A Cherokee Feast of Days
by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - February 21
"Every thing or living being that exists in this world, be it trees, flowers, birds, grasses, rocks, soil of the earth, or human beings, has its unique manner of existence --its essence, its spirit that makes it what it is. That is what is meant by connectedness. "
--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA
Scientists are finally realizing what the Elders have taught for thousands of years-every- thing is connected. Because everything is interconnected, whatever you do to any one thing, you do to everything. If you poison any part of the earth, the poison eventually affects everything else. If you poison the plants, the birds will eat the plants, which poisons the birds. The birds are eaten by humans which poisons the humans. The humans will have babies who could be deformed because the plants were poisoned. We must learn to live in harmony with the earth. We must learn to think good things. Every good thought is felt by everything, which causes everything to be happy.
Creator,
let my thoughts only be good thoughts.
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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 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.
God's Minute
FOR I AM PERSUADED THAT NEITHER DEATH NOR LIFE,
NOR ANGELS NOR PRINCIPALITIES NOR POWERS, NOR
THINGS PRESENT NOR THINGS TO COME, NOR HEIGHT
NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE, SHALL
BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD
WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.
(ROMANS 8:38-39 *NKJV)
Dear Member's,
God fills us with His love, and He wants us to share that
great love with others. So, BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE
ANOTHER: FOR LOVE IS OF GOD; AND EVERYONE WHO
LOVES IS BORN OF GOD AND KNOWS GOD. HE WHO
DOES NOT LOVE DOES NOT KNOW GOD, FOR GOD
IS LOVE. ( 1 JOHN 4:7-8 )
So why not show your love for others each and every day.
After all, it's written: YOU SHALL NOT TAKE VENGEANCE,
NOR BEAR ANY GRUDGE AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF
YOUR PEOPLE, BUT YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
AS YOURSELF: I AM THE LORD. ( LEVITICUS 19:18 )
Now you can do that by being a good friend, and lending a
hand when someone is in need. It is also as simple as smiling
and saying hello to every one you meet, and asking them how
their day is going. Therefore let your love light shine brightly.
Yes indeed, LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN,
THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS AND GLORIFY
YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. ( MATTHEW 5:16 )
Most important of all, remember what Jesus said, YOU SHALL
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH
ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL
YOUR STRENGTH. 'THIS IS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.'
AND THE SECOND, LIKE IT, IS THIS: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR
NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' THERE IS NO COMMANDMENT
GREATER THAN THESE. For then when you do, God will fill you
with the same amount of His Love in return! Aho, Amen, e-men
( MARK 12:30-31 )
Have a Wonderful Day Member's, and please don't wait until Next
St.Valentine's Day to show your love for others! ( Just Kidding )
With My Love & Prayers,
your servant , Pastor Cougarmoon