Yesterday is dead....forget it
Tomorrow has not come.....don't worry
Today is here.....Use it for the Creator
My thinking is that we can't change yesterday or last year. It is dead. Don't dwell on it and become depressed by what might have been thereby handicapping our selves for what we need to accomplish for the Creator right now.
Tomorrow has not come yet and Creator said to live for today for the Lord has not promised you a tomorrow....ie Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow ye die. Tomorrow will solely depend on Creator and your actions in obedience to Him and His will today.
Today, even right now, is all we really have. Live it to the fullest in such a way as to bring honor and glory to God.
Time and Seasons
This time of the season is a time for personal and ritual observance, fasting and personal purification. These cold Winter months teach us to appreciate our loved ones and our blessings (secure homes, warm fires, friends and family, good food, etc.)
During this season, families prepare for the coming of the new seasons, starting in Windy Moon, Anuyi, or March. Personal items and tools for planting are repaired, and new ones made. Stories about ancestors and the family are imparted to the younger ones by the elders. A mid-Winter or "Cold Moon Dance" was usually held in the community as well, marking the passing or ending of one cycle of seasons and welcoming the beginning of the new cycle. Hearth fires are put out and new ones made.
The putting out of fires and lighting of new ones was said to be the duty of certain priests, and everyone would light their family fires from this one New Fire of the season, coinciding with the first new-arrival of the morning star in the east.
For the new ones in our family, our New Moon is celebrated when the first thin crescent is visible with the naked eye after the Dark Moon. Every New Moon is a sacred time for our people, AniTsalagi, and we celebrate by going to water with prayer and fasting until sundown.
Amagayvhi (running water) has the power to cleanse the body and the spirit. There are two forms of "Going To Water."
One form is called Amayi Ditatiyi, in which the water was simply dipped up with the hands and spread over the person's head and body seven times.
The second form is called Atawastiyi, in which the person plunged or went entirely under the surface of the water. The person "going to water" faced east and dipped himself under seven times.
Fasting, and greeting Grandmother Sun as she rises in the East, praying as you dip 7 times in running water, even if it is under a showerhead or running faucet, it is something we *all* can do. It cleanses us spiritually and gives us a chance to celebrate each new beginning of Grandfather Moon.
Even if the only thing you and your clan do is the New Moon Ceremony each month, it will connect you and bring you closer to the ways of our ancestors.
Hope you have a good New Moon Ceremony and I look forward to the day we can all celebrate it again together in person, and I urge each of you that live close to each other, take this time to celebrate it together, whether you are of the same clan or not!:)
Please notice how the washing or renewing which is a Christian symbol of baptism. Also notice the number 7 repeatedly being used. When I read the dipping 7 times I thought of the man with leprosy who was cleansed.
God bless us one and all. In Jesus name....Amen.
Usti Yona – James McConnell
A Poem From The Heart
We Are Native American