The White Ornament

A SIMPLE WHITE ENVELOPE

It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our
Christmas tree.  No name, no identification, no inscription.  It has
peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas -- oh, not the
true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the
overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a
tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma -- the gifts
given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual
shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth.  I reached for something special
just for Mike.  The inspiration came in an unusual way.  Our son
Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the
school he attended.  Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league
match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings
seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp
contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and
sparkling new wrestling shoes.  As the match began, I was alarmed to
see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of
light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears.  It was a luxury
the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them.  We took every weight class.  And as
each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his
tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t
acknowledge defeat.  Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, 'I
wish just one of them could have won,' he said.  'They have a lot of
potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of
them.' Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached
little league football, baseball, and lacrosse.

That's when the idea for his present came.  That afternoon, I went to
a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling
headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside
telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me.  His
smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and the
succeeding 10 years.

For each Christmas, I followed the tradition -- one year sending a
group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another
year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to
the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.  The envelope
became the highlight of our Christmas.  It was always the last thing
opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new
toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the
envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents,
but the envelope never lost its allure.

The story doesn't end there.  You see, we lost Mike last year due to
cancer.  When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief
that I barely got the tree up.  But Christmas Eve found me placing an
envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more.
Each of our children, unaware to the others, had placed an
envelope on the tree for their dad.  The tradition has grown and
someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing
around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers
take down the envelope.  Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit,
will always be with us.

May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the
true Christmas spirit this year and always.

God Bless you! -- pass this along to those friends and loved ones who
you know are the givers who understand the true meaning of Christmas.

It is on the field of adversity where the metal of a man is proven!

"I don't want to make this too serious -- we are talking about football here -- but it is a moral duty on some level to tell the truth and to take responsibility. And I won't go off too much on my values and things like that, but I believe that I'm a part of a generation, really, the Lawsuit Generation. Everything is somebody else's fault. People that are my age -- and a little younger, and a little older -- want to blame somebody else, and they tend to want to self-protect. And I really reject that as a pattern of behavior, and as a pattern of morality. It's not how I'm going to live my life. When I make a mistake, I'm going to own up to it. And really, that's kind of what all this comes down to." Hunter Smith, former punter of the Washington Redskins

I think we need 52 "teamates" like him. - Seneca Wolf

Marriage, A Gift from God

"There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yes, four which I do not understand:
The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid." - Proverbs 30:18-19

The fourth thing that was "too wonderful" for Agur was "the way of a man with a maid." The way a man and woman are attracted to one another and "fall in love" is a very wonderful gift that God gave to men and women. Erotic and sexual love was designed by God, but has limits and boundaries attached to it. It is to only be entered into within the bonds of matrimony. The devil has come against this husband and wife relationship by perverting it and causing men to indulge in it illegally. We find adulterers, fornicators, and homosexuals, (where men are sexually attracted to men, and women to women.) God is the one who set the standard for a marriage relationship and when men start trying to redefine marriage, they are setting themselves up to take the place of God, which is idolatry. The beautiful relationship, of love and marriage, between a man and a woman, is a type of our relationship with Christ, and that is a very holy thing.

Ephesians 5:23-27:
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

"The Last of Sitting Bull"

St. Louis Republic, St. Louis, Missouri, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 1890


The death of Sitting Bull removes one of the obstacles to civilization. He was a greasy savage, who rarely bathed and was liable at any time to become infected with vermin. During the whole of his life he entertained the remarkable delusion that he was a free-born American with some rights in the country of his ancestors. Under this delusion, when civilized immigrants pushed over the Black Hills country in search of gold he considered them trespassers on the lands of his people and tried to keep them out. He was engaged in this absurd and wicked attempt when General Custer surprised his camp in the interests of civilization. Unfortunately for civilization General Custer was mistaken in the number of the savages who had assembled to fight for the land, which they foolishly believed was their birthright, and "a massacre" ensued. That is, it was one of those rare occasions when savagery for the moment had the best of it in a pitched battle with civilization. It was, of course, only for the moment, and Sitting Bull and his followers, who might have been easily and legally hanged as murderers, were granted a temporary respite.
This graciousness of the Great Father they have constantly abused by obstructing civilization in every possible way, especially in the worst way possible by trying to keep their land in a state of barbarism, and by insisting on their own understanding of treaties, regardless of necessary changes in translation into a highly civilized language, and of necessary amendments made in Congress. They have gone on holding ghost dances, complaining about the rations issued to them under treaties, objecting to the way their money was handled by the government, and it is charged on excellent civilized authority, actually stealing from civilized people who have settled on their lands.
Under such circumstances there could have been only one ending for Sitting Bull, and now that it has come he has no complaint to make. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that it was perfectly satisfactory to him. He himself had recognized it as inevitable and had fully made up his mind to it, preferring it to death in what in his barbaric way he called the "stone houses of the Great Father," meaning thereby the penitentiaries in which the Great Father, with the aid of Hon. Powell Clayton, Hon. Poker J. McClure and others of his Sanhedrin, attempts on occasion to incarcerate those who disagree with him in such a way as to inconvenience him.
So when Sitting Bull was surprised and overpowered by the agents of the Great Father, he set his greasy, stolid face into the expression it always took when he was most overcome by the delusion that he was born a native American from native American ancestry. Disarmed and defenceless he sat in the saddle in which he had been put as a preliminary to taking him to prison, and without a change of countenance urged his handful of greasy followers to die free. This idiotic proceeding he kept up until he was shot out of the saddle.
So died Sitting Bull. So was removed one of the last obstacles in the path of progress. He will now make excellent manure for the crops, which will grow over him when his reservation is civilized.
The work of redeeming these excellent lands from barbarism has now reached a point where it can be at once carried to completion. The filth and vermin-infested Sioux and other savages who have pretended a desire to live even under starvation rations and broken treaties will be persuaded by Sitting Bull's example, and a little skillful management of the same kind which converted him from a brutal savage into a good Indian, to stand up where they can be shot out of the way of advancing progress.
Mr. Harrison should continue to act with the same promptness and firmness he has shown in Sitting Bull's case. While one of these barbarians lives to claim an acre of unentered land in the United States he will remain as an obstacle to progress. A firm persistence by the President in the admirably progressive policy he has illustrated in Sitting Bulls case will make good Indians of all the rest of them, bucks, squaws and papooses. And the future historian will say of them, no doubt, that they died justly, because they owned lands and would not use fine-toothed combs."

Before Sound Bytes

Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner.
No one was quick with a question, no matter how important,
and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time
for... thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and
conducting a conversation. Silence was meaningful with the
Lakota, and his granting a space of silence to the speech-maker
and his own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regard for the rule that

"thought comes before speech."

- LUTHER STANDING BEAR

Spirit Messenger

Seneca, you are swift of foot and persuasive of speech. Your men are the greatest orators among tribes. Be the spokesman.

- HIAWATHA

Many today are already spiritually marked with the "mark of the beast," which, in part, is the love of money.

Like a roaring lion or a ravenous and charging bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people. A ruler who lacks understanding is (like a wicked one) a great oppressor, but he who hates covetousness and unjust gain shall prolong his days. Proverbs 28:15-16

Thoughts for the Day

These verses from Proverbs tell us that a ruler who is wicked is like a wild, hungry animal that is looking to devour its prey. They are without God's understanding and are oppressors; however, if rulers hate covetousness and unjust gain, they will reign longer and live longer.

Wicked people who rule in positions of authority who are covetous, will always oppress those under them. These kinds of rulers never think about the poor, but rather use them for their own selfish means. They really are like a "beastly" animal. In the book of Revelation, the Lord uses the description of a "beast" to describe a system that will rule in the earth. The root of this system is ruled by the love of money. This love of money is not only a snare to rulers, but also a snare to the poor as well. It is also a snare to the church. Many today are already spiritually marked with the "mark of the beast," which, in part, is the love of money.

