transform the soul

my heart is not fully back in kansas yet. my mind drifts back and forth between haifa and what is now reality. i miss walking the terraces four times a day, even if my legs did ache a bit. i long to see the Shrine of the Bab again, to hear the silence that surounded it even as it was in the middle of a bustling city.

it was hard to imagine that Baha'u'llah, Abdul'-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi walked in the places we were walking. all of a sudden when you entered these homes They used to live in, you entered that time period. We entered into the cell of Baha'u'llah in Akka and I could not grasp the fact that Baha'u'llah had stayed in that room for 2 and a half years and then here I was...sitting on the same floor. we all knelt in prayer and as soon as we did the Islmaic Call to Prayer began. It was truly amazing, in the real sense of the word.

now to shock you all, i only cried three times. once at the sight of the sunroof Mirzah Mihdi fell through, once at the Beauty of the Bab and Baha'u'llah, once for the love of friend. my mind seemed to be in a constant state of prayer in Haifa. i never got used to everyone in Haifa knowing what the Baha'i Faith was.

Each and every one of you were in my thoughts and prayers while i was away. And i appreciate the ones that got me on and off the plane safely. i wanted to soak up every piece of beauty that i might be able to transfer it to you. i wanted to be able to say just one word and have you understand it all. I never understood the power of Allah'u'abha until i met people from all around the world, people with whom i could not communicate with other than the word of God.

I am back in America. Back in a materialistic country with so much anger, distrust and fights in its interior that is hard to imagine that good can come from it. But i hold out faith. And i pray.

"Shoghi Effendi has, through various channels, been hearing of the wonderful services you are rendering to the Cause. He sincerely trusts that the young and educated Bahá'ís, who have their spiritual faculties fully developed, and who as a consequence appreciate the significance of Bahá'u'lláh's mission in the development of the world, will with one accord, arise and establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth. The world around us is in a pitiable condition and its ills seem daily to increase. It is for us, we Bahá'í youths, who have been entrusted with this divine mission, to do our utmost and rest only when the task has been carried to its successful conclusion."
(Shoghi Effendi, The Light of Divine Guidance)