A Beautiful Message

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation. - ISAIAH 52:7 NLT

  People need hope. They try to find it in many things, but the only real and lasting hope is in God. That is why it is wonderful to be his representative. Most people have a distorted perception of God - either as a controlling taskmaster or an impersonal being that does not bother to intervene.

  Yet you know who he really is - the God who gives Joy and Eternal Life. Today, tell others the beautiful message of the God of hope so that they can experience his peace and salvation as well. You will find their gratitude is utterly overwhelming when they finally meet and embrace the God they've longed to know.

Dear God, I praise you for your beautiful message. Help me to repeat it to those who need hope so they may know you as well. Amen 

This Kind of Love

 

You speak to me through a broken window
You are alive in an old oak tree
You hold me close when the winter wind blows
I hear your footsteps on the street

I feel your prsence in the early mornin'
I dream of you in the darkest nite
You call to me without a warning
I see your face in the fires lite

This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love it has no shame
This kind of love is never old
This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love you cannot tame

You found a way through all my secrets
And made my proud defenses fall
This kind of love it has no distance
This kind of love it knows no walls

This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love it has no shame
This kind of love is never old
This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love you cannot tame
This kind of love is without blame

- BILL MILLER

The Oldest Living Participatory Democracy On Earth

 

Oh Eagle, come with wings outspread in sunny skies.

Oh Eagle, come and bring us peace, thy gentle peace.

Oh Eagle, come and give new life to us who pray.

Remember the circle of the sky, the stars, 

and the brown eagle, the great life of the Sun,

the young within the nest.

Remember the sacredness of things.

- PAWNEE PRAYER

 

American Creed

Patriotism which leaps over the fence of party prejudice. Religion which jumps over the law of intolerance. Brotherhood which climbs over the mountain of national separations. - UNKNOWN

  THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE
Article 24^*

          The chiefs of the League of Five Nations shall be mentors of the people for all time. The thickness of their skin shall be seven spans, which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive action, and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will, and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the League. With endless patience, they shall carry out their duty. Their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodging in their minds and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation.


^* As translated in Akwesasne Notes, 1977

Forgotten Fathers by Bruce E. Johansen 

Nature

There is no word for nature in my language. Nature, in English, seems to refer to that which is separate from human beings. It is a distinction we don't recognize. The closest words to the idea of nature translate to refer to things which support life. It is foolish arrogance for humans to think themselves superior to all the life-support system.. How can one be superior to that which one depends for life? Humans have invented marvelous technologies. The result has been that parts of the world live in unneccessary and debilitating surplus while people in other parts of the world are dying for lack of food, clean water, and shelter. Priorities need to be redirected so that people who have plenty need not feel shame while others hunger and die. There should be no homeless or hungry people anywhere in the world. Those in power need to address this deplorable situation. We are fellow travelers on this earth...We live in an era when far too much money is expended on the military. Even as we enter a time of increasing potential for peace among the major powers, military expenditures remain grotesquely high. The purpose of these high military budgets must be the anticipation of violence. As a mother I demand that our sons not be raised to die in war. War is irrational, its causes suspect. If we are to live on this planet we must eliminate warfare, which is harmful to all living things.I would urge the whole concept of nature be rethought. Nature, the land, must not mean money; it must designate life. Nature is the storehouse of potential life.of future generations and is sacred. Human societies already possess the technologies neccessary to provide food, clothing and shelter for everyone. The organization of distribution of wealth needs to be repaired, for that imbalance destroys both contemporary and future human life and nature. Western society needs to prioritize life-supporting systems and to question its commitment to materialism, Spirituality should be our foundation... -AUDREY SHENANDOAH, ONONDAGA

Praises

I praise you for the rivers the mountains and the streams
I praise you for the eagle, the visions and the dreams
 
I praise you for my children the mountains and the streams
I praise you for the eagle, the visions and the dreams
 
I praise you for my people the mountains and the streams
I praise you for the eagle, the visions and the dreams
 
The visions and the dreams, the visions and the dreams

- Bill Miller, First Nation Grammy Recording Artist
Bill Miller's Music 

Listen to Me

If I Took Away Your Shelter, Put You On the Street
If I Took Away Your Table and Chairs, Threw Away Your Meat
Stole Away Your Wife and Child, See How Lonesome You Would Be
Is That What It Would Take For You to Listen to Me

If I Took Away Your Legs and You Could Never Walk
If I Took Away Your Words and You Could Never Talk
Blinded Your Eyes and You Could Never See
Locked You Up in Shackles and You Were no Longer Free
Is That What It Would Take For You to Listen to Me...

Listen to Me, I Am the Thunder You Refuse to Hear
I Am the Rock You Can't Hide Under
You Have Nothing More to Fear
This Is a Time For Healing, the Scars Upon the Land
My Son, Listen to Me..

If I Gave You a Blanket, You Could Be Warm
If I Gave You a Roof to Stay Under
Would That Save You From the Storm
Gave You All the Money You Could Ever Spend
Do You Think That Means Your Troubles Would Finally End
Is That What It Would Take For You to Listen to Me

Listen to Me, I Am the Thunder You Refuse to Hear
I Am the Rock You Can't Hide Under
You Have Nothing More to Fear
This Is a Time For Healing, the Scars Upon the Land
My Son, Listen to Me

I Give You the Seed Dig Your Roots Deep in the Land
Here's a Blade to Turn the Soil Grow Somethin' in the Sand
I Give You All Me Blessings, My Blood Runs Through Your Veins
I Will Stand Beside You, Even When It Rains
My Son Listen to Me

Listen to Me, I Am the Thunder You Refuse to Hear

I Am the Rock You Can't Hide Under

You Have Nothing More to Fear
This Is a Time For Healing, the Scars Upon the Land
My Son, Listen to Me..

- Bill Miller

From the Father to the Son

Native Ammerican Bill Miller accepts Grammy

Making Peace

"If your enemies are hungry, feed them...and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you." Don't let it get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good. - ROMANS 12:20-21 NLT

 

 WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE, 1890

 There may be people in your life that no matter how accommodating and nice you are - will not return your friendship. It can be frustrating. You want to have peace, but they prefer conflict. If you respond in anger, there will never be harmony between you. However when you continue to treat them with kindness, eventually you prevail over whatever feelings they have against you. You don't have to surrender your principles - you must simply assert them with gentleness and wisdom. The only way to sway your rivals is to pray for them and be kind. You will find that as you were busy making peace, you were also making a friend.

"The meek shall inherit the earth."

 

Monday's Good Words

The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of the forests, plains, pueblos or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers; he belongs just as the buffalo belonged. — Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota

Our Town

 

"All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being."
- Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued. 

- ROBERT FROST

No New Light

What we need is not new light, but new sight; not new paths, but new strength to walk in the old ones; not new duties but new strength from the Creator to fulfill those that are in plain sight before us. - UNKNOWN

Today's Sunrise Medicine #6

The sheep in the Shepherd's arm looks only into the face of the Shepherd and not to the wolves nearby. - UNKNOWN

The White Man's Trail

I will follow the white man's trail. I will take him as my friend, but I will not bend my back to his burdens. I will be cunning as a wolf. I will ask him to understand his ways, then I will prepare the way for my children. The Great Spirit has shown me...a day will come when they will outrun the white man in his own shoes. - MANY HORSES

Natural Law & Spiritual Law

`When you become afraid or when you become weak or when you become not able to carry,' he says, `it's the spiritual law that will stiffen your spine.' He said, `That's where your strength is. So you must make your laws in accordance with those spiritual laws and then you will survive.' - Oren Lyons, 1991

"What law are you living under? United States government law? That's Man's law. You break Man's law and you pay a fine or go to jail - maybe. That's the way it is with Man's law. You can break it and still get around it. Maybe you won't get punished at all. Happens all the time. People figure they can get away with anything and half the time they do. But they forget there's another law...Natural law prevails everywhere. It supersedes Man's law. If you violate it, you get hit. There's no judge and jury, there's no lawyers or courts, you can't buy or dodge or beg your way of it. 

 

If you violate this Natural law you're going to get hit and hit hard. One of the Natural laws is that you've got to keep things pure. Especially the water. Keeping the water pure is one of the first laws of life. If you destroy the water, you destroy life. That's what I mean about common sense. Anybody can see that. All life on Mother Earth depends on pure water, yet we spill every kind of dirt and filth and poison into it. That makes no common sense at all.

Your legislature can pass a law saying it's OK, but it's Not OK. Natural law doesn't care about your Man's law.Natural law's going to hit you. You can't get out of the way. You don't fool around with Natural law and get away with it. If you kill the water, you kill the life that depends on it, your own included. That's Natural law. it's also common sense." - Oren Lyons, Onondaga

The Faithkeeper

World Bank Speech, 1995

Historical Timeline of GOP Expansion Plans

Today's Good Words

Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. Words do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words will not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your War Chief. Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, 1840-1904

When Love Shines In

Jesus comes with power to gladden, when love shines in,
Every life that woe can sadden, when love shines in.
Love will teach us how to pray, love will drive the gloom away,
Turn our darkness into day, when love shines in.

When love shines in, when love shines in,
How the heart is tuned to singing, when love shines in,
When love shines in, when love shines in,
Joy and peace to others bringing, when love shines in.

How the world will grow with beauty, when love shines in,
And the heart rejoice in duty, when love shines in.
Trials may be sanctified, and the soul in peace abide,
Life will all be glorified, when love shines in.

Darkest sorrow will grow brighter, when love shines in,
And the heaviest burden lighter, when love shines in.
’Tis the glory that will throw light to show us where to go;
O, the heart shall blessing know, when love shines in.

We may have unfading splendor, when love shines in,
And a friendship true and tender, when love shines in.
When earth’s vict’ries shall be won, and our life in Heav’n begun,
There will be no need of sun, when love shines in.
- Carrie E. Breck, 1874

When Love Shines In

The Greatest Strength

I myself have no power. It's the people behind me who have the power. Real power comes only from the Creator. It's in His hands. But if you're asking about strength, not power, then I  can say that the greatest strength is gentleness. - LEON SHENANDOAH, SIX NATIONS CONFEDERACY

Honor Mother Nature

Mother Nature is not for us, she is part of us, and we, like everything else that lives and breathes upon her, are her children. Your own direct connection with Mother Earth is to be encouraged daily. Paint her portraits, swim in her waters, tend to her flowers, stroll through her glorious forests, and care for her many children, all plants, people and animals.
We must live according to her principles and choose not to pollute her body. The alternative is death to our mother and death to her children.

The Great Spirit is our father, but the Earth is our mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us, and healing plants she gives us likewise. If we are wounded, we go to our mother and seek to lay the wounded part against her, to be healed. - BEDAGI(BIG THUNDER), WABANAKI ALGONQUIN, 1900's from 365 Days Walking the Red Road, Terri Jean

http://www.amazon.com/365-Days-Walking-Red-Road/dp/1580628494 

Letter to Mom

Digging through an old box of letters I discovered a gem that I would would like to share with readers of my blog. The poem was written by a unknown Seneca and I thought my mom would appreciate it as she was 54 years old at the time. 'My oh my', the things that crossed my mind at 32. To think of my dear mother so young and vibrant in those days and now she is gone and I am a young 'lol' 62 years of age.