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 |   This blog contains responses to blog prompts, & thoughts on spiritual or religious themes |
Disclaimer: Any views, about religion or sacred scriptures, expressed in this blog are my own and not the official views of the Baha'i Faith or any other religion. If you wish to know more about the Baha'i Faith, please check one of these websites: The Baha'i Faith: The Official Website of the Worldwide Baha'i Community  or Baha'is of the United States ."The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers." Abdu'l-Baha1                     Other Blogs and Journals Content Rating 18+ "Writing in Snow" "The Snowflake Chronicles" "Snow Melt" "More Snow Melt" "Welcome to My Life" "Melting Snow" "Memories of Snow" "Dreams of Snow " "Poem Experiments" "Devotional Poetry" Other Journals Content Rating ASR "Bicentenary Poems and Prose" "Treasures lie hidden beneath the throne of God; the key to those treasures if the tongue of poets." The Bab "O my God! O my God! Unite the hearts of Thy servants, and reveal to them Thy great purpose. May they follow Thy commandments and abide in Thy law. Help them, O God, in their endeavor, and grant them strength to serve Thee. O God! Leave them not to themselves, but guide their steps by the light of Thy knowledge, and cheer their hearts by Thy love. Verily, Thou art their Helper and their Lord." Bahá’u’lláh2 ![Merit Badge in WDC Soundtrackers
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Jalál (Glory), 12 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Saturday, January 11, 2020
PROMPT January 11th Do you tend to be skeptical or trusting when meeting new people? Is your first impression of someone generally accurate, or does their true character surprise you? Am I skeptical about people when I first meet them? Yes. No. Maybe. I know that is an ambiguous answer, which requires explanation. The answer depends on three things: (1) my gut (intuition) about the person, (2) who introduces me, and (3) where I meet them. There are certain things that raise red flags on my first encounter with a person. First, expressing prejudice about anyone. Second, presuming that if I look like them (same color of skin) I think the same way they do. Third, using the f-word or some other curse word in the first few sentences. Fourth, telling me I'm going to hell because I don't believe the way they do. Fifth, attempting to convince me I'm wrong without listening to why I believe the way I do. Are my first impression of people generally accurate? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Most of the time, I'm willing to give the person a second chance. The second change depends on my intuition, where we meet again, and who is with me or the other person. If a red flag is raised on the first encounter, the second encounter has to be in a place that I feel safe meeting them again. While there are some people who believe the three strikes you're out theory, I'm not one of them. As far as I'm concerned, three strikes only counts in a baseball game. Interacting with reals human beings is more like a Dungeons and Dragons game, especially under the present social and political condition. |
Istiqlál (Independence), 11 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Friday, January 10, 2020
PROMPT January 10th What are some of the routines you follow in your daily life? Do you typically stick to your routine, or do you prefer more spontaneity? One Day At A Time One day at a time is my daily routine, with spontaneous insomnia sandwiched between. A couple of hours sleep before midnight arrives, check my smartphone, say the midnight prayer, and go back to sleep. Doze for an hour or so, check my smartphone-- its around three something a.m.-- I take my thyroid medication, contemplate the arthritis pain in my knees, listen for odd noises in my apartment or in the neighborhood, and go back to sleep. I am living my life one day at a time, through through routine minutes and spontaneous hours. I read, I write, I review, I meditate, I pray, I do a survey or two, and I Google physical symptoms or just research online-- not necessarily in that order. |
Istijlál (Majesty), 10 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Thursday, January 9, 2020
PROMPT January 9th What are some of your favorite foods? Comfort food, ethnic food, meal, beverage, fruit, protein, unique food combination, etc - make us hungry!