Revelation 13:16-17:
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

This buying and selling is the monetary system of the world. The majority of people today are chasing after money. They are seeking the things of this world, such as newer cars and bigger houses. They are seeking what the Gentiles were seeking in Matthew 6:31-32 (the things of this world). It makes no difference whether they are rich or poor; the poor want it too, but simply do not know how to get it. This "beastly" system has everybody seeking the wrong god. They are buying so they can sell, and selling so they can buy. The stock market, the whole monetary system, is filled with that. Those who have placed their trust in that system are "marked with the beast."

As Christians, we buy and sell. But we are not buying and selling our souls like the rest of the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world (John. 17:14-16). We touch and handle the things of this world, but it is not in our hearts; it is not a part of us. We are not marked with the "beast" system. As totally dedicated Christians, when God asks us to do anything, we lay everything down, leaving it behind, as we go and do what He has asked. We are able to forsake all, because we are not marked with the "mark of the beast;" we are not caught up in the love of money. We are not caught up in the buying and selling, because we know our true riches are in heaven. We can use the things of this world, but those things are not what rules us. Our greatest treasure is our love of God.

The "beast" system has infiltrated the church through carnal Christians. These carnal, worldly Christians are puzzled by other Christians not seeking after money. They are surprised when some will not sell out for money. Some people try to buy men, even in the church. Those who are not committed believers will sell out. There are pastors who will not deal with an elder's sin because that elder has a lot of money. The beast system is ruling their hearts. Such pastors are not wholly serving the Lord; they are part of the "beast" system. Many ministries will sell out for money. They will go minister where they can receive the largest offering, rather than where God might ask them to go. They are not being led by the Spirit of God. The true church will not sell out; she had rather die, than sell out for money. The love of money has been the downfall of many, many ministers. Such men never got the "beast" system out of their hearts; they never crucified their flesh, so the enemy used the love of money to defeat them, and to cause them to deceive many other people, as well. But those who have the mind of Christ and are doing the works of God with their hands are not going to sell out to the "beast" system. They are worshiping the true and living God. They are remaining faithful to God Almighty, rather than committing spiritual adultery by loving the things of this world.

Many Christians have sold out to the "beast" system by allowing its lusts and pleasures to consume most of their time and money. They have money for the things they desire, but do not have the money to tithe and give to God. Although there have been abuses in the area of preachers manipulating God's people to give (which is the "beast" system in such ministers), we still are not excused, if we fail to obey God in the realm of giving. When we allow money to rule us, then we have been marked by "beastly" thinking. The true bride of Christ will love her God in all areas of her life and not be like a "beast" who ravages others and sells out for money.

Imortality?

My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish; and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell it; for what is one man that he should be made much of his winters, even when they bend him like a heavy snow? So many other men have lived and shall live that story, to be grass upon the hills.

- BLACK ELK, Oglala Sioux, 1863-1950

Hunger

Grandfather, I appreciate the fact that You are a Miracle Worker! That brings great comfort to me as I know, if, and when, I ever need a miracle, that I can call on You. Grandfather, You have blessed me so much compared to many in the world and may I be sensitive to the needs of the poor. Grandfather, I do not want to be guilty of turning a deaf ear to the cries of those who are hungry. Direct my giving, and create a heart of generosity within me, so that I can be used as an instrument of blessing to the many needy in this world. I ask this in the name of Jesus.  Nya:Weh

Practice Forgiveness

"Indians love their friends and kindred and treat them with kindness."

- CORNPLANTER, SENECA, 1736-1836

  

Your journey upon the Red Road will be filled with acts requiring forgiveness - forgiveness of others and forgiveness of yourself. Mindfully practice this incredible act of humanity and the Red Road will be an easy path to follow. Also, absolution breeds the same in others. Be quick to forgive and others will grant you the same kindness. -365 Days od Walking the Red Road, Terri Jean

Spirit

My father explained this to me. "All things in this world,"

he said, "have souls or spirits.

The sky has a spirit, the clouds have spirits;

the sun and the moon have spirits;

so have animals, trees, grass,

water, stones --- everything."

