In retrospect, we have ignored common sense in favor of doing what we wanted to do. We wish we had not done it, but we said what we wanted to say, spoke out when it would have been better to stay quiet - we have overruled our common sense. Looking back again, when did we get off track? What little thing stung us into action? If we learn to hear the voice of wisdom we can overcome our foolishness. Wisdom never lets us down, but ignoring it will put away from us the best friend we can have.

~ I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. ~

CHIEF JOSEPH - NEZ PERCE

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

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Elder's Meditation of the Day - October 30

"My children, you have forgotten the customs and traditions of your forefathers. ...You have bought guns, knives, kettles, and blankets from the white man until you can no longer do without them; and what is worse you have drunk the poison firewater, which turns you into fools. Fling all these things away; live as your forefathers did before you."

--Pontiac, ODOWA

We need to think as our forefathers did. They knew the culture and the customs. The culture taught them how to live in harmony with each other. We need to think like this again. We must because God-reliant. We don't need the firewater. This liquid is very destructive to our native people. It kills our spirit. Our Indian people are happiest when we are spiritual. When we depend on anyone or anything else, we get off track. We need to talk to the Elders and find out what the old ways were. We need to ask them to teach us the culture, the tradition and the customs. This will help us become whole again.

My Maker, guide my path as you did my ancestors.

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'THINK on THESE THINGS'
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Good ideas are the flower of the mind, waiting to bloom for the benefit of the thinker.

We are constantly in the process of manufacturing ideas. Every waking moment we are thinking continually, making mental images of that which we desire or need. Everything we see was first an idea in someone's mind.

Ideas are fleeting messages that pass rapidly through the mind. Some of them are strong enough to impress the thinker. Many are not worth saving, but a few are very precious. They have to be sifted, sorted and analyzed for value. Then they must be acted on immediately, for they are very perishable. Once we lose an idea, it is seldom if ever recaptured.

Everyone has access to a better and happier life through ideas, if we can trust the Lord to give us the will and courage to follow through on them.