Last Day of 2005 A.D.

1 Sharaf 162 B.E. - December 30 - 31, 2005 A.D.

In the swift passing of a single year many things happen both good and bad. When something bad happens, people sometimes forget the good things that happened. I sometimes think that one needs to list the good things that happen during the year. I suspect that more good things happen than bad things, but we often forget the good in reviewing the bad. 2006 is almost here and many people will be making resolutions and setting goals. In setting those goals and making the resolutions we need to remember the good of the past year.

I have found that no matter what difficulty on is facing there is always something good either happening or on the verge of happening. We need to look for the good, not only the good events that occur every day, but the good in other people as well. If we look for the good we may just find that more is coming into our lives.

Faith Book Update

17 Masa'il 162 B.E. - December 27 - 28, 2005 A.D.

I am dividing my faith book into 19+, the section will be titled using the Baha'i Months, Ayyam-i-Ha and an Introduction titled The Baha'i Year or something like that. The cover of the faith book is a 9 pointed star. In each section I will place poems and experiences relating to that Feast/Month I have written, the Holy Days celebrated during the month with poems/essays and photo that relate to the Feast, Month, or Experience. Right now the beginnings of my faithbook are on my writing.com web site. I do not have any photos yet, but I think the first photo I will put in the book is a photo of the Baha'i Center in Las Vegas, I'll have to find that photo.

Writing A Blog

17 Masa'il 162 B.E. December 27-28, 2005 A.D.

Writing a blog is some times difficult especially when it comes to topics to write about. There are time when I can think of all sorts of things to write about and other times I am blank. A new year is coming up and my faith is becoming stronger. That would be a good topic the way faith is strengthened. Another topic good topic is prayer or my favorite scripture verses. When it comes to my favorite scripture verses they change over time and according to what is happening in my life. This is going to be a rambling entry. Walking all over the place and getting no where, running in circle out of breath. Driving in circles - which brings me to the fact that I have no sense of direction.

I can find my way in Las Vegas. That is because there are land marks (and I am not talking about a casino) that I can see from almost any place in town. No matter where I am if I can see at least one of my land marks I can find my way around. The problem comes in when it gets dark. Some of the land marks I use when I drive can only be seen in the day time. Getting lost in the dark is an adventure. The problem with getting lost after dark here is the lack of stars. The city is so bright that you can not see the stars. If I could find the Big Dipper and the North Star I might be able to find my way around this city. Well I thank I have rambled on long enough for tonight.

Remembering Christmas

14 Masa'il 162 B.E. - December 24-25, 2005 A.D.

I do not celebrate Christmas, but every year at this time the memory of the way my Grandparents celebrated the holiday comes back to me. For my Grandparents Christmas was not just a holiday, it was a Holy Day a time to celebrate the birth of Christ and to tell the Christmas story and to play Christmas music.

My Grandmother begin to preparations for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. On that day she got out the Christmas Tree decorations, set the box in the corner of the living room and then on Saturday we would go with my Grandfather to get a Christmas Tree. Then on the Sunday after Thanksgiving we would decorate the Christmas Tree and the Christmas Tree would set in front of the living room window. On top of my Grandparent's Christmas Tree a star and not an angel.

My Grandparents bought a live Christmas Tree for several years while we were growing up. Finally though they got an artificial Christmas Tree, it was a silver tree. Even after they bought the artificial tree, my Grandmother would still get out the box of Christmas Tree decorations and we would decorate the tree on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

After the tree was decorated my Grandparents would play Christmas music. The Christmas records were always played in December and the Christmas Tree would stay up all of December. The day after the first of January the tree would come down, the box of Christmas decorations would be packed away and the records of Christmas music would be put away.

Another Birthday

13 Masa'il 162 B.E. December 23 - 24, 2005 A.D.

Well another birthday is here, I am another year older and wiser (although I am not sure that wisdom and age necessarily go together). I checked on my profile today, just to make sure everything was the way I want it, and noticed that where I put my birthday and year in the note to the side informed me that the year could be left blank. I, of course, did not remove the year, because it really does not matter if people know precisely how old I am or not - age is relative. A person can appear and act either older or younger then their chronological age. A person can feel either older or younger than they really are, so age is relative.

