may work harder and reach and place where they can look back at those with lofty ideas about themselves, standing forever stagnant, and feel more compassion than they could ever have felt.

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

Daily Feast for January 26th

January 26 – Daily Feast
There are in every life both sunshine people and rainy-day people. There are giving people and there are those who take, but how so few in number are those who understand. To have someone understand why we cry or laugh, why we feel downcast for no apparent reason, is to have a friend. A friend accepts our changes of mood without telling us to snap out of it. They know if we could so easily handle tears we would have done it already. All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in the presence of a friend who never judges but stands alongside with loyalty. “My u na li, take my hand and walk with me until you can go alone.” It gives us what we need to be a friend as well.

~ We shall not fail….to nourish your hearts….about the renewal of our amity and the brightening of the Chain of Friendship. ~

CANASSATEGO, 1742

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

9 Natural Lessons For Your New Year

  • Christy Diane Farr

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The earth is a most magnificent teacher, not just of how to best interact with her but also of how to make our own lives bloom. In the spirit of the new year, of this magnificent opportunity to cultivate the life you desire, I offer you these 9 Natural Lessons for the New Year.

Lesson 1: YOU are not a weed. (You may just be a wildflower planted in a rose garden.)

Call it whatever you wish but our source makes no accidents. Too many truly extraordinary human beings are walking around on this planet feeling like they don’t fit, like they are broken, or that they don’t belong. I don’t care if it was your parents, teachers, peers, spouse, church, or the images portrayed in the media that led you to believe that you are a weed but it is a lie… and you have to stop believing it.

You are perfectly imperfect, just like the rest of us. You may very well be unlike the others but that doesn’t mean you suck, it means you’re a Wild One. That means you’re one of us… and your life is a gift.

 

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. – Rachel Carson

Lesson 2: You find what you seek. Seek intentionally.

I know it seems simple but seriously, it matters. If you want a beautiful life, look for beautiful things and wallow in them. If you want love, look for opportunities to be loving (in a healthy way). If you want abundance, surround yourself with things (images, quotes, books, people, etc.) that teach and remind you how to feel abundant. If you talk to yourself all day about how there isn’t enough time, energy, money, help, or whatever else you need, then you will absolutely find proof of that everywhere you are. There are too many ways for us to cultivate a different way of showing up in the world for anyone to keep living with the same old crappy life.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. – Henry David Thoreau

Lesson 3: Your dreams are your plans. Live them.

We all want our lives to make sense. We want to feel like we’re making a difference. Still, I see people searching and searching for what they are supposed to be doing. What are you good at? Do that. What makes your heart sing? Do that. What was the thing you did that cultivated the most dramatic results for you and the people you were serving? Do that again. The answers are not “out there” somewhere. Your answers are within you. Look within. Ask questions and when your soul whispers… for the love of all things glittery, do what it says!

(And if you don’t know what that means, call me.)

 

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lesson 4: This is a lifetime, your lifetime. Calm down and be the real you.

All of these resolutions, goals, dreams, and such are just different words for, “I want to be me.” If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re saying you want to return to your true body size. If you want a new job, you’re saying that you want work that’s true for you. If you want to stop doing something destructive to your body, you’re saying that you want to live in alignment with your integrity, no more coping mechanisms. You’re saying you want to be you, the real you, after a spell of months or years of living like someone else.

This is about returning to your true self. It’s a journey, just like the road you took away from you that got you here. Be patient. Let go of the hysteria. Drop the desperation. Just breathe, decide what needs to be done, and take action–small, consistent, steps back to the truth of who you are–as frequently as you can bear it.

The more steps you take, the faster you’ll get home.

 

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. – Lao Tzuis

Lesson 5: Take only the actions that are true for you.

Saying yes is a sacred act. Your resources–time, energy, money, attention, etc.–are all you have at your disposal. Think about how you’re using them. If there isn’t enough of you to go around, it’s time to reconsider. Think about why you say yes.

 

I ask not for a larger garden, but for finer seeds. – Russell Herman Conwell

Lesson 6: Live within your means.

You have this much space, this much energy, this much passion, and this much money… Are you wasting your life stretching and searching, when you could be cultivating true joy right here in your real world? We all want to live well, there’s nothing wrong with that. But, so many are missing out on true love at home while they are out trying to conquer the next level at work. So many are sacrificing their health to accomplish tasks that won’t actually bring them a better life. To thrive in the year ahead, consider if the actions you’ve been taking are going to cultivate the results you truly desire

 

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change. – Buddha

Lesson 7: When life feels dark, remember the lotus flower.

During a particularly difficult time earlier this year, a friend said to me, “Lotus flower. Google it.” I did and you would be well served to do the same. When life is hard, meditate on this earthy lesson.

 

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it. – Author Unknown

Lesson 8: Keep the promises you make to yourself… no matter what.

Once you decide what you want to be different, commit to reasonable daily action that will result in that transformation and then do it. No. Matter. What.

 

The new year is a tender time. Be still for a moment and enjoy the possibility.

Lesson 9: Make space for YOU in 2012.

If you’re like me, this door between one year and the next is a time full of reflection and anticipation. We make resolutions. We set goals. We dream. We intend to cultivate change in the gardens of our lives.

Then, we propel ourselves into the new year, into our big plans, and it works… at first. Then 12 months flies by (or crawls, depending on the year) and we’re back here again, reflecting on what was lost and gained, what came into our lives and what we released. We can’t help but notice how much changed in the past year, and how much didn’t change.

That’s right … we can’t help but notice what didn’t change–the book we didn’t write, music we didn’t make, weight we didn’t lose, trips we didn’t take, moves we didn’t make, debt we didn’t eliminate, relationships we didn’t nurture, habits we didn’t break (or adopt), leaps we didn’t take, and on and on and on.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Your home is your garden, and if you want to grow something new in your life, you’ve got to do more than walk around with the seed in your pocket. It’s time to clear space in the garden of your life, to make room for that seed to grow and bloom.

It’s time to make space for your life to bloom.

This year, let’s do it differently. You and me. Let’s create the space necessary for your resolutions or goals or dreams or change to become your reality.

Winter

Winter
 
Like anything else, if one is prepared to meet winter rather than cower at the thought, it is an excellent
time to be happy and alive. When we are warm on the inside and we have no excessive fears, we can lean
into the wind and pace ourselves to breathe the cold air and taste the snow without absorbing it. We were
created to take domination over these things and it is time we proved it. But as long as there is one other
person who is not warm, who does not see beauty, we can’t be too comfortable not immune to winter.
 
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II’ by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Daily Motivator for November 15th – Great courage

Great courage

You have great courage. Use it.

Whenever you feel fear, you are also feeling your potential for courage. Go ahead, feel the fear, and then let that courage of yours spring to life.

The fact that you can feel the fear means you also have the courage to get beyond it. Otherwise, the fear would serve no useful purpose.

Put that fear to good use by allowing it to ignite your courage. Put that courage to good use by utilizing it to move toward positive, meaningful objectives.

Feel the fear and know it means you have the courage. Learn from that fear and then step forward with all that courage.

The beginning of courage feels like fear. Follow through on that feeling, let the courage come, and with it you will achieve great things.

— Ralph Marston

The Daily Motivator

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Sensibility is said to be neither good nor evil in itself, but in its application. Sometimes we just “out-sensible” ourselves. In the course of years, we come to see the pattern of the truly sensible. What have we at this moment that really means anything? Does it give us happiness? Did it once seem most impractical? Was it worth fighting for?

The intellectual strives for knowledge and in his absorption leaves the world but hardly leaves a vacancy. The materialistic must have everything at the price of peace, and their possessions decay but never their chaotic souls. And the insecure forfeit the most minute comforts to save for that rainy day. Happiness would have been greater and far more lasting if the fund has been smaller and used as an opportunity fund.

The fine line of sensibility can be most elusive, but it seems to be more clearly seen when we relax and quit shoving to get there. If the place we desire is meant for us, it will come when we learn the way isn’t always sharp and direct and by demand.

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

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

What is the texture of life?

Texture is that finely woven fabric of life that demands we have a congenial environment. It asks that we be industrious toward success, and that we should have a way of life, a purpose. We should hear the music of life and taste the bitter and the sweet.

Texture requires us to research every experience and hear the lesson in it. It orders us to communicate with life and make discoveries about ourselves and progress toward a texture where the course has been refined.

Frequently we should examine the texture of life to identify the quality. How wide is my world? How high is my sky?

All of us should know our own makeup, our capabilities, our gifts with which we have been divinely endowed. And we should think long on these words from Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Renascence:
“The world stands out on either side no wider than the heart is wide. Above the world is stretched the sky, no higher than the soul is high.”

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

November 4 – Daily Feast

November 4 – Daily Feast

 

At one time or another we have watched someone and wondered how long it would be before we reached their stage of distress. We have been made to believe that if someone in the family has had a problem that we must have it as well. Even with our tendencies to be like someone else, we are still individuals and what we see should teach us to avoid the same pitfalls they had. More is decided in our minds and spirits than we can imagine. We have the creative power of speech, the determination and the grit to stop falling because someone else falls. Deny every thought and every suggestion that we have to be the victims of anything.

~ We were becoming like them, hypocrites and liars, adulterous lazy drones, all talkers, and no workers. ~

MA-KE-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAK – SAUK AND FOX CHIEF

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

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Wishing You & Yours A Very Blessed & Prosperious Samhain!

Samhain Comments & Graphics


Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble…
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 

~William Shakespeare, “Macbeth” 

~Magickal Graphics~

THINK ON THESE THINGS

THINK ON THESE THINGS
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Let’s not forget Dr. Schuller’s words when he was asked why so many of our people were killed in the terrorists’ attack on New York and in Washington. He said, “Take an O out of good and we have God; put a D before evil and we have devil.”

Can it be any plainer? We are told that we are not dealing with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers in evil places. Our spirits are whispering, “In all these things I am more than a conqueror.” This is not just a wish but a truth.

At one time it was “cool” to say we did not believe in spiritual help, but now it is cool to know we are of ourselves no strength, but with help we are overcomers, conquerors in the truest sense.

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