What other food do I like? I haven't found any food that I don't like. If there is a food that I haven't tasted, I'll taste it. If I don't like it at first, I presume its an acquired taste and I'll attempt to acquire the taste. |
ʻIdál (Justice), 9 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Wednesday, January 8, 2020
PROMPT January 8th Share a story from your childhood when you did something you weren’t supposed to. Did you get caught? One summer afternoon, when my sibling and I were at our grandparents house, we invented a new taste sensation. We spread chocolate syrup on white bread, run water from the kitchen faucet over it and ate it. Grandpa Frank told us to stop and go outside. After Grandpa left the kitchen, we continued to spread chocolate syrup on white bread, but instead of water from the kitchen faucet, we ran water from one of the outdoor faucets. We would go into the kitchen, spread chocolate syrup on bread, and go outside to run the water over it. The taste was interesting, but it made a mess. Grandpa caught onto what we were doing and put a stop to that as well. That is the only thing I can remember that comes close to responding to this prompt. I can't remember which one of the four of us come up with this little game. I suspect it was either one of my brothers or myself. |
Fiḍál (Grace), 8 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Tuesday, January 7, 2020
PROMPT January 7th What skill (craft, instrument, sport, art, etc) do you wish you could do but can’t? What’s stopping you from learning? I enjoy listening to music. I enjoy singing along with the singer. I've sang in the shower. As a child, I was in the choir of the Southern Baptist Mission in Blackwell, Oklahoma. I would love to sing on stage, unfortunately I am tone deaf. On the bright side, I can write lyrics or at least poems that appear to be lyrics, so I guess I can do something musical. I just can't sing. Barbra Streisand is one of my favorite female vocalist. Even though, I can't come close to singing like her, I can and do singing along with her. On Sunday, January 5, I went to the Baha'i Center for the January Devotional meeting. One of t he videos that was shown was One God, with Ms. Streisand and I found myself singing along with the video. I don't know if anyone else noticed, and I don't think i t matters if anyone noticed or not. |
Kamál (Perfection), 7 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Monday, January 6, 2020
PROMPT January 6th Write about something that makes you squeamish. What is icky, gross, or just plain “yuck!” Is there anything that makes other people shiver with disgust that doesn’t bother you? Spiders sent chills up my spine, and needles are no friend of mine. I have overcome my arachnophobia to a point. I can kill a spider if it invades my spaces or appears on the verge of invading my space. I no longer suffer from trypanophobia, because I know that I'm tougher than the needles. I can thank a polio shot for helping me overcome trypanophobia. When I was in grade school, the lined us up in military style to give the shots. Since both my friend and bullies were watching, I decided I wasn't going to embarrass myself by running from the room screaming, and force the nurses to drag me kicking and screaming. Therefore, I tensed my muscles, closed my eyes, and waiting for the pain of the needle. However, when the nurse tried to give me the shot, I bent the needle. She give me a chance to relax, and gave me the shot. The shot wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I overcome arachnophobia when Mom and I were living in the house on Bracken Avenue. I black widow got into the house, I saw her crawling across the floor, and--since I had Mom and cats to care for--I killed her. I put her body in a small plastic bag, which I placed in a larger bag. I took those out to the garage, put them at the bottom of the trash container, and place more trash on top. I wasn't taking any chance of her coming back to life, and coming after me. The only way I can explain my actions is that I was suffering from a phobia. Anyway neither the spider I killed or her offspring came after me. |
Jamál (Beauty), 6 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Sunday, January 5, 2020
PROMPT January 5th What music makes you want to dance?  Over the course of my life, I have danced. I am not crazy about dancing, I will dance if someone ask me, otherwise I prefer to listen to the music and watch other people dance. I am not a wallflower. I am not antisocial. I just do not like to dance, with one exception. The only dance I have every enjoyed or want to dance was The Twist. I prefer music I can sing along to. That could be one reason I like The Twist. I can sing along with it. True it is difficult to sing along with the music while I Twisting. I know Chubby Checkers can sing and dance at the same time. I am not that talented or well balance, or whatever ability you have to have to sing along with the music you are dancing to. |
Jalál (Glory), 5 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Saturday, January 4, 2020
