I Blog Poetry and Prose

The soul, the "inmost reality" of every human being, is sacred. It is the mirror capable of reflecting all the attributes of God. In order for the soul to reflect the radiance of God's light, it must be detached--cleaned of the dust and dross material desires. This occurs when the individual passes a test or overcomes aver come a difficulty that has kept it from expressing or accepting the Will of God in their life.

On the last Sunday in July 2020,
I contemplate detachment--
freedom from all except God--
and ask myself,
"Am I detached from the things and situations
in my surroundings
and my life?"

My Grandmother, Mary Florence, was a wonderful cook. She baked pies for all our holiday occasions. She always took some type of salad to every potluck dinner she attended. The dish I remember fondly was her Spanish rice. She had her own recipe, and would make it usually for lunch or the noonday meal. Her Spanish rice was different from what one usually considers Spanish rice because she would make it with hamburger meat. In fact, it wasn't until I moved to Las Vegas that I found out Spanish rice was a vegetarian dish.

I appear to be coming out of whatever depression I've been dealing with. I'm not sure whether it had anything to do with COVID-19 self-isolation, social distancing, or wearing a mask. Over the past few weeks I've gotten out of the house a few times. While wearing a mask, I went to the beauty parlor, to pick up senior commodities, or to Quest Diagnostic for a blood draw. Next week I expect to pick up senior commodities for this month. On August 4 and 6 I have doctors appointments. I will be wearing a mask when I go out.

How am I staying sane with COVID-19 numbers increasing daily? The sanity of a human being is precarious at any time. It becomes even more so during a national or international crises such as a pandemic. I am staying sane through prayer, meditation, scripture reading, reading and reviewing on writing.com, and attempting to keep my mind focused on the world around me.

The business of life
is to acquire spiritual virtues
that cloth the soul
after its separation
from the physical body.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a strange experience or if it's a normal experience that happens to other people all the time. I know it happens to me quite often. In fact, it happened again this morning. It could be that it's just the residue of a dream I had before waking up. Anyway it concerns verses of scripture or lines of poetry that run through my mind. This morning, it was a scripture verse about Progressive Revelation. The verse is still running through my mind, and it will be on my mind for the rest of the day.

It's Sunday morning of the Gregorian calendar. It's the day of Beauty on the Baha'i calendar. It's a partly cloudy day here in Las Vegas, without any wind or cooling breeze. This means temperatures will get into the triple digits, so I'll be turning on the air conditioner in an hour or so. I'd prefer to have to door open all day, but this time of year that's not possible. Half a day is longest I can expect the door to be open.

A new and wondrous week begins. Last week the entries in this blog were focused on the days of the week in the Baha'i calendar. I haven't decided what the theme of this week will be. I haven't decided yet if I will make a blog entry every day. I could make an entry every-other-day instead of every day. I'll have to take it one-day-at-a-time and see how the week progresses. I haven't responded to any prompt from "Blogging Circle of Friends "  or "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  in a while, so I could respond to some of those. The only prompts I responding to, on a regular basis, are those from "Space Blog" . Those are posted in "Snow's Space Blog" .

This is the Day of Grace,
when God's forgiveness flows
across the face of Earth,
and scattered segments of human kind
is united into a single race.

This is the Day of Perfection,
the Day of the Glory of God,
the Day of the Blessed Beauty,
He revealed prayers of protection
and the words of salvation
for humanity.

On July 9, 1850, at noon in the barracks square of Tabriz, the Bab--along with a faithful believer--was martyred. The Bab and Anis were suspended by ropes and a nail before 750 rifles. The first attempt failed, and when the smoke cleared the Bab was gone, while Anis stood their calmly. the commander of that regiment took his troops and left. The Bab was found in His cell finishing a conversation He had begun before being taken to the barracks squar. A second regiment of 750 rifles were brought in. When the smoke of the rifles had cleared, the bullets had mangled and merged the bodies of The Bab and Anis without touching their faces.

Tomorrow, July 9, is the Commemoration of the Martyrdom of The Bab. On July 9, 1850, The Bab was executed, by a firing squad, for nothing than proclaiming he was sent from God and that The Glory of God would soon be made manifest. The Bab, like Christ, shed His blood for humanity. The Bab also shed His blood to prepare the way for Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God. When I became a Baha'i, I accepted Baha'u'llah as the return of Christ. I've always wondered about the relationship between the Bab and Christ, since their deaths were so similar. That question was answered today when I accessed Counsels and Explanations - by 'Abdu'l-Baha