new beginnings

a child of africa gets engaged to a child of iran. together they hope their union can contribute one more tiny thread that unites the people's of the world.

"O Thou Provider! The dearest wish of this servant of Thy Threshold is to behold the friends of east and west in close embrace; to see all the members of human society gathered with love in a single great assemblage, even as individual drops of water collected in one mighty sea; to behold them all as birds in one garden of roses, as pearls of one ocean, as leaves of one tree, as rays of one sun." (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 75)

One of the many perks of this new beginning is the possibility for greater opportunities to eat Persian food like the Shol-e-zard and Fessen joon that were served at our simple family engagment party. Yummm!

Happy 牛Year

Here I am in Lanzhou, Gansu, China on New Year's Day 2009. The New Year of any culture or tradition is such a wonderful symbol of turning over a new leaf, of taking pause to reflect and bring oneself to account and to set new goals and directons.

I would like to sustain my New Year's resolution blog posting tradition in which I take stock of the previous year and consider what I would like to focus on for the next. Last year I resolved to strive for the following attributes in my life:

independence
strength
severance
FAITH
patience
calm
stillness
ZEAL
courage
energy
enthusiasm
purity of heart, mind, motive, intention
DISCIPLINE
focus
knowledge
discernment
and JOY

Quite an extensive list and, reflecting on the past year, I really did consciously strive to acquire most of these attributes and states of being. Actually I printed out this list and stuck it up on my computer monitor so that I could return to it for inspiration and focus when necessary.

How interesting it is to me that after just one year my world and future look so different. While I still wish to keep working on last year's list of attributes, new capacities seem to emerge as more urgently necessary as I contemplate the adventures in store for me this year. The first that come to mind are as follows...

LOVE

magnanimity

generosity (of spirit, material wealth and TIME... "when there is love there is always time")

graciousness

tenderness

affection

BEAUTY

magic and romance

loyalty

commitment

respect

encouragement

illumination ("day by day become ye more illumined")

industriousness

cleanliness and order