Archive for September, 2006

Baha’i study circle at our home

Teaching the Baha’i Faith is really about sharing stories. It is through stories that hearts are touched.

As I struggle to incorporate the Baha’i practices of holding devotional meetings, conducting home-visits, assisting in children’s classes, and promoting study circles into my daily life, I’ve decided to turn my experiences into personal stories, posting them on a separate blog Teaching the Baha’i Faith. Teaching stories are to be found everyday on blog postings from all over the world. May the Internet be filled with these stories day in and day out right on through to the dawning of the Most Great Peace.

Here is the first blog entry. What is your story? -gw

{Re-posted from Teaching the Baha’i Faith. -gw}

The home-visit I made last week was a little scary. Thank goodness my second visit last night to the home of Cindy (not her real name) and her father wasn’t scary at all.

Our meeting time had been delayed from 7:00 to 8 p.m. Cindy was practicing driving with her father in preparation for taking her driver’s test. Cindy is 16. This is also the first week of school, and she was switching schools, so it was a busy day for the two of them.

Of course, it was a busy day for me, too, and for Megan and Taraz who joined me for the weeknight home-visit. Megan’s work hours and commute from Seattle can mean she doesn’t get home some nights until 7:30. Taraz gets off work at 7 p.m. normally. I wasn’t home until 6:30, a little later than usual.

No sooner was I in the door than Bonita was saying she needed a steak. Cindy’s call earlier moving our meeting an hour later gave Bonita and I just enough time to have dinner together at the Outback. Taraz touched base by phone during the meal. He and I were to touch base about 3 more times before the evening was over.

I was on my way to Cindy’s when I got the call that she still needed a little extra time to put her house in order. We agreed that 8:30 would work fine. OK, enough time for me to return the music CDs to the library, but afterwards on the freeway I took the left lane when I should have taken the right and ended up going miles out of my way, the whole way my thoughts alternating between prayer and the-opposite-of-prayer, but I still made it to Cindy’s by 8:35. Whew!

No Megan and Taraz yet, though. They were delivering a birthday cake to
Sandy, whose own arrival home had been delayed — did I say we live busy lives? — but they would be on their way shortly.

I was warmly greeted by Cindy. Her father was seated in the living room busy on a project. I couldn’t tell exactly but I imagined that he was cleaning his weapons. That was what had been scary about last week.

Here I was doing a home-visit to a teenager, yes, one whom I had talked to before, and, yes, a teenager whose father, according to her, was open to her having Baha’is visit, but I am not a teenager myself, in case anyone is wondering, and I felt awkward from the get-go of that first visit.

I had arrived five minutes or so before her father came home. As he walked in the door he was sizing me up, no doubt. There was no smile of greeting, just a big man with a brusque manner, taking off his coat as he crossed the room, his handcuffs at the ready behind his back and his revolver in its holster, a man who lay what looked like a gun with a foldable stock down on a side table, and then sat down very straight-faced. Yeah, it had been a little scary.

I had talked fast and smiled a lot. I’d brought some teaching materials, Book Zero, but we never got to it. We chatted instead, talking about family mostly. I found I was directing many of my comments to Cindy’s father. I could feel more comfortable with him than Cindy because he and I are about the same age. He appeared to warm up. He told me where he worked and what he did. He owns a security business. Hence, the weapons. Aha!

We talked about religion. Cindy’s father is a Mormon although not currently practicing. He had never heard of the Baha’i Faith until Cindy told him about it as part of asking permission for me to come over.

I had wished I had had a teaching partner with me last week. I couldn’t arrange one, despite a few last minute calls. But yesterday I did have support. A little after 9 p.m. in walked my son and Megan. I was already having a great time.

Before they arrived there was some chit-chat, but this week we actually got down to study. I had the pages of Book Zero out, the ones with simple line drawings. I was using those pages to tell the story of the Bab. Cindy was nodding as I talked, which was very reinforcing. It seemed her father was entirely focussed on the story as well.

Taraz pointed out the picture of the Shrine of the Bab on his shirt. We talked about Haifa for a little bit, Megan mentioning that she and Taraz might be going on Pilgrimage next Spring with her family. Cindy’s father noticed Taraz’s shoes and that Megan spoke softly. He seemed pleased and impressed with these Baha’i young adults.

