To Recognize and Obey

Many times this blog wanders far afield from discussing spiritual principles in the light of everyday life, as reflected in the life and times of this writer. One becomes submerged in the trials and tests of life, and sometimes has difficulty finding spiritual inspiration or reflecting spiritual truths and virtues.

There are two duties enjoined on humanity: to recognize, and then obey, the Manifestation of God for the day in which we live. I was just reading The Covenant of Baha'u'llah by Adib Taherzadeh, which describes in detail the progress of the Baha'i Faith in the early days, and its purification by Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi in turn as people who tried to violate the Covenant of God and obtain leadership in the Faith for their own ends, were weeded out of the Cause of God by their own actions.

Usually my posts, when the subject is spiritual, focuses on information necessary to recognizing Baha'u'llah as the Manifestation of God for this period of time, i.e. for approximately the next thousand years.

This recognition is elementary. No one should accept it simply on someone else's "say so." Baha'u'llah was imprisoned several times, tortured, sacrificed one of His sons, exiled from His native land from Iran to Baghdad to Constantinople to Adrianople and to Akka near Haifa in Palestine; was moved from mountain to mountain and from sea to sea, to reveal the message of God for the day in which we live.

This is the ancient Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.

~ Baha'u'llah

In relationship to God, the personality of Baha'u'llah is absolutely evanescent:

Say: Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God.

~Baha'u'llah

Even so, Baha'u'llah does not expect instant recognition. People are endowed with independent hearts and minds so they may apply the principle of the independent investigation of truth. One does not base ones belief on such a stupendous claim without testing and investigating its truth. That is why, when I investigated the truth of Baha'u'llah's mission, I felt so respected by its adherents.

There are many paths to this recognition, which cannot be discussed in a short space. Once a person realizes the truth of this great claim, it is as if a light comes on in their heart.

For thus the Master of the house hath appeared within His home, and all the pillars of the dwelling are ashine with His light.

~Baha'u'llah

Once He is recognized, however, the next step is obedience. To many Americans, the concept of obedience to authority has been poisoned by the history of leaders, both secular and religious, who use the position of authority to obtain power for themselves, or the power to control the lives of their followers.

Leaders of religion, in every age, have hindered their people from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held the reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership, others through want of knowledge and understanding, have been the cause of the deprivation of the people.

~Baha'u'llah

In another passage, He writes:

And the people also, utterly ignoring God and taking them for their masters, have placed themselves unreservedly under the authority of these pompous and hypocritical leaders, for they have no sight, no hearing, no heart of their own to distinguish truth from falsehood.

~Baha'u'llah

In this day and age, there is no excuse for followers of any faith to leave their minds behind. Blind obedience has no part in "carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization." At the same time, no less responsibility is asked of the adherents of the Faith of God, once they have recognized the authority of God's Manifestation, than complete and total obedience to His Cause.

We All Live With Animals

Yesterday I gave away my lovely cat, Gregory, to an elderly lady who just lost her 19-year-old cat to old age and, "I can't live without a baby!" She would have been so lonely. And Gregory will have far more attention than he ever received from me, since I work full time. I let her know about his quirks, notably chewing on your hair.

Juliet, his sister, was pretty lonely last night. She wondered where her brother went. And had a lonely day while I was at work. I found her a loving home just tonight with a friend who is looking for a companion to his other cat, and extra cat "presence" to discourage the encroaching rodent population. He hopes she will learn to hunt. And she may.

My house is empty. My husband happened to be in the neighborhood and dropped by, expressing his usual opinion on keeping animals in the house. I told him it was probably a blessing he dropped in, as I was missing my cats in this newly empty house, and I enjoy having someone short, dark, hairy and noisy around as a substitute.

"Anyway," I said, "we all live with animals. Some have four legs, and some have two."

It's Not a Choice, It's a Cat

According to some faiths, the source of most troubles is desire. I desired this townhouse rental, but no pets. So I steeled myself to find a place for my two cats [originally in apartment hunting I was going to keep one] and drove yesterday to PetSmart where Pierce County Animal Welfare tries to adopt out their cats.

As soon as I drove into the parking lot, something was wrong with me. Sat with it for a minute and cried my eyes out. Can't just push away emotions anymore. It isn't that easy just to part with a cat that was so easy to adopt. Also, I found out this is not like a library where you can just go and return a cat. They are full for adult cats. Everyone wants kittens. [This is true. We did.]

I put a very expensive ad in the News Tribune to adopt out Juliet; I figure even if I decide to part with Gregory, it will be two difficult to find a home for two cats at once.

Naught But the Rose of Love

The other day I was driving past the apartments I was thinking of moving into if any open up, on the way home from work, and as I came up to 7th St NE where I usually turn, I spotted a For Rent sign across the way. No time, must upgrade the tires on my car before the snow storm. Next night, no time, must drive to Fife to pick up daughter's birth certificate for health insurance. Thursday night I stopped by and saw what looked like a pretty nice house and picked up a flyer. It was a set of townhouses. About five minutes from my work. I was jazzed.

Price; 1.5 as much for 1400 square feet as for about 600 square feet. House-like two story home. No landscaping worries. 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms, compared to the apartments with 2 bedrooms/one bathroom. A plum. Not knocking around with several dozen other families and mediocre maintenance: priceless. Price; approximately half what I pay in mortgage for a four bedroom two bathroom home. Granted, my house has beautiful mahogany flooring and a nicely tiled tub enclosure and Penguin Windows . . . and a gorgeous Mount Rainier view.

