"Just write down what you're thinking"

March 2nd - March 20th is known to Baha'i's as the month of the Fast, where we abstain from eating and drinking from sun up to sun down.  It's a whole month (Baha'i months are 19 days) dedicated to spiritual rejuvenation.  The Fast acts like a mechanic working to align your spiritual orientation towards prayer, teaching, and service to others day by day.  The hope is this alignment will last a full year.  Each year is different for me.  I'm continuing my adventure within the realm of love.  It's not like we ever leave this realm but we can choose to take a closer look if we want to.



So there's this book.  Love: Jewels from the words of Abdu'l-Baha.  It's short but literally filled with jewels.  Each small quote is only a few lines long but holds such beauty and profoundness that I had to share one with you.  It goes.

Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul.

If you look back to an earlier post I wrote called "Love - the Adam Lanza part" and in that post I wrote about this theme of love as a light.  That's why I so enjoy reading spiritual Words because they hold Truths we already know, but something else also happens when we read them and connect with them.  Hard to explain it.

So this quote strikes me as particularly beautiful because of the analogy of love being a link between us and God, and not just any link, a living link!  Plugging in a USB cable to a computer uploads or downloads information to and from a computer and happens at a consistent rate, I'd call this an electrical link.  But a living link, what would that be?  Maybe like some form of a symbiotic relationship?  A link made from love.  I remember someone talking about this like if God was the generator then all man had to do was plug in.  Love is the link, the plug, the cable.  If man has no love then he can't receive God's love.  Like sitting next to a generator without plugging in, all that power and potential waiting for us to reach out.  That's God, always loving, always the powerful generator, waiting for us to reach for Him and plug in.

Insecurity is like a shadow monster in your room.

You know what I mean?  You're a child and you're going to bed when you start searching the room to make sure it's safe.  And your eyes fall upon a strange shadow on the wall.  You get to thinking, is it a shadow or it is alive?  Did it just move? Yes it did, I saw it move.  Now you look closer and you can make out the details, arms and head, tentacles, teeth, ears, every one of them is moving.  You want to scream out and call your mom or dad.  And sometimes you can scream and sometimes you're too afraid so you just bury your head under the covers and hide, hoping it will go away.  And it always does go away because daylight reveals its true nature.  

Now isn't that just a perfect analogy for insecurity and all those other things that cause us to fear so much so we become paralyzed.  And the daylight, what do you suppose that might be?  Recognizing truth perhaps, seeing the true nature of things.  Once we understand a thing it isn't paralyzing anymore I guess.  

I wonder if we could skip that paralyzing fear stage all together.  Of course it takes great courage to get up from your bed, in the dark, and take that first step towards the shadow monster, especially when you're not quite sure if it's real or not.  Great courage indeed.  

light, plant, call, become, gather, cause, bestow, enlarge, refine, direct

"O thou my respected son:

         The letter that thou hast written with the utmost love became the cause of perfect happiness. Truly, I say, thou art striving with heart and soul, to obtain the good pleasure of God.  It is assured that this blessed intention will have great effect.  The good intention is like an ignited candle whose rays are cast to all parts.  Now, praise be to God, that thou hast manifested the utmost effort so that thou mayest light a candle of guidance in that region; plant a tree of the utmost freshness and delicacy in the garden of the world of humanity; call the people to the divine Kingdom; become the means of the progress of intellects and souls; gather the lost sheep under the protection of the Real Shepherd; cause the awakening of the sleepy ones; bestow health upon those who are spiritually sick; enlarge the sphere of human minds; refine the moral fibre of the people and direct the wandering birds to the rose-garden of Reality.

Rest assured that the Eternal Outpouring shall descend upon thee, and the Confirmations of His Holiness Baha'u'llah shall encircle thee.

Convey to all the believers the wonderful 'Abhá greetings.

Upon thee be the Glory of the Most Glorious." 

(Signed) 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbás
Mt. Carmel,
Haifa, Syria
March 31st, 1914.

Love - the Adam Lanza part

This may seem like a crazy title in regards to what happened today but if you’ll just permit me a few lines I think you’ll agree.  

I’ve been thinking about love for a long time now and was going to post a different kind of comment today but in light of this young person, Adam, I feel it’s more appropriate to adapt my thoughts. 

This world is just one big love story and Adam plays a part in it.   What that part is exactly I do not know.  For I, as you, feel confused and saddened from today’s tragic event.  My heart goes out to all those children, to their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and all the people who are angry and confused and don’t know what to do with these feelings.  Certainly a ban on automatic weapons feels like a step in the right direction, but we know in our hearts it’s not the automatic weapons.  It’s adam and the role he plays in this love story. 

It’s a beautiful name isn’t it?  Adam.  From Adam and Eve, the beginning of awareness of one another.  Of vulnerability.

So why did he do it?  We would have to understand adam’s mind.  We would have to understand his life.  We would have to live his life.  I’m no expert on adam’s life but I’m willing to bet there was a great deal of pain associated with living it. 

Adam’s pain is probably like many others out there and my heart goes out to them as well.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in darkness all the time.  No love, no life.  How can we live without feeling love, without giving love?  What is life’s purpose if not to love?  

Adam reminded me today, or rather he shook me awake, as to the reality of things right now, and that is we are all looking for love, looking for ways to express our vulnerability.  Some of us are wandering in the darkness, looking for light but finding none. 

I’m very sad for Adam and those he hurt, but he is a reminder that those that can must do something, no matter how small, to bring just a little more light into this world so next time adam can find it.