O SON OF THE SUPREME! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?
- Baha'u'llah, Arabic Hidden Words #32
I went to my first Baha'i funeral today. A one year old child died from complications with his heart. We'd been raising money for him to fly to India for the necessary life-saving surgery. He was supposed to leave this coming Friday, but he died last Friday. We had a memorial service at the Baha'i Centre, and then everyone went to the Baha'i cemetary to bury him. After they finished digging the hole, saying the prayer, and put the coffin into the hole it began to rain very hard. By the time we left, everyone was drenched. All of the women were wearing their khangas in a way that indicated mourning, and we sang "Allah'u'abha" while they put the coffin in the ground and covered it.
The cemetary itself is a great state of disrepair. It's actually a small section of a large cemetary cordoned off for use by the Baha'is. The grass is overgrown throughout the whole place, but as Baha'is we should really be committed to making improvements in our area. We could at least cut the grass once a month or something. It doesn't have to be a garden paradise or anything, just look somewhat presentable! I'm hoping to meet with the LSA and come up with some kind of solution. Unfortunately, if we try to add any ornamentation or landscaping at all, people will probably come and steal whatever they can get their hands on.
I've been enrolled in an invitation-only group for becoming a junior youth animator. We're going through a pre-publication of the new Ruhi Book 5 and then moving through the three books developed by the Ruhi Institute for use with junior youth. I have to admit that I've really been struggling with it. The material itself isn't difficult, it's the pace at which we're working. The work is in English, but there are a number of other friends in the group who know English as a second language. Sometimes it will take upwards of half an hour discussing a quote because we have to reach a concensus on the meaning of a word and then sometimes explain the whole thing even when the people know the words.
I know, I know. How awful of a person can I be to be so impatient with people who don't speak English well enough to understand the Guardian, who I sometimes can't even understand? I'm afraid I'm not really an extraordinarily patient person. I think I have been dispatched to Africa to learn this very important virtue. We have 10 days to go through four books of material working roughly 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM and in addition to all of this I have to work on NTC things and other things from the national office. I have literally fallen asleep in the middle of the class while they're carrying on a discussion of "benign" or something. This isn't to say that I don't get anything out of the (seemingly endless) discussion but for some reason the pace of our work is really driving me crazy.
I realize that I do a lot of complaining here, but I hope people see it more as an internal struggle rather than me just being a jerk. I'm learning important life lessons but the road sometimes gets a little rough.
0 comments:
Post a Comment