I was jazzed. Called the number and left a voice mail, then connected to see the place after work. Absolutely pristine. Bright kitchen, gas heat, year-old carpeting [looks better than mine after cats.] No pets. Bye bye matching black and white tuxedo brother and sister. It hurts my heart, yes, but maybe they can hook up with someone who has more time for them.

After seeing the house we talked about a lot of things. I mentioned the beautiful old-fashioned roses I left behind at my last two houses, which I could not successfully restart here. Turns out the landlord and his wife have either a hobby or an obsession with growing roses and show them all over the area. So that was fun to talk about. He hooked me up with the name of an affordable local mover and a real estate agent who might be as familiar with my real-estate options regarding this place as my expensive [but very nice] lawyer would be.

Especially in light of the prospect of opening up Puyallup more to the Baha'i Faith; in light of the discussion last night at the Devotional Meeting about starting more devotionals in people's homes, I'm saying, "yes!"

In the garden of thine heart, plant naught but the rose of love.

~Baha'u'llah

Express Delivery

So as a diligent parent I agreed to cover my adult daughter's health insurance under my new insurance with my job, which kicks in April First--I hope not with the usual April Fools associations. To include my daughter on my insurance, it is necessary to fax them her birth certificate, so they can prove that yes, she is really my daughter.

This is dumb already. Our names are completely different, and anyone can obtain anyone else's vital records in this state. So what does this prove?

Anyway, until this week I was working 7:30 to 4:00, basically the same hours as the Vital Records office is open. [Recently I switched to 7 AM to 3:30 PM.] Hmm. Fortunately, last week I went to the dentist and afterward, just barely had time to skip over to Vital Records to get the birth certificate. This would have probably cost me about $17.00 cash. Unfortunately, when I got there I saw a notice posted which explained that office moved into the Health Department building across the street, which, by the time I got there, had closed.

Fortunately, I went online and discovered that I could order an "expedited delivery" of the birth certificate, delivered to my door. Wonderful. Unfortunately, this cost $54.00. Fortunately, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the extra cost so I wouldn't need to miss any work. Time is of the essence. Unfortunately, I received a notice of a failed delivery affixed to my door on Friday at about 10 AM. It turns out that for some reason it is necessary to sign for the package, and they will try again Monday at 2 PM and Wednesday at 1 PM and so forth. But not when I will actually be home.

Fortunately, it's possible to go online and arrange for the package to be held for me in a UPS office in Fife, which is open from 8 AM until 6 PM. So I finally learned something which has bothered me subliminally for some time: how to get from Puyallup to Fife. Because of the river in between, and no direct freeway route, it always seemed as if they exist on separate planets. So I learned this rather exacting route down River Road, crossing the river at the bridge [by the store which sports a moose with full antlers on the roof--really!], then driving down Levee Road which has no shoulders or guard rails, but deep ditches on either side, and so forth by side roads to the UPS office.

So I signed for my package and then had a great meal at the Poodle Dog restaurant. Which has upgraded its menu quite a bit and doesn't serve canned peas on the side any more. In a way I miss the canned peas.

That's what I had to do to receive this express delivery. Except the part about the Poodle Dog. That was optional.

I feel as if I was in a Chekov story.

The Odd Hen

INFP's. Three or four percent of the world's population are estimated to be wired and think the way I think, according to Myers-Briggs. It's no surprise that it is challenging to fit into a place where my way of thinking is not understood. I can't really explain myself. When met with a critical attitude, all I can do is gut it out, pray for unity, and hope that eventually my positive attributes will become apparent.

In a tight or fast-moving situation, especially at work, the response I often get from people is that I am dumb, slow, lazy and I just don't care. I think it's largely because I think deeply and don't feel I truly understand what is going on, understand the issues, or understand how to accomplish something until I have thought it through and thoroughly analyzed it. That's why I don't try to work in acute care settings such as the emergency room. I have the knowledge base, but don't have that snap, snap, snap quick decision-making skill.

Once I am "up to speed" on something, my decisions will be very well-grounded.

I recently did "rounds" with a nurse wound consultant and the two other RCM's at five AM at work, visiting and assessing wounds on certain residents on my wing. I was barely awake, the treatment cart was ill-organized [not usually my domain, so I hadn't gone through it thoroughly]; I stumbled and mumbled when asked to quickly give reviews of the person's history and treatment, had difficulty retrieving supplies from the treatment cart in a hurry . . . you get the picture. The three other individuals clearly were impatient, and their responses ranged from rude to contemptuous to downright hostile.

It was the same feeling I had in one job years ago in a kitchen, trying to quickly put away plates extremely hot from the dishwasher without knowing where the plates were supposed to go. I think I put up with the burned fingers and the hostility for about two weeks, and when I quit, faced the hostility, contempt and disdain of the person who referred me to the job.

Remember My days during thy days, and My distress and banishment in this remote prison. And be thou so steadfast in My love that thy heart shall not waver, even if the swords of the enemies rain blows upon thee and all the heavens and the earth arise against thee . . . be not of those who doubt.

~Baha'u'llah

Recently someone at a Feast commented that it is comforting to know that people such as Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi suffered through everything we suffer through, and worse. I can think of one thing I don't believe they suffered through: self doubt.

Scientific studies show that when one hen is marked in some way which sets her apart, other hens peck at her; peck her to death.

Sometimes I wish the death would come sooner.