Frog Holy Days

Happy First Day of Ridvan.

Early this morning I took my daughter Pearl to her driving test appointment, where she learned what to work on next. Later I signed her up for more driving instruction time. I'm thinking, lots more. Then I took her to breakfast where we ate things that tasted good but will probably give my gall bladder and pancreas, not to mention my arteries, things to talk about for awhile.

Pearl is clearly feeling better. Her husband Charles has brought her frog back over, which he took along when he moved out. Perhaps he thought that in her depressed state she might not take care of it. I said that they may not have custody of children to work out, but just frog custody. She talked about the visiting parenting plan and what holidays the frog might have to share with the parents. I said, "what are holy days for a frog?" She said, just as quick as that, "Good Flyday."

Later, just in time for a nap but not getting one, I drove up to Northeast Tacoma, a thirty to forty-five minute detour across the tideflats to a portion of Tacoma annexed to it, but in no way physically connected. Our friends Jay and Kristina hosted a celebration of The First Day of Ridvan, an event celebrating the time period when Baha'u'llah was about to leave Baghdad under exile to Constantinople, and accomplished two things: he gave all his followers and townspeople time to say their farewells, and he announced publicly for the first time his station as a Manifestation of God for this day, the Founder of a new faith, the Baha'i Faith.

Baha'u'llah spent 12 days in April, 1853 [what passes for April in the Muslim calendar] on an island in the river, a garden he named "Paradise," or Ridvan, where the roses from adoring friends piled up and the nightingales sang all night. We had some music, prayers and chanting, and some history of that time read. It was enchanting.

Kristina teaches nutrition, and she and her husband are "experimenting" with a vegan diet; she referred me to a book named "The China Study." Intellectually I agree, but emotionally I still feel tied to meat and dairy products. I never ate so many hamburgers in one year as when I tried to break away from meat. But wouldn't it be nice to be free of this compulsion? Free to eat completely healthy food all the time?

The nightingales of Eatonville on the muddy shores of Lake Ohop: a frog chorus. They sound good.