PROMPT January 4th What books and/or movies are on your list to read/watch this year? What are your “go to” genres? 2020 Online Reading List My 2020 online reading list consists of (1) items I'm review on writing.com, (2) article posted on BahaiTeachings.org , {(3) news items posted on Baha'i World News Service , and (4) blog entries both on writing.com and offsite.2020 Offline and Smartphone Reading List 1. Hidden Words 2. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah 3. Prayer and Meditations of Baha'u'llah 4. The Book of Certitude 5. The Most Holy Book. 6. Days of Remembrance 7. Tablets of Baha'u'llah 8. Some Answered Questions 9. Call to Remembrance 10. Tablets of the Lord of Host 11. Baha'i World Faith 12. The Call of the Divine Beloved https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/call-divine-beloved/... 13. Tablet of the Universe https://bahai-library.com/abdulbaha_lawh_aflakiyyih?fbclid=IwAR2ZiR7pspUKqkkNeiZ.... 14. Selections from the writing of the Bab https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-bab/selections-writings-ba... |
Istiqlál (Independence), 4 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Friday, January 3, 2020
PROMPT January 3rd Make a list of 20 random things (nouns). Try as hard as you can to make each item on your list as unrelated to the other items as possible. If your muse moves you, you’re welcome to add whatever commentary you like.  Three days into 2020, and I'm beginning to dislike January. It isn't January's fault, that it's the beginning of the Gregorian year. I think it's the fault of Pope Gregory or whoever installed the current calendar. In the last decade, January was the month that I had to hustle to make the rent, power bill, and internet bill. This month I've paid the internet bill, and I don't have to worry about the power bill until February. I still have $15.00 to find in order to pay the rent this month. I'm not sure about my financial outlook in February, because I have to set that up in the spread, which I will do after January 15. I've dealt with the spreadsheet. I've dealt with finances all morning, and I can't deal with them any more until later today, when I get the rest of the money to pay the rent. prayer car banana cane snow perseverance shoes coffee mask world theory knowledge love environment loss confusion awareness queen inspection sympathy |
Istijlál (Majesty), 3 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Thursday, January 2, 2020
PROMPT January 2nd Yesterday, we looked to the past. Today, we’ll write about the future! (No resolutions, I promise, Robert *Wink* ) 2030 sounds so futuristic, but it’s only ten years away! What do you think the world will be like ten years from now? What inventions do you think we will have by then? What are some changes you think will happen in the world in the next ten years? If we don't do something about climate change and global warming, we're all going to end up on a beach somewhere watching our nations burn. I don't like to be a gloom and doom purveyor, because I'm sure there are other people who can do a much better job of it than I can. However, all our wonderful technology of the past, present, and future isn't going to do a dying planet or a dying race any good. The big problems that we face in 2020 and will face in the near future (2030), are global in nature. These problems can't be solved by individual human beings or individual nations, the solutions to these problems require the cooperation of all nations and of all human beings. The solution to these problems require that we accept humanity as a single species. Color, gender, gender identity, nationality, and religion are all part of the diversity that lends beauty to the human species. So, what do I believe the world will be like in ten years? I believe more people will accept the oneness of humanity. I believe that they will accept the fact that we (humanity) are all responsible for finding and working toward a united solution to the problems facing humanity and the planet. |
ʻIdál (Justice), 2 Sharaf (Honor) 176 B.E. - Wednesday, January 1, 2020
PROMPT January 1st Welcome to 2020! As we start a new decade, take the time in your entry today to look back on the previous decade (2010-2019). Write about some of the major milestones from the past ten years. When you look back on your life over the past decade, what events stand out as most noteworthy and significant? A Decade of Transformation and Change An January 1, 2010, I was living in a house with my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. On January 1, 2020, I am living in a one-bedroom apartment with a friend, who does the house work and cooks. My mother died on November 29, 2012. I lived in the house, I I affectionately refer to as the "Money Trap", until February of 2014. In 2014, I moved to a studio apartment. A couple of years later I moved to a two-bedroom apartment. In December of 2018, I moved into the one-bedroom apartment.
Since I no longer have a car, I have to take the city bus. Fortunately, the city bus has a paratransit service which I can use because I am disabled to the point of using a walker. So I do get out of the house a little bit, In 2017, I attended the Bicentenary of the Birth of Baha'u'llah. In 2019, I attended the Bicentenary of the Birth of the Bab. I attend devotional services one Sunday a month, and I get my hair cut every few months. My life is interesting (sometimes way too interesting) and good. |
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