Modern society puts too much emphasis on age. Do not get me wrong a person should do every thing he or she can to keep themselves looking and feeling as good as possible. However, the that must be done because it makes the individual feel good and not because of any pressure from society or any other individual. We forget that senior citizens have a great deal of knowledge accumulated over their life time. This knowledge not only should be preserved, but it should be sought by the younger people.

Senior citizens have lived through historic events that we only read about in history book. My mother is in her 90s, she lived through the Great Depression and World War II. I remember Viet Nam and the Free Love/Flower Child years. Both my mother and I saw the first man set foot on the Moon. We saw the Berlin Wall come down and remember events of the Cold War. The young people alive today will see World Peace. What I am trying to say is preserve the memories, the events happening in the world today will not happen again. These are historic time and the children of the future will want to know about them. So we need to keep the first hand accounts of them - someone said To forget history is to repeat it, so let us not forget it, to forget the mistakes of history is to repeat those mistakes.

A Turning Point

8 Masa'il 162 B.E. December 18 - 19, 2005 A.D.

I have a birthday coming up on December 24. This year was a turning point in my life. I have learned a lot about myself and I am trusting more in God everyday. I am becoming a more positive person. I am developing my talents.

There are about two or three things in my life that give me joy. The main thing in my life that gives me joy is knowing Baha'u'llah. I became a Baha'i in the mid or late 1970s, I said the prayers He revealed and read scriptures, but until this year I never thought about how much joy I received from the sacred writings. I never thought about the joy of knowing Baha'u'llah. This year I have been going over the reasons I became a Baha'i and the reasons I stayed a Baha'i.

In writing this blog I have not been deciding ahead of time what to write. I just written whatever came into my head at the time I sit down to write. I will probably continue doing it that way most of the time, but I am going to try writing and editing one or two or three entries a head each month and cutting and pasting them into the blog and see how that works.

A Vacation Photo

This is the new photo I am placing in my portfolio. This photo was taken the last time I was at Disney Land. Since I have a birthday coming up soon, I decided to up date the photo. This is not a recent photo, maybe on my next birthday.

A Blog For Cats

5 Masa'il 162 B.E. December 15 - 16, 2005 A.D.

Today I am writing about the sweetest blog I have come across in a long time. The name of the blog is The Daily Kitten, this blog has a new kitten picture on it everyday. The kitten picture is posted at 3:07 p.m. The website address is http://www.dailykitten.com/.

The picture for December 16 is one of a kitten called Grover. Grover is a 12 week old Chocolate Bumilla, he is a beautiful kitten. This is the first time I have heard of a Chocolate Bumilla, so this website is educational. This is a website that parents can let their children access or cat people can let their cats access without any problems. I have book marked The Daily Kitten, in order to access it everyday. Please take a look at it.

Memorial Service

3 Masa'il 162 B.E. December 13 - 14, 2005 A.D.

I went to a memorial (funeral) service on the 12th of December. I say memorial service because it was a true celebration of the woman's life. She had picked out the scriptures that were read at the service herself, in addition combined both the religious heritage she was raised in and the Baha'i Faith she accepted as an adult. The casket was closed and the photo beside the casket were pictures of important points in her life. Photos of the lady with friends and family, of her as a child. It was a true celebration of her life and no a mourning service. She had ascended into the next world, into paradise the memorial service was for her friends and family to remember her.

Feast of Questions

1 Masa'il 162 B.E. December 11 - 12, 2005 A.D.

Masa'il (Questions) is one of the attributes of God, it is also the name of one of the Baha'i months. One Baha'u'llah's teaching is the independent search for truth. Each person is expected to search for truth independently and determine truth for themselves. One can ask other their opinion on something, but when it comes down to deciding what is true then the individual is responsible for determining what it is themselves.

Until I became a Baha'i I never thought much about questions being one of God's attributes. I always knew that what ever my questions were somewhere God had answered those questions even before I ask them. However, I never thought much about the questions God ask. In fact until recently I never thought a lot about the questions God ask me. I go to the scriptures for the answers to the question I have, but I never looked really closely at the questions God ask me.

