New Year Blessing

The Cherokee New Year

[From "A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations" by Joyce Sequichie Hifler.  Found on the website for Newati Herbals*.]

"If, like a Cherokee warrior, I can look at the new year as an opportunity to stand on new ground, then strength and courage are on my side. If I have waited a long time for everything to be perfect - and there have been moments, brief as they were, that filled my expectations - then I can face the challenges. I will remember that things do work out, bodies do heal, relationships mend - not because I said it, but because I believe it. But it is time to make things right, to stay on the Path. As water runs fresh and free from the woodland spring, so new life and meaning will bubble up from my own inner source. I will be still and steady because there is nothing to be gained by showing fear in a chaotic world. I can turn from ignorance and prejudice toward a light that never goes out."

* Early in December while in Eureka Springs, AR, for my partner Joe's birthday, we came across Nuwati's herbs in a native american shop there.  I'm always interested in local ventures like this - see my series of blogs posts on Vision Spa Retreat about the role of spa products in sustainable spa culture. We've been using their Bath Bags in our woodfired hot tub and I've just finished a retreat week using some of their teas as support.  I can recommend them!

For a story about a Cherokee visionary see White Eagle frees the waters on this blog.