Befriended Stranger

Sometimes you get stuck and try as you might, nothing comes out of it — it might be the wrong time for a solution or just the wrong approach to a solution. Stepping back and seeing things in perspective helps but sometimes all you can do is persevere… and ask for help — from friends, strangers, and God.

These days the world seems stuck. And badly needs unstucking…

In Iran, the 7 Baha’i leaders are stuck in a jail, falsely accused of crimes they never committed and we all fear for their lives. Please pray for them!

I will not even comment on the insanity of the battle in which I am stuck in my attempts to be a father…

All of this while Washington, DC, is stuck under record amounts of snow.

This morning on my way to pick my baby sitter, my car got stuck on her street as I was driving back towards the cleared road. It took me an hour and a half trying so many different ways to get unstuck. I pushed, I pulled, I tried forward, I tried backward. A nice lady let me borrow her shovel on three occasions, each attempt getting me closer to the goal but never actually enabling me to be free. What a metaphor for my life these past years! The harder I was trying, the deeper I was getting into the snow. At some point I asked for help from some Pakistani men. They came and tried to help to no avail. Then I decided to walk to the store to buy some sand (the idea of buying sand sounds insane to me but on a snowy day you do not have much choice). They did not carry sand but they had cat litter crystals so I tried that — again, to no avail. Finally I asked a group of young men from Nicaragua to help me and after a good wait during which they uncovered somebody else’s car, they came to my rescue and off I went…

So, I’ve been thinking to myself about the connection between stuckness and unstuckness, freedom and detachment.

Like water on a lotus leaf, like a mustard seed on the point of a pin, he who is not stuck to the senses – that is what I
call a brahmin.
(Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha)

The Virtues cards I peruse each day give good insights and suggestions. The one on peacefulness suggests giving up the love of power for the power of love. A beautiful friend send me today this quote to reflect on as I was sharing about my difficulties:

The more difficulties one sees in the world the more perfect one becomes. The more you plough and dig the ground the more fertile it becomes. The more you cut the branches of a tree the higher and stronger it grows. The more you put the gold in the fire, the purer it becomes. The more you sharpen the steel by grinding …the better it cuts. Therefore, the more sorrows one sees the more perfect one becomes. That is why, in all times, the Prophets of God have had tribulations and difficulties to withstand. The more often the captain of a ship is in the tempest and difficult sailing the more greater his knowledge becomes. Therefore I am happy that you have had great tribulations and difficulties . . .

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

So, all these tests and tribulations are a good sign that God indeed loves me! Much to be grateful for! So, I decided to be grateful and I baked two banana breads this afternoon to take to the people who helped me in my attempts to unstuck my car from the snow. The Pakistani men were not at home but two shy yet kind ladies opened the door and while giving them the freshly baked banana bread, I told them of my gratitude for the help I received from strangers. The American lady who gave me a shovel was very kind as well and I gave her also a Baha’i prayer for peace — we both agreed that the world needs more helping strangers, shovels, banana bread and prayers

So, for every one who is stuck in this world, let’s give them a spiritual push. And a prayer:

Thou knowest full well, O my God, that tribulations have showered upon me from all directions and that no one can dispel or transmute them except Thee.  I know of a certainty, by virtue of my love for Thee, that Thou wilt never cause tribulations to befall any soul unless Thou desirest to exalt his station in Thy celestial Paradise and to buttress his heart in this earthly life with the bulwark of Thine all-compelling power, that it may not become inclined toward the vanities of this world.  Indeed Thou art well aware that under all conditions I would cherish the remembrance of Thee far more than the ownership of all that is in the heavens and on the earth.

Strengthen my heart, O my God, in Thine obedience and in Thy love, and grant that I may be clear of the entire company of Thine adversaries.  Verily, I swear by Thy glory that I yearn for naught besides Thyself, nor do I desire anything except Thy mercy, nor am I apprehensive of aught save Thy justice.  I beg Thee to forgive me as well as those whom Thou lovest, howsoever Thou pleasest.  Verily, Thou art the Almighty, the Bountiful.

Immensely exalted art Thou, O Lord of the heavens and earth, above the praise of all men, and may peace be upon Thy faithful servants and glory be unto God, the Lord of all the worlds.