Next time I’ll tell the story of Baha’u'llah.

posted by george wesley at 6:47 AM 2 comments

Parisa

Archived

From Archived this tribute. -gw

well well well, im here because i am just paying tribute to an AMAZING individual who is doing her thang currently, and making a riot!

parisa nourani, she is absolutely brilliant. skipped grades, graduated early, is only a little older than me (two months i think). plays the violin, does beautiful works of art, is an abosolutely positively devoted bahai and spiritual being. right now she is in costa rica on her year of service (this is where a person goes for a year to serve a community, such as put on childrens classes, manual labor, etc.), and i was looking through random stuff, and found some of her art work. im putting these ones up because they are so good, and amazing, and i hope one day she becomes a tattoo artist! (im sure her parents are counter hoping my ridiculous hope, but she is so gifted in abstract forms of art.)
here she is doing her thang:
and here is the work in progress:
here is another project:
and here is some more of her…crazy talent:
now, i hope these pictures come out, because its a pain…when they dont.
isnt that so crazy??? shes only 16 right now? maybe 17, at the oldest. I think that if there is one thing that inspires me and allows me to have more faith would be certain individuals like her who have so much talent, and are guided by Baha’u'llah to do such great things. Its so beautiful, and it really helps me to see past such stupid things that I let get to me and creep into my heart.
Going to Israel was a miracle. I met so many people, and since then I have learned so many lessons. I hope that everyone can be healed, and that this world becomes a better place.

Archived, “;asldt,” MySpace

{Re-posted with permission}

http://www.antoniomarchetti.it/immagini/cynicism.JPG

Pain and suffering has a purpose: to get us to move towards the light. A “living hell” is living far from the light. abberantepistle writes frankly about his life in a long post from which I have excerpted two brief paragraphs. -gw

One of the other things mentioned in our late-night discussion was my apparent depression. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) the number of ambulatory care visits to health care providers regarding depression in the year 2004 was 21,000,000. It also makes mention of some 10,403,000 prescriptions in 2005 for anti-depressant medications. That’s more people than practice the Baha’i faith, and those guys give out balloons at the county fair.
…
Now that I’m a father, I wonder which father I’m going to be. I’ve been assured by some that the birth and parenting of a child gives you hope for a brighter future and a sparkly outlook on the way things might turn out. Conversely I wonder …what I’ve gotten my poor, innocent baby into. And I definitely want him growing up with a healthy sense of skepticism about anyone who has a rosy… viewpoint. I don’t want him cynical either. Cynicism given here to mean “An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others.” Even if it might be a very realistic view, I’d rather he ended up one of those people that possess that sickening optimism that makes me want to whack them with a mallet.

abberantepistle, “Repression, Ruffles, Remorse,” Incoherent Ramblings of a College Dropout

When I begin my master’s program I took a course on counseling that referenced the significance of “natural helpers,” those who provide emotional support to others as a natual part of their jobs. A hairdresser or barber often can have a positive effect on the mental health of many people over the course of a day. Dear blogger friend and hairdresser Jess is such a natural helper.

A truth for me, working in the mental health field, is that following a religious practice is an enormous assistance to maintaining a positive mental state. Jess has written about how she provides a listening ear for her clients but that people in her profession usually need to avoid the subject of religion with their clients. As she writes in this post, when there is receptivity, even this rule of thumb can be ignored. -gw

I had a client here today who is a very nice woman but she has a lot of personal problems, the two significant ones being that she battles an eating disorder and her marriage is in a rough patch. I put some foils in her hair and began to work on her daughter’s hair so she went into the playroom off the kitchen to watch TV. Bob’s and my Ruhi study books are on a bookshelf in the playroom and she picked one up and flipped through it.

Earlier we had been talking about church. She asked me if I had been lately and when I responded, “no”, she said she hadn’t either and she felt guilty. She mentioned that she needed an evening study group more than a weekend sermon to help her along and I told her a little about the Ruhi group Bob and I participating in. She seemed vaguely interested but I didn’t push the issue because it isn’t my place as her hairstylist to be discussing her spirituality with her.

So, I guess after our brief chat she saw the Ruhi books, picked one up and leafed through it and then returned to me with questions. The most notable being, “Do Baha’is believe Jesus is the Son of God and He died for our sins?” I answered her as best I could telling her that yes Baha’is do believe Jesus is the Son of God and died on the cross but their interpretation of the resurrection is a bit different than the evangelical Christian one. I briefly explained how Baha’is accept many faiths as leading to the same God, Christianity being one of them. She then asked me about Baha’u'llah, who He is and what He had to say. Oh, boy. I told her a bit more that I know and gave her a comparison of sorts to help her understand. I told her that Baha’u'llah is considered by Baha’is to be the most recent Prophet from God. The Bab could be compared to John the Baptist, Baha’u'llah to Jesus and Abdu’l-Baha to Paul.

She had many more questions and wanted to know about my study group. I then told her I thought the best thing to do if she was really interested would be to take one of my Baha’i books to read and if she still had questions or was interested in exploring further to let me know. She took Moojen Momens The Baha’i Faith with her when she left. I also gave her information about Ocean, the online concordance of sorts for all religious texts.

We’ll see what happens. I have to admit I felt unprepared to answer her questions because I am still new and learning myself. And I am not a Baha’i!

Jess, “And so it begins…” Tangential Thoughts

{Re-posted with permission}