On Bonita Shops Cabela’s: All firearms must be inspected

By george wesley dannells on Sep 2, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
 
REI vs Cabela's. That was the matchup. Cabela's has won as Bonita's favorite recreational store. I think it was the stuffed animals that took her over the top. But I think she should reconsider, by considering this. -gw
 
Our Commitment to Stewardship

REI is helping to build a lasting legacy of trails, rivers, and wild lands for generations to come, supporting programs to help people of all ages and experiences participate. REI's involvement and impact in local communities reached new heights in 2009. Investing $2 million in outdoor recreation programs and stewardship projects, REI helped care for areas of recreation, introduce people to the outdoors and leverage additional dollars for great programs. Sally Jewell, REI's president and CEO stated, "REI recognizes that today's youth will be tomorrow's stewards of the environment. REI is committed to providing opportunities for young people to experience the joys of outdoor recreation and learn how to care for open spaces and our shared public lands."

 
Brilliant Star wins APEX Award of Excellence for Green Writing
July 22, 2010
Brilliant Star magazine, published for children ages 8–12 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, received a 2010 APEX Award of Excellence for Green Writing for its March/April 2009 issue entitled "Caring for Our Planet," which was produced in observance of the U.N. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005–2014. This is the magazine's fourth APEX Award for Publication Excellence
 

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On Rocky’s Other Granddaughter: Caring and sharing

By george wesley dannells on Sep 2, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
George,
Check out the Tacoma Weekly. What an article they did on Tierra and her family! Look in the sport section.
 
             Rocky
 
I still haven't picked up a copy of the Weekly to see the article Rocky was referring to in his e-mail to me. I have loved featuring the track and field accomplishments of his granddaughter Tierra, shown with her brother Pierre at the bottom of this post. And it should be no surprise that Rocky has other granddaughters and grandsons who are extraordinary kids as well.  At Karen & Fredric's Family Fun Night I was in awe of the granddaughter, featured in the set below, who took great delight in tending to Charles' little grandchild, also in attendance last Saturday night. -gw
 
 
Tierra & Pierre
 

Thus from the very beginning of life every child will be refreshed by the gentle wafting of the love of God and will tremble with joy at the sweet scent of heavenly guidance.

 
Abdu'l-Baha

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On Amped Up to Study a Prayer With Someone: Andrene to the rescue

By george wesley dannells on Sep 1, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
 
Tonight I went Pawn-X on South Tacoma Way to see if they had an amplifier/receiver I could buy to replace the one that is on the fritz in the living room at home. They just had a Yamaha. I don't like how difficult it is to change the volume of the rear and center speakers on that unit, so I didn't buy it.
 
Wednesday evenings I try to use for home-visits. And Sunday. Tuesday evenings and Saturday are set aside for family time. Our home devotional is Thursday evening. Monday and Friday evenings are open, Mondays often being for Spiritual Assembly or Area Teaching Committee meetings.
 
So after no success at Pawn-X, this being Wednesday, I thought, who can I go visit? I sifted through possibilities. Regina is tied up this week, I believe. I haven't met Cinnamon yet. Then I thought, Andrene!
 
I didn't have her address, but I thought I might be able to figure it out by proximity, having been there once before. Sure enough, as I walked through the complex on G-Street, there she was, out in front of her apartment, keeping an eye on Derrick and doling something on her iPhone.
 
I told her I was out and about, but had been thinking about her family and thought I'd stop  by to say hello. We discussed the effort of Baha'is to build spiritual community through home-visits and four core activities. I told her I would love to find a time when we could study a prayer together. I said, to get in a truely devotional state, you have to become deeply in touch with the Holy Writings. And what a great way to have a spiritual conversation with a person than to study a prayer with them!
 
I said, "I've brought these prayer books with me. How about now?" She said come on in.
 
It was a delightful study. This is the prayer we studied…
 
 
She's been to devotions in our home.  I told her it would be wonderful if she could have regular devotions in her home. 
 
We talked again about having children's classes for Derrick and other children in the complex. I told her the effect that regular children's classes were having on the children in Salishan. I think she might be interested in being accompanied to do both activities.
 
