Meditation For The Day

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.” Alden Nowlan

Doug Luzar
Take care of your Thoughts. Your Thoughts make paths in your Mind, and can lead you into dangerous areas. The thoughts we continually follow will eventually come out in words and actions, and become Habits. What do You want to be? Let Your thoughts lead you to the Paths that will take you there.

Watch Your Thoughts. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. 
Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
The Circle is a Wonderful symbol to represent the Great Mystery. Its' form represents One-ness and Whole-ness. It is the Path We walk, no beginning and no end...it holds everything in beginning and ending, Complete-ness...it is 
the Seed, the Bud, the Bloom....The Moon is a Circle, and it travels a Circle around the Earth... the Earth is a Circle traveling a Circle around the Sun, which is a Circle, traveling a Circle, a Spiral...an Eagles nest and an Ant Hill, a drop of Water, and a Rainbow...the Dancers in the Arbor Dance a Circle around the circular Drum...The opening in the Pipe that we 
fill with Prayer, the hole in the Stem we smoke Our Prayers thru...the Forms,Cycles and Seasons of Ceremonies...Nature LOVES a Circle....Love Travels, in Circles, between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
Today is a new Adventure. Give Yourself Fully to this Day. You may have a plan for today, or an idea of what the day may bring, yet, however well we make our plans, things still happen that are not a part of our plans. We need to stay Attentive to a new direction, to the Voice of the Wind calling us, or the Scent of a Flower, or to the Child asking for our attention. Try to not be too busy, or rushed to take a side trail instead of the "main" road. 

Both will "get"us there, yet if we Slow down enough to notice what is trying to get our attention we may Learn more on one road than the other. 

Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!!

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day
"Everyone has to find the right path. You can't see it so it's hard to find. 
No one can show you. Each person has to find the path by himself." 
--Charlie Knight, UTE

There are certain times in our lives when a voice whispers to us. The voice doesn't always talk. Usually we hear it best when we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Inside every person is the knowledge that a Supreme Being exists. Sometimes a restlessness occurs and it makes me feel I need to be doing something or I need to be going somewhere or maybe I start 
wondering who am I? Often when this happens, I feel lost. Inside of everyone is the natural, built-in desire to be walking the Red Road, or to be seeking a relationship with the Creator. No one can force us to make this journey. 

We must make this journey because we want to. This journey is not on the outside. The path is inside of ourselves. It is inside that we must begin our search.

Oh Great Spirit, help me this day to look within myself. If trouble arises, let me realize that it's not what is going on but how I am looking at what is going on. Give me Your power this day to conduct myself according to Your way of life.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day 
Look behind you. See your sons and your daughters. They are your future. 
Look farther and see your sons' and your daughters' children and their children's children even unto the Seventh Generation. That's the way we were taught. Think about it: you yourself are a Seventh Generation." 
--Leon Shenandoah, ONONDAGA

The Creator designed us with a free will. That means we function from choices and consequences. It is important that we practice thinking about consequences before we make decisions about choices. Every choice I make is 
like setting up dominos one after the other that produce consequences. Not just for me but also for my children and for the children that are unborn. 

My choices and decision today will have consequences for seven generations. 
For example, if I work on my own spiritual development and I walk the Red Road, the odds are that my children will. They will marry and their children will follow the Red Road and so will my grandchildren even up to the seventh 
generation. This will happen because of the choices and decisions that I make today.

Great Spirit, grant that the choices and decisions that I make today will honor Your laws and values. May I live in peace today that will ripple into the seventh generation.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day 
"You want to know who's a real medicine man? He's the one who doesn't say 'I'm a medicine man.' He doesn't ask you to come to him. You've got to go and ask him. And you'll find he's always there among his own people." 
--Louis Farmer, ONONDAGA

The Medicine Man is a role model of what it is like to live in harmony and balance with the Creator. It takes a long time, a lot of sacrifice and discipline to become a Medicine Man. A Medicine Man is humble and never crass about anything. He knows he lives to do the will of the Great Spirit. 

He knows he is to help the people. He lives very low key - the more low key he lives, the more people seek him out - and such is life. The more one serves the people and is quiet about it, the more he is sought out. The quieter he is, the more powerful is his medicine.

Great Spirit, allow me this day to be humble. Allow me this day not to seek attention, but to live quietly and keep my focus and attention on serving You.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day 
"A good heart and a good mind - those are what you need to be a chief." 

--Louis Farmer, ONONDAGA 
The combination of heart and mind is very powerful. The Medicine Wheel teaches that two worlds exist - the seen and the unseen. The seen world is the physical and the unseen is the spiritual world. Both of the worlds are necessary to discover true reality. The seen world is easiest seen by the 
male side. The unseen is easiest seen by the female side. The heart is the unseen and the mind is the seen. Blessed is the leader or person who has developed the heart and the mind. Truly, the person is of tremendous value to the Creator and the people. 

My Great Spirit, help me this day to develop both my female side and my male side. Let me know all the feelings of each, let me develop and grow my intuition and my mind. Let my development only serve You.

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day
"Let us put our minds together as one." 
--Irving Powless, Sr., ONONDAGA 

If we sat in a circle and put an object in the center of the circle and we all described what we saw, everyone would see different points of view from each other. Some would even see opposites because they would be sitting on opposite sides of the circle. In other words, you don't have to see what I see for you to be right. 

