sunshine and sweet honey

the days pass with sweetness and struggle... i suppose that is how life goes.  

winter has come and gone.

Baha'is celebrate their new year on the first day of spring.  Naw Ruz is also an ancient Persian festival and we set up a traditional table with the seven s's on it (haft seen) More pictures of traditional Naw Ruz tables are available on flickr.  I found some introductions online to the symbolism of the various components of the table.  We included on our table a plate of sabzeh that maman-jan sprouted for us from lentils representing fertility and the rebirth of nature; apples (seeb) representing natural beauty; garlic (seer) representing health, vinegar (serkeh) representing age, a mirror representing the images and reflections of Creation, coins (sekkeh), and goldfish representing life.  Maman-jan suggested we add the Kitab-i-Aqdas for good measure to remember that we were celebrating Baha'i New Year and not just the traditional Persian holiday.

This past weekend spring arrived in full force with blue skies and sunshine.  We went out to enjoy ourselves at Rutgers day and lay down on the lush green grass 

listening to bluegrass music.

That evening dear dear friend k.  who is one of those amazing souls who makes it her mission to bring sweetness and sunshine into the lives of others treated me to a concert at Princeton.  It was a concert of Sweet Honey in the Rock.  Just the kind of thing that fills my soul with delight.  So spiritual, so educational, so concerned with social justice, so authentic, so good, so down to earth, so revolutionary, such brilliance and power these fabulous women evinced.  If they are ever in your neck of the woods really DO try to go and see them.  They put on a moving and inspiring live performance.  CDs and youtube clips do not do it justice.

zhu zhu

at not quite five weeks old zhu zhu (little pearl) is the size of a tiny lentil but "she" already has a backbone, a beating heart... and a soul... May her backbone grow ever more firm and steadfast, her heart ever more expansive and her soul maintain its purity and brilliance.

so astonished by the speed with which human life takes shape!!  So many things to learn by reading and reveling in the astounding pictures in the wondrous book A Child is Born.  

"...that from the union of these two seas of love a wave of tenderness may surge and cast the pearls of pure and goodly issue on the shore of life..."

('Abdu'l-Baha)