All posts by Sonjel Vreeland. Browse Other Authors

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.

Two New Books to Nurture Love for Abdu’l-Baha in Children’s Hearts

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Celeste Finn has created two children’s books about Abdu’l-Baha. While they would be valuable resources any year, they are particularly precious this year as we reflect profoundly on the Life of Abdu’l-Baha and as we share stories about Him with the children in our lives in honor of the centenary anniversary of His Passing.

Celeste kindheartedly agreed to tell us about her two books, and to provide a little sneak peak of one of them. We hope you enjoy our conversation and that the sample story at the bottom whets your appetite to read more! Continue reading →

ABDU’L-BAHA – Servant of Glory: A New Baha’i Blog Video

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As this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Passing of Abdu’l-Baha, we wanted to let you know about our special video made in His honor called ABDU’L-BAHA – Servant of Glory.

We typically interview artists and creators about their work and ask them what inspired them, what challenges they faced, and what words of encouragement they might offer others. I realized it would be really wonderful to pull back the veils and tell you a little bit about what goes into some of our own projects so in this interview I asked Naysan Naraqi, who produced ABDU’L-BAHA – Servant of Glory, to tell us more about the film. Continue reading →

Personal Reflections on the Baha’i Faith from Around the World – Collection 22

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“Personal Reflections on the Baha’i Faith from Around the World” is a Baha’i Blog initiative in honor of the bicentenary anniversaries of the Births of Baha’u’llah and the Bab, the two Prophet-founders of the Baha’i Faith.

In this initiative, we share portraits of Baha’is and their friends from different countries and territories all over the world, along with a few of their words about what the Baha’i Faith means to them or how it has touched their lives.  Continue reading →

Convergence: Cities, Spirituality and the Future of Civilization – A New Book by M. L. Perry

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Mark Perry has authored a new book published by George Ronald titled Convergence: Cities, Spirituality and the Future of Civilization. The book asks the question: What makes a great place to live?

In this book, Mark draws on the experience, knowledge, information, wisdom and vision of people of diverse fields working with and concerned about human habitats. Using as guiding principles some writings of Baha’u’llah, Mark looks at how spirituality and the developing science of sustainability might converge to produce communities that are moderate, local but interconnected globally, technologically and spiritually-based, progressive and sustainable, and great places to live.

Mark graciously agreed to tell us more about his book and how it came together:

Baha’i Blog: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I grew up in Swarthmore, a suburb of Philadelphia. My first career goal was to be a musician and I majored in music in college. But racism was constantly on my mind, and I couldn’t focus on music while dealing with persistent questions of inequality and segregation buzzing around like mosquitos and hornets. I was fascinated by my first sociology course, which provided a way to discuss social problems and their solutions. I pursued graduate studies in sociology, cultural anthropology and history, and have been teaching in those fields since 1987. From 2014 I have been teaching at BNU-HKBU United International College in Zhuhai, China.

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Marie-Claire Saindon – When A Thought Of War

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Canadian Baha’i Marie-Claire Saindon has composed a choral piece based on the words of Abdu’l-Baha, “When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love.”

The song was performed and produced by the Swedish group VoNo – Voces Nordicae. The piece is essentially wordless but it powerfully depicts the battle to root out thoughts of war and hatred from one’s mind. Continue reading →