In fact, everyone in the circle is right based on 
their own point of view. If we are willing to listen to everyone's point of view, then we can get a more accurate description of the object in the center. This is one way to put our minds together. When we get the clarity from each other, we should give thanks and be grateful to each other. 

Grandfathers from the four directions, guide me today with Your wisdom from the east, from the south, from the west and from the north

Doug Luzar
Praying is all about Living. It is not only a prescribed Ritual of Words or Actions. It is how you Walk in this World, the things you Do. It is how you relate to the World, when you are Happy, or Sad, or Angry, or Overwhelmed. 
It is how you feel inside, how your Heart connects to the Heart of Spirit. 

Praying is Love. As you go into the World today...remember...remember the Joy and Awe and Wonder you felt with each new day as a child. Remember the pieces of the puzzle that you have forgotten. Love Travels between the 
Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty! Drink Deeply of Life. Keep Dancin!!!

Yancy Webb
Elder's Meditation of the Day
"These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a sacred duty to protect the welfare of our Mother Earth, from whom all life comes. In order to do this, we must recognize the enemy - the one within us. 
We must begin with ourselves..." 

--Leon Shenandoah, ONONDAGA
The outside is merely a reflection of our insides. My mind is designed to tell me that I'm not crazy for thinking what I am thinking. Even if I have angry thought, my mind is giving me excuses and reasons why it is OK to think what I'm thinking. I need to be knowledgeable about the laws of harmony and balance. I cannot twist the laws to serve me, but I can adjust 
my life to serve the laws. This is the law - I am here to serve the Earth. 
The Earth is not here for me to misuse and abuse.

Oh Great Spirit, allow me the insight and knowledge of how to live in harmony and balance with my surroundings. Grant me change from within.

Doug Luzar
Inside each of us, we know. We know how we should Live, there is a small voice that will tell us if we listen. When we choose not to listen, we do things not in our best interests, nor the best interests of our fellow creatures on this Earth. We, in the words of the song "follow the wrong gods home", and become selfish, and dishonest, which leads to frustrations and anger, and a lack of responsibility, and accountability, which is a downward 
leading spiral to more of what we don't want. However, if we do
listen to that inner voice, the quiet one, our own Heart Voice, it can lead us past the other voices, all loudly crying for more of what is on the other side of the hill. It can lead us to deeper places within our selves, where We can draw Water from Deep places, which lead to self-respect, Respect for Others, 
and All of Earths many Creatures, and Responsibility and Accountability. 
Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply from the Deep Waters. 
Keep Dancin!!!

UPON THE WINDS A VOICE WAS CAST,
WITH PRAYER A VOICE CRIED OUT,
VOICE SENT WITH SACRED SMOKE ,
FORGIVENESS IS ALL IT ASK.
EAGLE CAME FLYING VERY NEAR ,
HE SAW AND HEARD ,
UPON HIS WINGS CARRIED THIS PRAYER,
SOON CREATOR HEARD,
EAGLE COME FLYING AND CARRY OUR PRAYERS,
TO EAR'S OF CREATOR THAT HE MAY HEAR ,
WE HIS CHILDREN FOR HIS PITY ARE SENDING PRAYERS.

Prayer by Wanbli Nagi

Doug Luzar
While the Times change, Principles and Values do not. Living the Old Ways, doesn't mean we have to do away the things we have gained...electricity,
(convert from fossil fuels to alterNative sources), our homes, running water, it means to Live by the old Values...the Spirituality of our Ancestors, 

Respect for Each Other, the other Life on this Earth, and the Earth its self.

 Everything in Life is connected. To each other, to everything else and to the Unseen. This is what was known and Lived. This is what We need to Live, and Teach our Children to Live. The same Spirituality lived by our Ancestors 
is the same Spirituality that we need in todays World. Respect doesn't change. Accountability doesn't change. Responsibility doesn't change. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and 
Smile lines, they are Beautiful. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!!

Doug Luzar
The Plants and Animals do not need us, we need them. Without us, the Earth would return to balance. All our Ancestors had this knowledge. It is time to return to Old Age Wisdom. Love is the not only the best, it is the only Medicine to heal the Earth today. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. 
Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
Look to your past, understand how it has shaped your present. Come to terms with the things that have hurt you in your own way...then let them go. Look then for the things in your life that build you up, and make you feel good about yourself. Spend your time doing those things, and in the company of people who like you you and enjoy you for who you are. As you are. Love 
Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Beauty. Drink Deeply. Keep Dancin!!!

Doug Luzar
We must each of us take care with Our Words. Our Words carry Our Breath, and Our Intent. Words do have a Power. If we tell ourselves we can't do a thing, chances are we can't. If we tell ourselves we are ugly or no good, we will begin to believe it. If we tell Our Children negative things, they will believe them about themselves, and their self talk will reflect that. 
We should always build them and each other up, to Their, and Our best Potential. 

If We give them criticism they will reflect that, if We give them Love, they will reflect that, and Our future will reflect that. Our future will reflect what We feed the Young Ones today. Love Travels between the Worlds, like Sweetgrass and Music. Deepen Your Laugh and Smile lines, they are Love. Drink Deeply of the Beauty of Life. Keep Dancin!!!