nostalgia

sigh, today’s just one of those days that make me reflect about life.  i started my day at a hospital nearby, holding a tiny five-month old girl who is very, very ill.  i sang her the Baha’i lullabies that my mom would sing me when i was  young, and she seemed to like it enough to relax and sleep in my arms.  imagine starting out your life in a hospital, sick, and without any family to hold you and love you.   i don’t know how nurses and doctors do it.  i would die working in peds, i think.   i left, heartbroken.

then i went over to my parents, to see that my brother has my dream life.  i smile and laugh, and actually, lately, i no longer feel things.  i’m just sorta numb and there.   nevertheless, it does bug me a bit to see what he gets and what i pay for.

part of it is also probably the fact that i’m listening to the soundtrack to the holiday right now (brilliant cd by the way).  but!  it is nostalgic… in a happy, detached sorta way.

anyway – here’s a Writing that i should probably be thinking about right now… and maybe you might like

52. O SON OF MAN!
Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.

(Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

anxious? concerned? confused?

i read this article last week (in the new york times) and thought that you might like it.  it’s all about our ability to weigh the risks vs benefits of a situation and judge accordingly.

what i find interesting is that it talks about how affected we are, as individuals, by an abundance or lack of information on a topic.  in other words – it states that being bombarded by information in the media makes us more anxious about those things, rather than things that might actually cause us more harm, but isn’t widely acknowledged/known.

it reminded me of the following Writing from Baha’u'llah:

What “oppression” is more grievous than that a soul seeking the truth, and wishing to attain unto the knowledge of God, should know not where to go for it and from whom to seek it? For opinions have sorely differed, and the ways unto the attainment of God have multiplied. This “oppression” is the essential feature of every Revelation. Unless it cometh to pass, the Sun of Truth will not be made manifest. For the break of the morn of divine guidance must needs follow the darkness of the night of error. For this reason, in all chronicles and traditions reference hath been made unto these things, namely that iniquity shall cover the surface of the earth and darkness shall envelop mankind.

(Baha’u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 31)

in a sense, this imposition of confusion on our society (and it’s not just by the media, and it’s not just the media’s fault) is a form of oppression.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha tells us that “When thou lookest about thee with a perceptive eye, thou wilt note that on this dusty earth all humankind are suffering.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 184)  there’s various forms of suffering, of course, and i don’t mean to diminish what anyone is going through.  the reality is simply this: that in one form or another, every individual on this planet is hindered from finding truth.

you might read that and say “well, not everyone wants to look for truth”.  and i would respond: they’re all looking for something real, in some form.  and from there we would get into a discussion of conscious and unconscious search… which is a whole series of posts… and discussions, really.  because, at the end of the day, i don’t really know what i’m saying – i’m just sharing some thoughts and hoping that it creates a dialogue – somewhere, somehow.