Balance

Everything in the Cherokee environment has an intelligent spirit and plays a role in both mythology and daily life. Indeed, the Cherokee people do not view themselves as separate from their environment. They are simply an integral part of nature and, rather than try to rule over it, they seek a balance to live in harmony with it.

This sense of balance they learned from nature itself.

In the old days, the animals and plants could talk, and they lived together in harmony with humans. But the humans spread over the earth, crowding the animals and the plants out of their homelands and hunting and killing too much. The animal tribes called a council to declare war on the humans. They each selected a disease to send to the humans that could cripple them, make them sick, or kill them. When the plants heard what had been done to the humans, they agreed this action was too severe and called a council of their own. They agreed to be cures for some of the diseases the animals had sent.

The Cherokee fear that a loss of balance results in sickness, bad weather, failed crops, poor hunting, and many other problem and believe that humans are responsible for keeping the balance within themselves and between the animals, the plants, and other people. To that end the Cherokee were among the first conservationist. When they gather medicinal plants in the forest, for example, they harvest only every fourth one they find, leaving the other three to grow undisturbed for a future use.

We all could learn a great deal about life and living, I would say, by listening to the spirit of the Cherokee and seeking balance.