Walking Life's Tightrope

Being on the tightrope is living;
everything else is waiting.

--Karl Wallenda

Life itself is a risk.
When I hold on too tight, remain too guarded, and anxiously try to control every factor, I become stiff and reactive rather than calm, focused, and responsive.
The guidance of my spiritual path teaches me to let go of my anxieties and leads me to peace of mind.
When I learn to do this, I can deftly walk my path and more effectively maintain my balance in dealing with whatever comes up.
Today I will calm myself while walking on my path.

A Sign Of Imbalance

A Sign Of Imbalance
Overachieving and Overreaching

Overachievers are people who have achieved but still feel the need to do more, creating an imbalance in their lives.
People who exhibit this behavior may be trying to compensate for feelings of insecurity and doubts about their worth.
They may be chasing unresolved issues from their past into the present, or they might not be looking at their lives as a whole, but judging themselves based only on one aspect of their being.
If this is a word that we’ve heard used with respect to our choices and lifestyle, it is worth examining in order to balance our lives for a more rewarding experience.

If we find that we cannot allow ourselves to experience and enjoy the present moment, putting pleasure off into some distant future, it may be a sign that we are being driven to achieve more than is truly necessary.
Pushing ourselves beyond the point of exhaustion, or to the exclusion of important people in our lives, robs us of true and meaningful joy.
Once we make the connection to the eternal part of us, it can nourish us and allow our priorities to shift from chasing after an elusive feeling to being fully present in the moment so that we can live our lives in the now.

Sometimes we need to look to those we love and admire in order to realize what we value about life.
We can take time to note what we like about others, and then turn the mirror to reflect the light of those same words and feelings toward ourselves.
It can be quite a revelation to see ourselves in this nourishing light.
When we can put the energy that we’ve been devoting to a phantom sense of achievement into the truly satisfying aspects of our lives, we can restore the balance between our inner and outer worlds and experience true joyful peace.

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Living In Today

I have a new philosophy.

I'm only going to dread one day at a time.

-- Charles Schulz

Living in today helps keep my life balanced and simple.
At first, I may need to practice staying in the present.
I may find that I need to keep bringing myself back to today from yesterday or tomorrow.

There is nothing that will happen today that I can't, with God's help, manage.

Today let me keep my feet firmly planted in the bedrock of the present, my only reality.

My Storms

The storm has passed.

I've learned a little more about peace.

It was inside all the time.

Having wandered from any true sense of
a spiritual home and any real sense of direction,
I was lost and hungered hopelessly for I know know what.

God, however, is a tireless seeker.

Elder's Meditation -- The Teacher

Nature is a living example of how communities live in harmony. I
f you go into the forest or mountain and sit still and watch, ask yourself, what lessons are being taught?
Then watch how the animals conduct themselves.
The trees could represent diversity.
The flowers could represent people.
Notice how everything in nature assists one another.
See how balance works.
See how conflict is handled.
Can you see acts of forgiveness?
Can you spot respect?
Nature is full of wisdom if wee will only consider her to be our teacher.

My Creator, today let me learn from nature.

God, this is hard.
Today, allow me to be a Warrior.
Let me be strong.
Let Your voice be clear to me.
Let me hear Your guidance.
My goal today is to serve You, to develop myself to be the kind of Indian person that You would have me be.
To Walk the Red Road must sometimes be walked alone.
Great Spirit, let me walk the Red Road today with the confidence that You are with me.
If I fall, I will quickly ask You to help me know what I should do next.

Balance

As within, as without, our present thought determines our future.
If we want peace outside ourselves, we must first have peace inside ourselves. I
t's not what is going on but how we are looking at what is going on.
We need to keep ourselves in balance.
We must be careful to not get too hungry, angry, lonely or tired.
We must know the times - time to work, time to rest, time to play, time to sleep, time to pray, time to lighten up, time to laugh, time to eat, time to exercise.
There is a saying "The honor of one is the honor of all."
This means when we work with all, we need to also work on one.
We need to take care of ourselves. You cannot give away what you don't have.

Great Spirit, let me walk in balance today.

Remove from me resentment, self pity and self seeking motives.

Let me love myself so I can love my neighbors.

Elder's Meditation -- Balance

The Elders have taught us to balance our lives emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually.
If I am out of control emotionally, I get angry, doubtful or erratic, I am out of balance.
If I trigger bad mental pictures of my brothers and sisters, I am out of balance.
If I get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, I am out of balance physically.
If I don't pray and talk to the Creator daily, I am out of balance spiritually.
To be centered, I must be in balance.
The Creator talks to me in the quiet and still place.
So if I get angry, what I should do first is to pause and get still so I can hear the guidance of the Grandfathers.

Oh Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds,

protect and keep me safe today

- hear my prayers.

Elder's Meditation -- Laws of Harmony And Balance

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.

Elder's Meditation -- The Four Winds

Each of the four directions has special powers.
These powers or Grandfathers are there to help us.
The powers are from the East, the South, the West, and the North.
To call upon the power we need to stand in the center and face each of the directions and honor all forms of life in each direction.
Facing the East we honor all the two legged, four legged, winged ones, plants' nation and the animals.
We repeat this prayer in each of the four directions.
This allows us to become centered.
When we are centered, then we are ready to call the helpers.
It is said, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
If we are to be ready, we need to remember to always get quiet first.
We do this by honoring and praying to the four directions.

Grandfathers from the four directions,

come to me today with Your powers.

Give me Your gifts so I can serve the people.

Accepting One's Sins

"If one can accept one's sin,
one can live with it.
If one cannot accept it,
one has to suffer the inevitable consequences."

-- Carl Jung

I must come to accept my past acts before they will stop causing me pain.
I will no longer regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
Am I coming to accept myself?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she;
But, Oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!

-- Robert Browning Hamilton

I may think that forgetting the past is essential for growth and peace of mind.
It's a tempting idea: I'll start over again, I think, fresh and new.
But if I lose that old pain, I'll also lose all that I have learned.
I may repeat my mistakes, or make even worse ones next time.
Dwelling on the past is equally dangerous.
I began my journey to build a better life.
To find and maintain my balance, each area of my life needs attention.
With my remembering, I can truly experience the repentance that frees me from regret and remorse.
When I acknowledge my mistakes, I can learn from them and come to forgive myself.

Living University

What we really need to learn is how to live life. Nature is the greatest university when we want to learn about balance, harmony, the Natural Laws and how to live life. But we will never learn unless we spend time in the "living university." Nature is full of examples, lessons, and exercises about life. Nature will help humans learn. Nature will help humans heal. Nature will help with Medicine, knowledge and healing. The reason our Elders are so wise is because they have attended the right educational system - nature's university.

Creator, help me to become wise.