"Your utmost desire must be to confer happiness upon each other. Each one must be the servant of the others, thoughtful of their comfort and welfare. In the path of God one must forget himself entirely. He must not consider his own pleasure but seek the pleasure of others. He must not desire glory nor gifts of bounty for himself but seek these gifts and blessings for his brothers and sisters."
- Abdu'l-Baha
On Saturday I was able to spend some time with Queena. She was in from Memphis, so we had lunch, went to a movie, ate ice cream and had some fancy, over-priced iced tea at Starbucks. The movie was "Step Up," which I ordinarily would never see, but at a certain point it becomes less about those things and more about just enjoying the company you have. She was certainly at the top of my list of people that I missed the most while I've been gone. The people who somehow seem to bring out the best in you (and, sometimes, the worst) are always the ones that you love the most. And as I get older (I'm sure that will elicit some laughs) I'm gaining a greater appreciation for the handful of good, meaningful friendships that I have. You appreciate it even more when it's endured strain and difficulty and survived. I'm planning to (finally) go have dinner with her in Memphis on Wednesday, which is somewhat of a drive, but, again, certainly worth it.
Today, my mother convinced me to go with her and my dad to pick up my great aunt and take her to visit my great uncle in Arkadelphia. They're both in their 90's. My great aunt has Parkinson's disease, and my great uncle has been having problems with his knees and feet. My great aunt is especially amusing, if inadvertantly. The way she declares things and asks questions is hilarious to me. We ate at one of those fish places on the highway that are so numerous in Arkansas. It had clocks and crosses on the walls. Afterwards we drove to Lake DeGray and looked around, observing especially how low the water level was. Summer seems really hot this year!
In five days, I'll be back on a place bound for Tanzania. Of course everyone's big question is whether or not I'm excited to go back and that's a difficult question for me to answer. The selfish side of me is very keen on staying in the Western world, but the rest of me understands the importance of service in Africa and pulls me back. Everyone's service is different, and it stands clear that mine has been heavily influenced by working at the national level and living in Dar es Salaam. Whether or not those are good things remains to be seen, since it seems premature to draw a conclusion and pass a judgement without finishing up my service.
I can confidently say that I'm looking forward to seeing the Sabets again, especially May Saba. I understand that we have two new youth living in the house now, so I'm sure the potential exists for me to be long forgotten. I'd like to think I made more of an impression than that but you can never tell with kids. They seem to kind of have wandering minds sometimes, but I guess so do adults half the time. I'll certainly find out in a few days!
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