Creativity at its finest

It could start out as a song; a design; a few words; a witty comment or even a look. Sometimes I am amazed at how at how creativity can expose an inner beauty stored somewhere deep waiting to be revealed at the right time. I get this with my kids; i.e. Bella's beautiful illustrations, or Alec's engaging expressions in his eyes that can melt any heart, but I most often have found the most amazing treasures from my friend, closest companion/husband guy, Pieter.

Maybe it is his piercing blue eyes that contain the deep sense of reality that we cannot yet see yet; but I think he has a gift that needs to be shared. I guess I should recap to convey what I mean.

In my last 13 years of knowing this guy, I have seen transformation on an exponential level in the way he thinks, learns and tries to unravel this mysterious world we live in. Whether a successful IT director in charge of offices on the whole east coast for a huge company; a grass roots Faith activist for everything that needs to be right in this world; a chef of multi talents that will only find his pizza dough "decent" after 3 years of stretching; a phenomenal Father, teacher, mentor, hands on with his kids who will take actually 29 minutes in describing how blood flows through the body; and actually get my 6 year old to completely find satisfaction from every question she poses; a thoughtful kind true hearted person that can share his love with anyone who has the room to receive it; an expert wood crafter hobbyist, who can actually Autocad a gorgeous set of cabinets and carve them out of maple adding Euro sleek stainless steel pulls after 500 hours (in summer 2004, in less than 9 weeks).

And, to top it off, he is at the very exciting stage of writing a novel that will let others experience how a global/spiritual ethic is not only provocative, but necessary.

Tonight he finished the prototype for a new website to re-launch Next Level Radio; the super cool pod cast that is produced by our friend W Morrison III. You can go to nextlevelradio.org; but stay tuned for the new version coming to an Internet page near you...

Anyway, I had to pause and just appreciate, like the finest cup of espresso with the hint of crema, the moment had to be savored.

To check out his thoughts online, and to see great photos of the kitchen he made, go to indigored.com, enjoy...

Ayyam-i-Ha children's story...

What is the best way to explain to Isabella that Ayyam-I-Ha is a great holiday and that she should be proud of this time of gift giving and sharing and preparation for the upcoming Fast? Well, this year, it was a little hard because as a six year old, now she tells her friends about it, which is great except this year, no one believed her. She 1st mentioned it around Christmastime and since then when she descibed that she got usually at least 1 gift per day for 4-5 days before March, they just figured she was confused. So this year, we thought we try to change that.

"Remembering Isabella's Ayyam-I-Ha" created by illustrations made by Bella (12 of them) and set to a short story describes that Bella was having a hard time explaining and convincing her classmates that this holiday existed. Each child was convinced that she "must" have been thinking about their holiday, Christmas, Eid, Diwali, Hannukah etc. Instead of staying sad, Isabella asked her mommy to explain to her friends what this holiday was, and why we celebrate it...
With book in hand, gifts in a bag, and goodies to share, we brought this to her school yesterday and shared this story with ALL of her classmates from her entire school. It was a lot of fun reading it to each class and hearing many of Isabella's friends wish her a wonderful Ayyam-i-Ha. Finally, they will now NOT forget, and in the process learn about this new time of year for Baha'is all over the world...

1st day of fasting

As I hear the rain drops and the trees sway to the wind, I find several minutes of time in the AM where the kids are sleeping and I have prepared for the 1st day of fast.

Pieter and I got up this morning, enjoyed some tea, ate our early "pre-fast" breakfast and said some prayers. I did some Yoga to Shiva Rea, and now ready to reflect before my hectic day starts at work...

Fasting is a unique opportunity to reflect on things, pray for strength and to rely MORE upon the spiritual realities, rather just on our own patterns of life, where eating & drinking takes a much larger role. As a child, when my parents fasted for Ramadan, I would look on as a witness to a process that I rarely understood. It was never explained too much on the "why" or the benefits, but rather as an exercise in duty and reverence.

This year, there is a unique "spirit" in the air; like I am treading this path knowing it will be fine, excited about the opportunity and not too weary about the overall difficulties (yet) that the fast may have on me as an individual. Part of this surprises me, since my work has doubled since a few months ago, and my 80 hour work load per week has not unfortunately decreased. As a result, I am very curious to see how my legal counsel will be impacted without my coffee and tea to cheer me up during my crazy day.

Instead, I am going to bring a little care package to work with me; a prayer book, some inspiring writings and definitely my IPOD with all 3000 songs to keep me going.

"...Prayer and fasting is the cause of awakening and mindfulness and conducive to protection and preservation from tests..." --Abdu'l-Baha