The Steps to Creating Miracles

11 Baha 163 B.E. March 30-31, 2006

I ran across an interesting article on belief.net today. The title of the article “Create Your Own Miracles” by Michael C. Rann and Elizabeth Rann Arrott and it was an excerpt from the book Shortcut to a Miracle: How Change your Consciousness and Transform Your Life by the same authors and published by Jeffers Press (http://www.jefferspress.com/). The article gave eight steps for the individual to use to create miracles in their lives. The authors make it apparent that miracles are not unnatural events, but that they are natural parts of the universe and life.

According to the article, by following eight steps individuals can take to create miracles in their life. The fist step is to be clear about the miracle you want. The second step is to expect, look forward to the miracle, and know what your life will be like once the miracles has occurred. The third step is do not focus on fear, instead look at the positive rather than the negative. The fourth step is do not have any preconceived perceptions concerning the way the miracle will occur. The fifth step is to visualize yourself and your life the way it will be after the miracle occurs. The sixth step is do not proclaim your miracle to the world before it has occurred. The seventh step is to figure out what you need to do and then do it. The eight step is to pray, pray, and pray some more.

This is an informative and educational article, which you can e-mail to a friend or print out; I suggest printing it out so that you can reread it anytime you want. To access the article, click on the title of this review and it will take you to the website. The web address is
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/188/story_18819_1.html. I know that after reading this article I am going to look for the book.

Blessings

9 Baha 163 B.E. March 28-29, 2006

According to, "Christin" tcsnyder@agtelco.com, Daily Power Word (March 29, 2006) to attract blessing in our lives we need to focus on the blessings we already have; this is something I have always known. The problem is when there are so many negatives in a person’s life, focusing on the blessing on the positives are difficult. I am not saying it is impossible to focus on the positives it is just difficult. Especially when, no matter what you do, life seems to kick you in the teeth, when something happens to bring you back down.

Quote from Christin: “Those who stay focused on their blessings make room for more
of them to flow in.” So the question arises, with so many negatives how does one focus on the positives. One way, which is the word power exercise for today, is to write down 20 blessings you already have, and then add to them as you go along. Once you have written the 20 blessings down; focus on them. I suspect a good exercise here is to write the blessing you receive down as they flow into your life.

Therefore, what are 20 blessing I have in my life today?

1. As a Baha’i I have Baha’u’llah and the prayers he revealed. These prayers cover every contingency in life and focus on the blessings of life.
2. The knowledge that God loves humanity and created humanity to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization and that I have something to contribute to this process.
3. My purpose in life is to know and love God.
4. I am guaranteed, by Baha’u’llah, that all the religions of humanity were revealed to assist the human race in its advancement toward perfection.
5. The daily e-mail message that I receive with a quote from the Baha’i writings, each morning when I retrieve my mail I can read something from Baha’u’llah, The Bab or ‘Abdu’l-Baha ant this starts my day off on the right foot (so to speak).
6. The daily e-mail I receive from Belief.net that gives a scripture reading from the other religions. These readings remind me that while there are many religions there is only one God.
7. God’s Most Great Name chanted 95 times everyday.
8. The short Obligatory prayer revealed by Baha’u’llah, it reminds me that true wealth is spiritual and I was created to know and worship God.
9. The Long Healing Prayer revealed by Baha’u’llah, it reminds me that true healing comes from God alone.
10. The Midnight Prayer written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, which is a great comfort on sleepless nights and focuses my attention on God rather then the night noises I hear around me.
11. The Remover of Difficulties revealed by The Bab, this is always a great comfort and focuses my attention on putting my problems in God’s hands rather than attempting to deal with them myself.
12. The Microsoft Word program I am using to write this list. This program catches my misspelled words. In some cases, it corrects the word automatically while in other cases, it gives me a choice of words.
13. The prompts delivered to my e-mail box everyday; one of those prompts instigated this article on my blessings.
14. My creativity which allows me to write poetry, celebrating The Bab, Baha’u’llah and the other prophet-manifestations of God, essays and short stories; these I can post to my blogs or submit to magazines for publication.
15. My friends, of all religious and cultural backgrounds, who care what happens to me; some of these friends are online friends and some are not online.
16. My family, my mother is still alive; I have two brothers and one sister, and several nieces and nephews.
17. The test and difficulties that confronted me on a regular basis, because without those tests and difficulties I would not be counting my blessings; tests and difficulties give us a chance and a choice to look at what really matters.
18. The online journal and writing groups I belong to, because without them I would sometimes be confronted with writers’ block and unable to write anything.
19. The Masters class on educational research I am taking right now. This class gives me a chance to develop my research skills.
20. My guardian angel, in this case I am referring to my grandfather Newland who rescued me from a refrigerator when I was a child.

