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This time of year feels like the deep inhale before seeing how far I can swim underwater in a single breath, lungs straining and muscles burning, that delicious gasp of fresh air at the end. This month spans 19 days, is then followed up with Ayyam-i-Ha, includes, for my little family, a big trip–all before we reach the month of Ala.
Whenever my husband, children and I leave home there are certain tasks I like to accomplish. There’s the careful packing, the purchasing of snacks and gifts for our hosts, the laundry, cleaning the house as much as time permits, and often, tying up loose ends and completing niggling jobs that I have been putting off. I find myself repotting plants and (badly) mending beloved clothes. I like to put my household, and in many ways my life, in order before setting out. And whenever possible, we pause before beginning our journey by reciting a prayer by the Bab, which incidentally, Angela, Adrian and Rebecca sang for us this last month.
Whether I have a plane ticket in hand or not, this time of the Baha’i year also feels like getting ready for a journey as I put up colourful paper decorations around our house and I help with planning for our community’s Ayyam-i-Ha celebration and the return of a much-loved Ayyam-i-Ha project here on Baha’i Blog too (stay tuned!). The sense of anticipation is palpable. And beyond Ayyam-i-Ha, magnificent on the horizon like a mountain range, looms the Fast. Every Fast feels completely different in how it is traversed and where it transports me–I feel a similar sense of hope and the same sense of curiosity and wonder as travelling to a new place. I will be honest: most often the Fast takes me squarely face-to-face with my own shortcomings, but there are other discoveries too, like gratitude for my body, the physical container that allows me to have all these adventures. And on that note, I’d like to share a guided meditation that Day-by-Day has released. Day by Day is an initiative from some of the Baha’i Blog team that offers meditations and affirmations to connect with your spiritual self. Last week, they released their first meditation where we are encouraged to embrace our physical selves with acceptance and love.
And on a larger philosophical scale, there is another journey we are all preparing for, aren’t we? While in London, a friend asked Abdu’l-Baha:
‘“How should one look forward to death?”
Abdu’l-Bahá answered: “How does one look forward to the goal of any journey? With
hope and with expectation. It is even so with the end of this earthly journey.”’1
Perhaps getting ready for the journey Abdu’l-Baha refers to is a little like planning to take a trip, and a little bit like making spiritual provisions for the Fast. There are practical considerations to consider (the writing of a Will and ensuring that those surrounding me understand my desires to be buried according to Baha’i law) and then there’s the more mystical and mental work to be done, the developing of spiritual muscles. In our latest Studio Session from Edinburgh, Shirin beautifully sang in Kyrgyz these words of Baha’u’llah:
O FRIENDS! Abandon not the everlasting beauty for a beauty that must die, and set not your affections on this mortal world of dust.
As I check items off lists and dust off our both proverbial and real suitcases, I look forward to the many journeys ahead.
Happy Month of Mulk!
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