MITAKUYE OYASIN
(All My Relations.)
Keyword----Respect.
Tradition and Teaching.
Mitakuye Oyasin is a prayer recognising the oneness of all creation and our relationship with all two-legged, four legged, livers in the waters, winged ones, creepy crawlers, stone and rock people, standing people, plant and herb people. In fact all our relations that live with us, and have lived on Maka (Mother Earth). As we enter the Sweat Lodge in a bowed position we say the prayer “Mitakuye Oyasin” giving honour and respect and inviting “All our Relations” to join with us in prayer within the womb of the Inipi.
Message from “All our Relations”
Bring to your mind and actions that which is known and felt in your heart.
Bring to your lips that which sings to you within.
Bring to your hands that which touches your soul within.
Bring to your feet the dance that moves within.
Bring to your eyes the fire and vision that sees within.
Allow the inner world to manifest in your life.
This is the message of Mitakuye Oyasin.
Guidance and Reflection.
Honour all forms of life, and the oneness of all creation. Begin by respecting your needs, your emotions, thoughts, and ideas. Then invite all your brothers and sisters into the great Circle of Life. Showing respect for all forms of life means honouring our own unique individuality and potential, without forgetting our unity with the Whole. We are created from the same source and share the earth together as a family. Through honour, humility and respect we live in mutual harmony.
Give honour and regard to each and everyone’s growth and individual life cycle. Respect everyone’s time to receive and give. Their times of sacrifice to help sustain the lives of others. When we burn sacred herbs, the prayer plumes rise as we give thanks to all our relations for the sacrifices they make for the good of all. When any creature eats to sustain its life, it is able to do so through the sacrifice of another’s life. When we drop our robes, we nourish the earth, providing new life and growth for those that come after us.
AFFIRMATION.
I will seek and find my kinship with all life. I give honour and respect by “Treading Softly on our Earth Mother”.
February 19 - Daily Feast
Though opportunity sometimes has flashing lights and ringing bells, wisdom comes on soft shoes. Opportunity is no good without wisdom. It sees the chance to do something but wisdom knows why and when and how. Personality and the opportunity to perform is a part of every venture. But it takes more than a sparkling show window full of inviting merchandise. It takes staying power and quiet wisdom - and the ability to blend the two.
~ There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.... Give them the same law.... Give them an even chance. ~
CHIEF JOSEPH - NEZ PERCE, 1879
"A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II" by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Elder's Meditation of the Day - February 19
The Old Man said, `you are both ugly and handsome and you must accept your ugliness as well as your handsomeness in order to really accept yourself."
--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA
My Grandfather told me one time that any person who is judgmental to another is also judgmental to themselves. If we want to be free of being judgmental, we need to first work on how judgmental we are to ourselves. If we quit judging ourselves and start accepting ourselves as we are, we will start accepting others as they are. Then we will experience a level of new freedom.
Great Spirit, let me accept myself as I am, honoring both my strengths and my weaknesses.
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THINK on THESE THINGS
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
It has been written that an optimist is someone who can fall ten stories and call out to each floor in passing that everything is okay so far. It has also been said that an optimist is someone who refuses to see things as they really are.
It is far better, the pessimist believes, to look for the worst so as to be pleasantly surprised when things are better than expected. Then, if they are as bad as imagined, the disappointment won't be quite so great.
But this is somewhat like backing into a room so to avoid seeing the beauty of it, only to find it is an elevator shaft.
There can be no advancement where we expect the worst and believe that going outside the limits of ordinary thinking is only day dreaming. Thinkers, capable of forecasting and predicting answers before the questions arise, are in great demand.
Only the optimist can fill the bill. Only the optimist can dare to believe there are things waiting for discovery and further development.
An optimist questions life the same as a pessimist - the difference is that the optimist knows there is an answer and that the answer can be found. Optimists are aware that the cherries of life have pits, but they are prepared to remove them. Their minds do not dwell on the pits, but on the sweetness of the cherries.
There will be situations that will make us afraid. Fear is a common sense emotion that keeps us from walking in front of a moving car or from jumping off the deep end of anything. And there are periods of natural anxiety when we want too much to perform well, and the butterflies begin to flutter.
Then, there is another kind of fear that is unnatural. It has the ability to posses us and rule over our very lives. It is that "what if" fear that builds nests in our minds and hatches dire images that scare the daylights out of us. It can keep the lights off, the doors bolted, and the windows of our souls locked against the most beautiful things in life.
It is no disgrace in this day to ask for professional help in understanding our fears. Only the very foolish would consider this help a crutch. It is a brave person who admits the need for help and has the courage to go and find it.
They are the pioneers in recognizing our existence as threefold: spirit, mind, and body.
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God's Minute
PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD, THAT YOU MAY BE
ABLE TO STAND AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL.
( EPHESIANS 6:11 *NKJV )
Dear Member's,
God tells us to put on the Gospel Armor to protect us from
satan's evil tricks and temptations as well. This is BECAUSE
YOUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL WALKS ABOUT LIKE A
ROARING LION, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR.
( 1 PETER 5:8 )
Therefore God also tells us what the Gospel Armor is, for
He said: STAND THEREFORE, HAVING GIRDED YOUR
WAIST WITH TRUTH, HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE
OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HAVING SHOD YOUR FEET
WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE;
ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH WITH WHICH
YOU WILL BE ABLE TO QUENCH ALL THE FIERY DARTS
OF THE WICKED ONE. AND TAKE THE HELMET OF
SALVATION, AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS
THE WORD OF GOD. ( EPHESIANS 6:14-17 )
Now that you know what the "Gospel Armor" is, wear it with
pride. It is perfect for every occasion from a black tie affair, to
mowing the lawn! Best of all it never goes out of style and
one size fits all! So Member's, think of it like the American
Express Card, "Don't leave home without it!" For wearing that
armor will help you to RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE
FROM YOU. Aho , Amen , e-men . ( JAMES 4:7 )
With My Love & Prayers,
your servant , Pastor cougarmoon