Thankful Thursday

3 Baha 163 B.E. March 22-23, 2006

What is it that I am grateful for today? Where do I begin to list the blessings that I have experienced this week? First, we received the latest issue of The American Baha’i, so I have a paper full of good news to read. I always enjoy getting the new issue because there so much good news to brighten may days. It takes me at least a week probably more to read it because I enjoy reading it while sipping either a hot cup of coffee or tea. In addition, while I read I like to look for poetry subjects or short phrases that would make good titles for poems. In fact, I have already found a short phrase that would make a good title for a poem. The phrase is “We Learn”, but I’m not quite sure about the rest of the poem. Perhaps something like this

We Learn

Step-by-step we learn to walk
across the room
and stand by a window looking out
into the world.

Word by word we learn to pray
and intone God’s Most Great Name …

Second, I am grateful for the morning and the afternoon T.V. news. The local news tells what is going on in Las Vegas and the national news lets me know what is going on in the nation and the world. The T.V. news is not always good news, but that is all right because I have The American Baha’i for good national and international good news. For local good news, there is the Nineteen-day feast. I like the T.V. news because they always give unusual and intriguing slices of life about human nature. Today one of the intriguing and unusual news items is about cockroaches; it seems that jewelers are selling living cockroaches as jewelry. To keep the cockroaches on the blouses the jewelers put gold leashes on the cockroaches.

Third, I am grateful for the Naw-Ruz party I went to on Monday evening, March 20. The party began the New Year on a spiritual note. I already have several poems started because of the Naw-Ruz party. Part of the entertainment was a harp solo, the song played was about a waterfall and the harp music sounded just like a waterfall. There was also a display of art inspired by the Bab and Baha’u’llah.

Fourth, I am grateful for the fact that I have written a poem everyday so far this year. True, this is only the third day of 163 B.E. and I have written between three to five poems. The poems I have written so far are (1) Naw-Ruz (see A New Year Has Begun), (2) Memories of a Naw-Ruz Party (see Spiritual Poetry), (3) The Irish In Me, and (4) He Suffered: To Baha’u’llah.

Fifth, I am grateful for the fact that it is spring. Spring is a wonderful time of year and a good time to begin a New Year. Spring is a wonderful time to begin a New Year, the world is in bloom and northern hemisphere is warming. Flowers and trees are transforming fields and cities. Nature is waking from its winter’s sleep and there are many beautiful plants sprouting.

A New Year Has Begun

2 Baha 163 B.E March 21-22, 2006 A.D

On the evening of March 20, 2006 A.D. a New Year begun on a festive and joyous note, I attended a Naw-Ruz party at the Baha’i Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The program for the celebration consisted of prayers, music and a play. The play community youth put on and preformed in the play, it was well rehearsed and funny. The music was a harp solo, a harp and piano duet and a piano solo. The prayers were wonderful and the food served was delightful. There was a display of artistic works by one of the local artist.

Naw-Ruz

New Day, new reason
to intone God’s Most Great Name;
proclaim unity.

The first day of spring and the weather was cold; winter weather with the feel of snow in the air and sleet on the windshields of cars. The sky was cloudy and the sunset beautiful. Unusual weather for the time of year and the area; it snowed on Mount Charleston. I am not sure what else to say, I do not remember this type of weather here (Las Vegas) on the first day of spring.

Naw-Ruz

New Year, new season
the sun crossed the vernal equinox;
transformation, birth.

It Has Been a While

18 Ala 162 B.E. March 18-19, 2006 A.D.

It has been several day since I posted to this blog. Therefore, I guess I will go over all that has happened in my life. First, someone broke into the house while my mother and I were asleep and robbed us. Whoever it was took some costume jewelry, ids and broke into the safe or used the key in the jewelry box to open the safe (OK, so putting the key to the safe in a jewelry box is not a good idea). The robbers also took the keys to the house and to the car; fortunately, the extra key to the car was not in the jewelry boxes and my brother had an extra key to the house.

Second, I begin going for my Masters again. The last time I attempted the stress of life got the best of me and my grades fell. This time I am going for a completely different program and at a different online university. I cannot say that I am not stress or at the very least nervous, but I am taking a different approach this time. For example instead of worrying about half-a-dozen different things in a single day, I am allowing myself only one worry. In addition, I am repeating The Remover of Difficulties a lot. Of course, today (March 19) is only the first day of class so we will see how things go.

A new year begins soon and it is time for me to make my new years goals. Naw-Ruz (the Baha’i New Year) falls on the first day of spring and that is when I make my new years goals. I am not going to call them resolutions because a resolution is something one makes and often does not keep. On the other hand, one achieves a goal through taking specific steps. I am not going to say much about what my goals are right now, except that I am writing, at least, 8,000 words a day. Considering that the class I am taking requires a minimum of two 2 to 5 pages papers a week 8,000 words a day may be an understatement of the average words per day.