- EDWARD GOODBIRD, HIDASTA, 1914

Speak the Truth

Speak only the truth and do right always. You are what you say...

and what you say needs to come from your heart.

Without truth you cannot achieve inner balance, balance within yourself,

with other beings, with Mother Earth, and with the Creator.

Just remember that when the words leave your tongue they cannot

be retrieved; like an arrow shot straight up into the air,

there is no telling where or who it may fall onto. 

With truth comes the responsibility when to release it.

Birds

"Birds," he says,"have always been important to the Indian because they go where they wish, they light where they may, and they're free. We take these feathers from the birds. We use them in our ceremony because the feathers remind us of the Creator. The eagle flies the highest in the sky of all the birds and so he is nearest to the Creator, and his feather is the most sacred of all. He is the highest of the birds and so belongs to all the tribes, to all the peoples. And each tribe has a lesser bird of its own. For the Seminole, it's the heron."

- Buffalo Jim, Seminole

Meditation

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.

- John Muir

Friends In Need

How we love to talk to our friends, about our troubles and such. But what about the friends that know that you are in trouble without us telling them? Friends in Christ will pray for you even when you don't ask them to. Do you have friends? Fellowship with people who love God will open the door for plenty of prayer from those who practice good worship. Everybody doing the some thing, giving God our requests in Jesus name. Asking for God to give us a little help for someone else. Then when we do this, our own prayers will get a chance to get to him. He loves when we care about others. This is the ultimate friendship. 

- Electra Rawls

Taste the Happiness of Giving

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one's spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.

- Ohiyesa(Dr. Charles Eastman), Santee Sioux

Lead A Simple Life

The Great Spirit based us here to take care of this land and life for Him through prayer, meditations, ceremonies, and rituals, and to lead a simple life close to the Earth. That's what we have been doing. Governments talk all the time about human rights, equality, justice, and all those things, but they have never done anything for the native people. NEVER...! So it's time that they do that - live up to their talk - otherwise nature is going to take over. Earthquakes, flooding, destruction by volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, things like that...It's already happening, and it takes that kind of thing to wake up many people who are controlling this land by money and power and just ripping everything from the Earth. They are doing something that is not right in the law of the Great Spirit and the law of nature.

- Thomas Banyacya, Hopi Elder, 22 November 1993, Cry of the Earth

Remember the Key

In these times of turmoil, every human being is being asked to remember their connection to the Creator and to the Earth Mother, making those connections strong. Each person's connection to the Great Mystery, to the Earth Mother, to the spirits of the Ancestors and to their Spiritual Essences holds the key to finding the balance...Human beings tend to forget that no man-made organization is the Source, the only Source is the Great Mystery, the Creator. Every human being must answer to that Source, not to another human being.

- Jamie Sams, Choctaw & Seneca

The Lord's Prayer

Nujjinen wásóq, epin jiptek,
teluisin mekitétmek;
wásóq ntelitanen jiptek
iknmuiek wla nemulek wletesenen nátél.
Wásóq eykik,
telisqataskik jiptek;
elp nínen ntelisqatulek maqamikek eymek.
Telamukapnikl esemiekl
apj níkej kiskuk telamuktej penekenmuin nilunal.
Teliapiksiktaqajik wekwayuinamejik
elp kíl Niskam tliapiksiktuin.
Elue'lultiek, melkinin méj;
winsutíl mu ktikálin kesinukuamkl,
winjikl koqoél jiklátuin,
na tliaj.

-Mimac

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

Great Spirit

Great Spirit,
give us hearts to understand;
Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give;
Never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed;
Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty;
Never to take from her what we cannot use.

Give us hearts to understand
That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion;
That to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty;
That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench;
That as we care for her she will care for us.

We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.
We have abused our power.

Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst,
help us to find the way to refresh your lands.

Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,
help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.

Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with mis-use,
help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.

Great Spirit, whose creatures are being destroyed,
help us to find a way to replenish them.

Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost
in selfishness and corruption,
help us to find the way to restore our humanity.