The Báb

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
(Judaism / Christianity, Holy Bible, Joel, 2:32)

O LORD! Thou art the Remover of every anguish and the Dispeller of every affliction. Thou art He Who banisheth every sorrow and setteth free every slave, the Redeemer of every soul. O Lord! Grant deliverance through Thy mercy and reckon me among such servants of Thine as have gained salvation.
(Baha’i Faith, The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 193)

Dear friends!

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

My soul has been wanting to go home and recharge, and today brought a perfect boost of energy, inspiration and pride. A friend posted on Facebook the video of a beautiful song which brilliantly mixes three Bulgarian folk songs with catchy Italian arrangement, sang by two angelic sisters from Bulgaria and the celebrated children’s choir Antoniano, “La Danza di Rosinka”:

I love this song! For the beauty of the Bulgarian melody and its charming singers, for the joyful rhythm, for the promise of a more beautiful future. The song received two awards at the prestigious festival of children songs Zecchino d’Oro held annually in Bologna, Italy — it was voted number one by the children and the jury in the TV studio on the first day of the televised competition, and won the TV viewer’s award, Telezecchino.

But beyond the awards, what truly touched me was seeing the sincere joy and beautiful innocence of these talented young singers. In a world where most things are scripted for the media, this home video of the song is truly touching:

Now, since most of my readers are not Bulgarian, I would like to explain what is so special about this song. It is in fact a very clever mix of three very beautiful Bulgarian folk songs — one from the Rhodope Mountain and two from the Pirin Mountain regions of Bulgaria.

The first one is in fact a very sad songs, “Rufinka Bolna Legnala” — the story of a young woman Rufinka who is sick and talks to her mother about the sadness of dying at a time when the spring is about to bring everything in nature into bloom:

Transforming sadness into joy is one of the brilliant touches of those who produced the children song “La Danza di Rosinka”.

The other two songs are very traditional sang at any family celebration in the southwest of Bulgaria where I come from — “Kitchitse” about a no-none-sense young woman who pokes fun at the young men of her village, and “Ai Da Idem Yano” about a young woman who is invited by her future husband to shop for her wedding gift.

Here is a video of very typical performance of “Kitchitse” on the town square of Melnik:

And here is a video of “Ay Da Idem Yano”, the song my father used to sing every time he was trying to put my firstborn to bed when she was a baby:

And to complete this post rich of videos and memories, here is a throwback to the first time Bulgarian singers performed a Bulgarian song “Rainbow” (in a very typical for Bulgarian traditional music 7/8 measure) translated in Italian “Arcobaleno” at Zecchino d’Oro, back in 1984:

For thy power standeth not in multitude nor thy might in strong men: for thou art a God of the afflicted, an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are without hope.
(Christianity, Deuterocanonical Apocrypha, Judith)

All that is in Heaven and all that is in Earth is God’s! God is a sufficient protector!
(Islam, The Holy Qur’an, Sura   4 – Women)

We must consider all as the leaves, branches and fruit of one tree, children of one household; for all are the progeny of Adam. We are waves of one sea, grass of the same meadow, stars in the same heaven; and we find shelter in the universal divine Protector.
(Baha’i Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 174)

Dear friends!

We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

On a day which was highlighted by my six year old Sofia turning to me and tenderly telling me “Daddy, I really love you!”, I had another blessing — of spending wonderful time with two new friends from the “Old World”: one from Bulgaria, the other from Uzbekistan.

O ye close and dear friends of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá!
In the Orient scatter perfumes,
And shed splendours on the West.
Carry light unto the Bulgar,
And the Slav with life invest.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 270)

It was so nourishing — and just fun — to share a Bulgarian dinner with these friends and reminisce about our similar paths, sharing the types of jokes you would get only if you had lived in that part of the world, in those days of human history. And then to share prayers and discuss the Baha’i Faith — with all the things we think we understand about it, and those that seem at least at first as insurmountable obstacles. And then to acknowledge humbly that we might not actually get it but hope that the heart would one day know:

O servant! Warn thou the servants of God not to reject that which they do not comprehend. Say, implore God to open to your hearts the portals of true understanding that ye may be apprised of that of which no one is apprised. Verily, He is the Giver, the Forgiving, the Compassionate.
(Baha’u'llah, Tablets of Baha’u'llah, p. 188)

Life is a journey and I could not have asked for a better “new beginning” of the next chapter of my life than spending an evening at the Prayer Station with new friends from the Old World.

Tao is without beginning, without end. The material things are born and die, and no credit is taken for their development. Emptiness and fullness alternate, and their relations are not fixed. Past years cannot be recalled; time cannot be arrested. The succession of growth and decay, of increase and diminution, goes in a cycle, each end becoming a new beginning.
(Taoism, Tao, Chuangtse)

He Who is both the Beginning and the End, He Who is both Stillness and Motion, is now manifest before your eyes. Behold how, in this Day, the Beginning is reflected in the End, how out of Stillness Motion hath been engendered. This motion hath been generated by the potent energies which the words of the Almighty have released throughout the entire creation.
(Baha’i Faith, Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 168)

Dear friends!

This Monday, January 25th, I invite you and your loves ones to the interfaith Prayer Station in Arlington on the theme of “New Beginning“. We’ll start at 7:30 pm with light refreshments followed by reading, at 8:00 pm, of selected Holy Writings and Prayers. I have many books of prayers from different faith traditions but if you wish, feel free to bring your own prayer. We’ll also uplift and refresh our souls with music, and we’ll conclude with tea and sweets.
We’ll also say prayers for anyone in need, so if you can’t join us and would like to request prayers please contact me.

O SON OF MY HANDMAID!
Quaff from the tongue of the merciful the stream of divine mystery, and behold from the dayspring of divine utterance the unveiled splendor of the daystar of wisdom.  Sow the seeds of My divine wisdom in the pure soil of the heart, and water them with the waters of certitude, that the hyacinths of knowledge and wisdom may spring up fresh and green in the holy city of the heart.
—Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words

The first time I willingly went to a church service — albeit to be with a beautiful friend who had suggested the idea — was the first time I realized that I was yearning for certitude. It was the Easter service at a Greek Orthodox church in Odessa, Ukraine, during my last year of studies in that most unique Soviet city… As the priest announced “Christ has risen” I looked at the nearby ladies beautifully solemn with their heads covered with lace shawls. What I saw on their faces was something I had never seen, something I had never had, something I had never experienced, something I had no idea I needed, something I desperately wanted to have — certitude! For their faces were beaming with such joy for Christ’s resurrection that only certitude — a faith with not a hint of doubt — could have given. They believed it beyond the words and you could see it in their eyes! And I wanted it! I wanted the ability to believe and trust in something I could not physically see in just that same way…

The next morning, as I was walking along the blossoming trees on my way to my friend’s dormitory, a song came to my mind, ready with its lyrics and melody, a song of a “young sapling in the orchard of humanity”. A few months later, I was sharing about this song with a wonderful person from Canada who was telling me about the Baha’i Faith and who commented on how this metaphor of the sapling reminded her of the Baha’i Writings:

Ye are the saplings which the hand of Loving-kindness hath planted in the soil of mercy, and which the showers of bounty have made to flourish.
(Baha’u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 25)

O Peerless Lord! Be Thou a shelter for this poor child and a kind and forgiving Master unto this erring and unhappy soul. O Lord! Though we are but worthless plants, yet we belong to Thy garden of roses. Though saplings without leaves and blossoms, yet we are a part of Thine orchard. Nurture this plant then through the outpourings of the clouds of Thy tender mercy and quicken and refresh this sapling through the reviving breath of Thy spiritual springtime. Suffer him to become heedful, discerning and noble, and grant that he may attain eternal life and abide in Thy Kingdom for evermore.
- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

My silent prayer 19 years ago had been answered through my introduction to the Baha’i Faith…

But as Adib Taherzadeh explains in his talks on “Drawing Nigh to Baha’u'llah“, the gift of faith is something that should be nurtured, protected, cared for. Because there will be time when it will get tested…

During the last week I went through such a sequence of tests and difficulties — physical, emotional, spiritual — that I felt that my own faith was being tested. Now, trials and tribulations have been nothing new to me in the past two years but I have learned to pray for deliverance (and admittedly a lot of the times for a certain outcome) that I know, one way or another things eventually get better.

On Tuesday morning, as I was preparing for my morning prayers, I had this sudden awareness that all of these tests have been with the sole purpose of cultivating my faith and transforming it into certitude. And because I clearly did not have certitude, I had to pray for it.

The result has been nothing short of remarkable. Within hours I was able to withstand with serenity a tumultuous turn of events that spoke loud and clear that this is all part of God’s plan for me, even though I have no idea what its outcome will be. Then after work, at a prayer meeting, I met two wonderful people whose sincere interest in the Baha’i Faith gave me a new inspiration for the direction of the Prayer Station and my own service to the Faith! Praying for certitude indeed works!

O Lord my God!  O Thou Helper of the feeble, Succorer of the poor and Deliverer of the helpless who turn unto Thee.

With utmost lowliness I raise my suppliant hands to Thy kingdom of beauty and fervently call upon Thee with my inner tongue, saying:  O God, my God!  Aid me to adore Thee, strengthen my loins to serve Thee; assist me by Thy grace in my servitude to Thee; suffer me to remain steadfast in my obedience to Thee; pour forth upon me the liberal effusions of Thy bounty, let the glances of the eye of Thy loving-kindness be directed towards me, and immerse me in the ocean of Thy forgiveness.  Grant that I may be confirmed in my allegiance to Thy Faith, and bestow upon me a fuller measure of certitude and assurance, that I may wholly dispense with the world, may turn my face with entire devotion towards Thy face, be reinforced by the compelling power of proofs and testimonies, and, invested with majesty and power, may pass beyond every region of heaven and earth.  Verily Thou art the Merciful, the All-Glorious, the Kind, the Compassionate.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Last night I was watching the news on France24 and I caught an interesting 5 minute interview with Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University on what is wrong with global governance and why we are not seeing results after so many promises made. Among other things, Mr. Sacks talked about how the political system in the U.S. is totally dysfunctional, crippled as it is by 2-year elections cycles, money interest and narrow-mindedness.

This morning I watched a short movie “Beyond King of the Mountain” which not only highlights the limitations of the systems and institutions based on the culture of mutually-exclusive competition, but points to the unavoidable fact that we do have the capacity to cooperate beyond our own limitations and search for what is good for all:

Beyond King of the Mountain from doubletake tv on Vimeo.

The apparatus of conflict will, as preparations go on at their present rate, reach the point where war will become something intolerable to mankind.
(Abdu’l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 66)

Today, every wise, vigilant and foresighted person is awakened, and to him are unveiled the mysteries of the future which show that nothing save the power of the Covenant is able to stir and move the heart of humanity, just as the New and Old Testaments propounded throughout all regions the Cause of Christ and were the pulsating power in the body of the human world.
(From the Baha’i Holy Writings, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 223)

Dear friends!

I invite you and your loved ones to the second of two devotional discussions on the Eternal Covenant of God. The first one focused on how the Baha’i Faith fulfills God’s covenant with humanity. The second one, this Monday, Jan 11th, will focus on what is humanity’s role in fulfilling its part of the Covenant with God.

We will start with a light dinner at 7:30 pm to be followed by an opening prayer and the discussion itself.

Feel free to invite anyone who might be interested in learning more about the Baha’i Faith and its promise for humanity. Letting me know if you plan on coming would make it easier to plan the refreshments but not letting me know should not prevent you from joining me on.

I bear witness to Thy unity and Thy oneness, and that Thou art God, and that there is none other God beside Thee. Thou hast, verily, revealed Thy Cause, fulfilled Thy Covenant, and opened wide the door of Thy grace to all that dwell in heaven and on earth.
(From the Baha’i Holy Writings)

Dear friends! May your new year be a healthy and happy one!

I invite you and your loved ones to the first of two devotional discussions on the Eternal Covenant of God. The first one, this Monday, Jan 4th, will focus on how the Baha’i Faith fulfills God’s covenant with humanity. The second one, next Monday, Jan 11th, will focus on what is humanity’s role in fulfilling its part of the Covenant with God.

We will start with a light dinner at 7:30 pm to be followed by an opening prayer and the discussion itself.

Feel free to invite anyone who might be interested in learning more about the Baha’i Faith and its promise for humanity. Letting me know if you plan on coming would make it easier to plan the refreshments but not letting me know should not prevent you from joining me.