Morning Thoughts About Dreams

5 Ala 162 B.E. March 4-5, 2006 A.D.

It is cloudy outside this morning, it is after dawn and the sun has not shown its face. I woke up with a phrase from one of the prayers revealed by Baha’u’llah running through my mind. The partial quote that keeps running through my thoughts this morning is “… bless my affairs, and redeem my debts, and satisfy my needs.” This is a phrase in a prayer on pages 223 to 224 of the Baha’i prayer book. Not sure why it is running through my mind this morning, because that was not the prayer I said before going to bed last night. Interestingly enough, I do not remember any dream I had last night or early this morning.

I have had some intriguing dreams ever since the Fast begun on March 2. The dreams I have had all had the same theme, finding something. In each case, it was not finding something that I had or thought I lost. Instead, they were dreams about finding things I did not know I possessed. In one case I found paper money in the wallet, I carry all the time, when I had the dream knew I do not have any paper money in that wallet but I looked anyway and the wallet was empty. In the other dreams I found little things such as gems, jewels and coins that I did not realize I had in my possession. The interesting thing is that I found these items all over the house and most were laying right in plain sight in places that I look at everyday.

These dreams have gotten me to thinking about the blessing I overlook everyday. I think when I start my springhouse cleaning later on today, I am going to go about it a little slower than usual and see what I do possess. I think if I start it now I should be able to get all I want completed before March 21. It is not that I have that much to do; it is just that I have a tendency to overestimate what I can achieve in a single day.

I actually do not think the dreams are referring to material object, I think they have more to do with spiritual blessing or even talents and attributes I possess, but do not realize I possess. In the last couple of months, my dreams have stayed with me longer then usual. Normally I forget most of my dreams when I was up, but that is not how it has been since February 7 or before. The majority of my dreams have stayed with me and I have been having some extremely intriguing dreams, all of which have spiritual themes or continuations.

Meditation Journal For Fast

4 Ala 162 B.E. March 4-5, 2006

As a gift for Ayyam-i-Ha I received a Fast meditation journal. The journal contains nineteen pages with a quote from the Baha’i scriptures at the top of the page followed by sever blank lines to write my thoughts on the quotation. On the front of the journal is a short prayer for the fast and on the journal’s last page is a longer Fast prayer. This is the first year I have did a meditation journal for the Fast.

Meditating on the sacred scriptures is an interesting process. The way I go about it is to first say a prayer, in this case a prayer for Fast. Next I read the scripture verse over several times. After I have read the sacred quote over, I think about it for a few minutes and then I write my thoughts down. Sometimes I am surprised by what I write and sometimes I am not surprised.

The quote for the first day of Fast from Baha’u’llah and says: “Fasting and obligatory prayer are as two wings to man's life. Blessed be the one who soareth with their aid in the heaven of the love of God, the Lord of all worlds.” (Compilations, The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting).

My thoughts on the quote are (1) Carried above desires of matter the lover/seeker ascends wings washed by the duties of faith obedient to the longing of spirit ascend carry; (2) Weighted down by the desires of matter the soul cannot fly; (3) Prayer and fasting unburden the soul free the spirit from the desires of matter; (4) Love is paradise, God’s love the ultimate paradise; (5) Obligatory prayer - prayer is always one of the divine laws laid down by God’s reflection on Earth, fasting another. When the Fast is over, I am going to combine my thoughts on the quotes into a poem or a series of poems about the Fast.

The Fast and the Opportunity for Renewal

1 Ala 162 B.E. March 1-2, 2006 A.D.

The Fast and the Opportunity for Renewal

The month of Ala (Loftiness) has arrived, this is the last month in the Baha’i year, and this is the last month of winter in the northern hemisphere. On March 21 spring and a new year arrives. The month of Ala, which is from sunset on March 1 to sunset on March 20, is the month of the nineteen day Fast. This is when Baha’is Fast from sunup to sundown in accordance with the commandments revealed in the Katib-i-Aqdas by Baha’u’llah.

The Fast, for me, is more the simply abstaining from food, it is a time to refocus one the things that are important. This year I am keeping a meditation journal during the Fast, the journal was an Ayyam-i-Ha gift, it contains a quote for each of the nineteen days to meditate on and then write short thoughts on the quote.

The quote, in the meditation journal, for the first day of the Fast has to do with fasting and obligatory prayer. The quote refers to fasting and obligatory prayer as wings which a person uses to fly to the paradise of God’s love. Indeed, God’s love is paradise and the only true paradise one finds. God’s love is also renewal and peace.