She said she was going to come to our houseagain  for devotions tomorrow. I hope my amp will hold up for one more evening. Gotta have music for our devotional. And the deep study of at least one prayer. -gw
 
 

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On What If My Friend Finds Out: So long afternoons at IKEA

By george wesley dannells on Sep 1, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
From there she joined the Baha’i faith. … [S]he stayed with them because she had made a friend in the community who visited her and took her out to buy New Balance sneakers and sheets from IKEA. They also prayed together, and Linda found the Baha’i prayers comforting.

I told her that if the Baha’i prayers were comforting, she should continue to say them. But now she had a conflict. She had recently joined the Church of the Nazarene because she heard they had great prayer groups. She was excited to report to me that two members of the church had already visited her and brought flowers and Nazarene paperwork. But then her mood darkened, and she said, “I did call one of the ladies after their visit, to invite her to come over again, but she said she was going to be busy all of September. She wasn’t as nice on the phone as she was when she was here.”

“Can I stay a Baha’i and also be a member of the Nazarenes?” she asked. “What if my Baha’i friend finds out? She’ll stop visiting me.” So long, afternoons at IKEA.

Then she paused and said, “Am I just being wishy-washy? Shouldn’t I just pick a religion and stick to it?”

I was taken off guard by her sudden insight. I often think that my agnosticism is wishy-washy. I was brought up Catholic, …

There are several highly salient issues regarding religious affiliation woven into this fascinating blog post.  To follow the example of Abdu’l-Baha, a Baha’i friend learning this soul had joined a Nazarene church wouldn’t bat an eye, but would simply continue to love and to serve and, I predict, to continue to visit. This soul’s spiritual journey is her spiritual journey.

Baha’is are building spiritual community,  increasingly working side by side with people who are not Baha’is in establishing the core activities that bring spiritual unity. There are clear authoritative guidelines for Baha’is on all sorts of matters, including church affiliation, but the bottom line for a follower of Baha’u'lah  is … don’t worry about your neighbor’s journey. He or she is in God’s hands. Just love, teach, grow. -gw

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On Gracing the Nine-Pointed Star: Immaculate and her radiant children

By george wesley dannells on Sep 1, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)

I give this picture set 4 stars  (out of four). -gw

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On Reading the Liner Notes to Lunar Drive: Baha’i black top techno, Pueblo trance and high desert trip-hop

By george wesley dannells on Aug 31, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
The liner notes for Lunar Drive’s 1996 Here at Black Mesa Arizona include the quote by Abdu’l-Baha that forms the basis for the song ”Transcend the Murmur.” Kevin Locke sings on “Stacked Up Clouds,” that incorporates a traditional Lakota melody. A flute sample from “Lakota Prayer” by Kevin forms part of the song “MoBridge, South Dakota,” and his vocals are included in “Crying, Looking For You.” A spoken sample by Phil Lane, Sr., is included in “The Sky So High.” A picture of Kevin hoop-dancing can be found in the liner note centerfold collage. The album reached #5 on the Billboard World Music chart. There are nine tracks on the album.
+

There is the familiar face of Franklin Khan on the Lunar Drive’s “All Together Here.” Phil Lane contributes to the vocals on “Square World, and Franklin Khan on “A Great Traditional Word.” -gw
+

While producing dance music in London, Hoover began to experiment with Navajo melodies. During visits to Big Mountain, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, Benally’s voice inspired the first song for the release. “Jon can really express that human feeling of desperation versus hope,” Hoover said.

After being hit by a car in London, she returned to Flagstaff to recuperate. While living with her mother on Lunar Drive, she met Minkler, a neighbor.

“Sam knows lots of traditional songs from his family and he is also a natural composer and improviser. I would put together some beats and then he improvised new melodies over them. Or he would sing songs and I would try to build other music around his songs.”

Hoover and Minkler performed in London last summer and young people were soon humming Navajo and Lakota melodies. The music mix, released by Nation Records in England, was described by “The Guardian”as black top techno, Pueblo trance and high desert trip-hop.

“Sampling Native American songs and chants into a prefab dance beat would have been one thing, but to have the various elements rippling into and around each other like this is really special,” “The Guardian” wrote in a recent review.

“Here at Black Mesa, Arizona,” has been broadcast in Latin America on the BBC World Service, in England on BBC regional stations and on local radio stations in Portugal and Germany.

Preparing for an upcoming tour of the South Pacific, Locke said folk art is a tried and true means to express what is in one’s heart. At the core of one’s being is the universal language of the spirit. “This is the basis which connects all people.” Locke said he seeks to infuse his music with the teachings of Baha’u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith. The Baha’i Faith teaches the oneness of religion and mankind. Baha’u'llah taught the arts are a gift from the Creator.

Music can take people to an entirely different level of consciousness and transcend prejudices and divisiveness, he said. “As a Baha’i, my goal is to celebrate the nobility of the human spirit through music and dance.”

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On Summer School As a Seat of Baha’i Learning: Immaculate’s photos from the 2010 Western Washington edition

By george wesley dannells on Aug 31, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
Immaculate was kind to share with me the photos she took of the 2010  Immaculate was kind to share with me the photos she took of the 2010  Western Washington Baha’i Summer School. If you were a kid, what memories would you have of such an experience? If you are a parent, what memories will you have of contributing to your child’s sense of being a Baha’i if you were to ensure that your family goes every year. How I regret not having taken my children every summer to Baha’i summer school. -gw
 
 

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On Honorable Souls Building Community: A persian lady of about 80 years old had her children class at the park (with 19 participants)

By george wesley dannells on Aug 30, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
Yesterday, in cosmos city (a township full of children and interesting people around Johannesburg in South Africa) a persian lady of about 80 years old had her children class at the park (with 19 participants), not far from there a young man was busy with his junior youth group. And still around the corner, were people basically busy with the same kind of activities. These honorable souls are all living very far from that place but they made themselves a priority to visit and help building the community of this township at least once a week.

 
 
Fascinating excerpts from the blog Nathy n' Kangami on Baha'i efforts on community building in South Africa. -gw
 

Then, we decided to visit newly declared baha'is or people simply interested in the Faith. It was really interesting and warming and we discovered that people have been waiting for our visit for months. We are now trying to implement a new system… and it is all about thinking, studying & acting systematically… It is also about trying and learning with courage, wisdom, humility, patience, obedience and perseverance. Hopefully that we will show more commitments at this task.

 
 

 

 

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On the Conduct and Manner of Baha’is: We should become so forgiving

By george wesley dannells on Aug 30, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
Two entries are side by side in my keyword search this morning of mentions of "Baha'I" on blogs. The first entry is to a post that calls the Baha'i Faith "homophobic" because of a presentation made at the recent Association of Baha'i Studies Conference and the second to one that outlines the position Baha'is are called upon to take towards those who fall into error. -gw
 

We should become so forgiving that if a person “falls into error for a hundred-thousand times” we would still forgive him

O ye friends of God! Show ye an endeavor that all the nations and communities of the world, even the enemies, put their trust, assurance and hope in you; that if a person falls into errors for a hundred-thousand times he may yet turn his face to you, hopeful that you will forgive his sins; for he must not become hopeless, neither grieved nor despondent. This is the conduct and the manner of the people of Baha'. This is the foundation of the most high pathway! Ye should conform your conduct and manners with the advices of 'Abdul-Baha. ('Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha v2, p. 436; compilation Excellence in All Things, p. 7)
 
 

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On Music That Is Not Happy Clappy: A reflective spirituality radiates from these settings of Baha’i sacred texts

By george wesley dannells on Aug 30, 2010 in All categories | comments(0)
 
I've loved his compositions ever since I first heard them. I find it difficult to describe Richard's music. Perhaps it's easier to say what it is not than what it is is: it is not 'happy clappy'; it is not formal classical music; it is not pop. …Overall, a reflective spirituality radiates from these settings of Baha'i sacred texts. This is serious music, but not self-important. It acts as a setting for the jewel-like texts, enhancing our appreciation for the Word of God without drawing attention to itself.
 
 
It's great seeing Barney's posts on Posterous. Here he introduces new music (for me, at least) from Richard Leigh. -gw

New CD Seed – 12 new settings of the writings of Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha, & The Bab is being recorded at present. written for both adults and children, it features the exquisite voices of Rachel Major and Emma Lewendon as well as Richard on guitar, violin, viola, accordion, kantele, voice & piano. Co-production is by Pete Maguire.
http://www.richardleighcomposer.co.uk/home/index.php

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