Lately I have been looking closely at those questions. Maybe it is because I have a birthday coming up soon. My birthday is on 13 Masa'il (December 24). Of course there are the usual question that God ask of every one. These questions are (1) Are you living your life in a way that other's see your faith? (2) Are you bringing yourself to account each day? And changing what you can. (3) Are you making today better then yesterday? Then there are individual question, I think God ask each person individual questions that apply to that person and no one else. I will not go into those questions right now. First I need to make the list.

Faith Book

19 Qawl 162 B.E. December 10 - 11, 2005 A.D.

I have began my Faith Book, it is on my writing.com webpage under the Mystic Writings folder. At this point I have only one entry in it. The first entry is the Baha'i Months, Week Days and Holy Days. The book will contain my spiritual and religious experience, both those I remember and those that are occuring now. I am not sure yet what the next entry will be. I do know that I want to include entries about each feast. There are other things I want to inclue in it as will, but I have not decided precisely what yet. There will be pictures in this book as well as written articles about my experiences. Anyone who wants to see my portfolio can click on the title of this entry.

Season Of Peace

17 Qawl 162 B.E. December 8 - 9, 2005 A.D.

In the twenty-firsts century peace can have no season, otherwise humanity will destroy itself and the planet. This century must be both the century and the season of peace. The individual must strive to overcome personal prejudices so that peace is in the heart and the mind at all time. Peace must start at the grass roots level with the individual. Then spread outward from there. Peace on earth is more than simply political treaties or agreements. Peace on earth is an individual commitment to go beyond the wall of one’s fears and learned prejudices.

We look at the world today and think that peace is not possible, but we are viewing the world from a distorted reality. We are viewing the planet while standing on its surface. We need to look beyond the present crises and see the world as it is view from orbit. When earth is seen from orbit there are no national boundaries or religious demarcation lines. The only boundaries seen from space are natural boundaries: mountains, oceans, seas and rivers. When viewed for orbit earth is a single country and humanity a single race.

NOTE: This was written a couple of days ago as a results of a prompt from one of my writing groups. I do not think this article is finish yet so I will expand it. This was written in about ten minutes (that is the minimum writing time on that prompt group).

Decembers Remembered

14 Qawl 162 B.E. December 5 - 6, 2005 A.D.

December is here and my birthday is on the 24th. Yes, I was born the day before Christamas. Normally when someone ask me about my birthday, I tell them that I was my mother's Christmas present. This year, 2005, has brought about a lot of changes in my life and a lot of soul searching. This time of year the memories of past December's have come to the surface of my mind.

My Grandmother put up a Christmas Tree every year. When we were small it was a live tree, but as we grew up the tree became an artifical tree. My Grandmother never put up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving the tree usually went up and we began decorating it.

What I find most intriguing about Christmas this year is the lights on the houses. I do not remember lights on houses when I was small. There were lights in window and inside houses on the trees, but I do not think there were lights on the outside, at least I never saw any in the town we lived in (which does not mean there were not light, I just never saw them).

Any way back to the memories. My Grandmother enjoyed cooking. So every year she would start several days before Christmas and New Years baking pies. She always fixed a turkey for Christmas and do a lot of cooking. Then on Christmas we would have in family and friends. We never had very much left over Turkey on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Another thing my Grandmother did was start several days before New Year's Day and clean the house. There was only a certain amount of work allowed on New Year's Day because my Grandmother said: "What you do on New Year's Day, you will be doing the rest of the year." The only work allow on New Year's Day was necessary chores, such as making the bed (because if we left the bed unmade on New Year's Day it would go unmade the rest of the year). Another necessary chore was the dishes, for my Grandmother the washing the dishes was a part of doing the cooking (besides if the dishes remained unwashed on New Year's Day ... well you know the rest of the story). Laundry did not get done on new year's day, if it was not done by December 31 at midnight it had to wait until January 2 at 12:01 to get done.

I Did It

12 Qawl, 162 B.E. December 3 - 4, 2005 A.D.

I complete the 50,000 word novel,with the working title of Scavenger, now all I have to do it edit it. I am contemplating renaming this novel.

I have started composing a collection of my poem titled The History of the Divine Feminine.

I am also working on eithe a novel or a novella with the working title of The Story of Earth's Desire.

Think that is all for today.