Now living in a major city I have a challenge of influencing the choices of how my children grow up despite the limited time I have with them.  I am no longer welcome at the garden I helped build for them at the house they live so helping there is not an option anymore. I did apply for a garden plot with Arlington County but there is waiting list so I am not holding my breath. I do plan on starting a vegetable garden on my vast balcony. I even brought some rare seeds from Bulgaria, so this should be a fascinating experiment.

So many things in life we appreciate only when we don’t have them anymore. I clearly remember how much I yearned for a garden when I was in the army and for the first time I did not have my gardening weekends. Then the spring came and we were given orders to help clean up a military hospital’s park — ah the joy of being close to the soil and brushes during early spring time.

As we are getting ready for the first day of Spring, and the Baha’i New Year, I am contemplating how to make my life ever more balanced through harmony with nature, and how to give example of my loved ones of the joy nature can give.

Of course gardening is only one way of being in touch with nature. Hiking is another one of my nurturing passions which I do not get to satisfy as often as I wish. Combining any of those with the time spent with beloved kids is surely a joyous and noble endeavor.

A friend of mine, Todd Christopher, just published a book on that exact important topic — of encouraging kids to play outside, in nature. Here is an eloquent video promoting the book, “The Green Hour”:

The Green Hour: A Daily Dose of Nature for Happier, Healthier, Smarter Kids by Todd Christopher from Todd Christopher on Vimeo.

I just bought my copy of the book at Borders. It is a very nice, full of practical ideas and at $18 won’t break your budget. It is available on Amazon too for $12.11.  Whether you buy it or not, I hope you get to spend more time outside with some kids you love! The spiritual fruits might be even more abundant than the physical ones:

Praise be unto God! who hath created sanctified souls, illumining them with the reflections of the Sun of Truth, and raising certain persons for the service of the Kingdom and gardening in the divine orchard. I hope thou wilt become a fruitful tree producing sweet fruits. Trust thou in the bounties of God and engage thyself in His service.

(Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v3, p. 506)

Make no search for water. But find thirst,
And water from the very ground will burst.
(Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in Delight of Hearts, p. 77)

As a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower:  until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.
From “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin

When last Monday’s study circle served food for thought — and the soul — I was not aware yet how timely Abdu’l-Baha’s words would be:

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.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 29)

Now looking back after a tumultuous week, I am so grateful for all that enabled once again my inner peace — God’s grace, the help of friends, long walks, mindful breathing, and two books. But I also reflect on the fact that peace is not an easy thing — it indeed requires work and effort. “A stronger thought of peace… a more powerful thought of love.”

The two books I have found so helpful are The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by the Arbinger Institute: a very important book which by explaining the dynamics of how we box ourselves into warring hearts, we render ourselves impotent to invite peace in others, until and unless we reach that peace within our own hearts; and Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who reminds us that the choice between peace and everything else, joy and everything else, life and everything else, happens in every little step, in every little breath, in every little moment. Do yourselves a favor, read these books. But more importantly, reward yourselves with a deep, calming, soothing breath. “Breathe, you are alive!”

While this book focuses on teaching and connecting the hearts, what touched me the most were the stories of Martha Root’s humility before God and the sense of urgency she had about teaching:

Every minute belongs to God, not every other minute. If you begin tomorrow, it may be too late.

But that urgency alone was not what made Martha Root such an example of sharing the message of love. Hers was truly a genuine love and recognition for the nobility of the heart of everyone she met.

So, thinking of this ability — of connecting with others on a deeper level — provided an interesting backdrop for another reading this afternoon: an intriguing New York Times article called “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”, which explores how the development in social networking has created a new sense of ambient presence, expanded the social circles of people we keep in touch with, and provided a new impetus for reflecting on how we feel, what we do, and who we are.

I am not sure yet how to connect or contrast these two concepts — of connecting the hearts and keeping in touch with friends and strangers alike — but I feel the link is more than superficial. For while I have benefited (and suffered) from the ease of social connections online, I have been reflecting lately on how the heart yearns for a deep, true connection, which seems impossible online. Indeed, the overexposure online has inspired me lately to reflect on, and appreciate, the joy of seeing and noticing the “real life” human beings that surround us every day — the lady at the grocery store counter, the guard of the office building, the postman, the children playing in the park. I have been challenging myself to truly see each one of them and try to connect with their heart by imagining what their soul looks like — perhaps as my daughters would say “a rainbow soul”…

I beg of God to strengthen these spiritual bonds as day followeth day, and make this mystic oneness to shine ever more brightly, until at last all shall be as troops marshalled together beneath the banner of the Covenant within the sheltering shade of the Word of God; that they may strive with all their might until universal fellowship, close and warm, and unalloyed love, and spiritual relationships, will connect all the hearts in the world.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 19)

Difficult and delicate though be our task, the sustaining power of Baha’u'llah and of His Divine guidance will assuredly assist us if we follow steadfastly in His way, and strive to uphold the integrity of His laws. The light of His redeeming grace, which no earthly power can obscure, will if we persevere, illuminate our path, as we steer our course amid the snares and pitfalls of a troubled age, and will enable us to discharge our duties in a manner that would redound to the glory and the honor of His blessed Name.

– Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah

Know, moreover, that should one who hath attained unto these stations and embarked upon these journeys fall prey to pride and vainglory, he would at that very moment come to naught and return to the first step without realizing it.
- Baha’u'llah, “Gems of Divine Mysteries”, paragraph 109, page 74

This question made me smile — how is it possible to complete reading “Gleanings” in a week? I truly think one could read and reread and refer and come back and reflect and reread again and again this gem of Divine Wisdom!

So, yes, Gleanings will be on my bookshelf for a long long time!

The story of the evolution of my appreciation of Gleanings is the story of my Baha’i Life:

I was given a copy of this wondrous book in the summer of 1990 in Odessa, Ukraine, when I was first introduced to the teachings of Baha’u'llah. Back home in Bulgaria, I was offered a unique opportunity to join a team which would translate Gleanings into Bulgarian. Unfortunately, due to my lack of understanding and maturity I deprived myself from this bounty. The book stayed on my bookshelf, and traveled with me, for 17 more years until last May, when facing the biggest devastation of my life I went on Pilgrimage to seek spiritual guidance and healing.

What a marvelous surprise it was to realize that the prescription for living I’ve been yearning for, has been always with me in these precious pages. Nowadays, no morning passes by without me going back to Gleanings for spiritual nourishment — particularly now that the act of fasting is inviting me to turn to God on my own, not because of fear or mere duty but out of true gratitude for the gift God has bestowed on me.

May God bless the wonderful Canadian pioneer (I think his last name was Margulis) who gave me his copy of Gleanings back in July or August of 1990.

May God guide many others to the healing message hidden in Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, because:

The beginning of all things is the knowledge of God, and the end of all things is strict observance of whatsoever hath been sent down from the empyrean of the Divine Will that pervadeth all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth.

(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah)