Today I browsed “Baha’i” blogs. I found some very informative ones, including the exceptional “Baha’i Views”, and also found that some of them had linked to mine (thank you). I was also interested in finding a few that were semi-official representatives of their respective communities, and several which had disclaimers referring the reader to the official Baha’i source at www.bahai.org/, which I thought was intelligent.

I also found several sites from folks following other religious traditions, some intrigued, some the standard attempts at de-bunking Baha’i theology (often written without any genuine study and just repeating the tired critique of past hearsay and suspicions), some discussing Baha’u’llah in the context of their own traditions, and some simply ranting. Some were from disgruntled Baha’is themselves (either from “within” the faith, or outside of it). For them, my tendency is to ask them to read a document which I regard as essential, the letter from the Universal House of Justice, 1988, on individual rights and freedoms. Or not.

Other sites consisted of stream-0f-consciousness speculations, various forms of apologetics or information-based blogs, and of course, some simply mentioned the Baha’is en passant, having visited a temple, perhaps, or encountered a Baha’i meeting.

The tenor of the blogs reminded me forcibly of a couple of areas about which I have often reflected in my Baha’i life (which has been a roller-coaster in the amusement park we call certitude). While born into a generational Baha’i family (and thus being somewhat anomalous in North America), I, perhaps like any other Baha’i, have continually had to come to terms with my beliefs and the implications of their practice. This process surely means lifelong spiritual struggle, which is, however, often combined with spiritual confirmations. It means, to me, learning to have a life in prayer and meditation, coupled with the busy reality that is our North American lifestyle of materialism. But it also has meant a repeated need for analysis of what I view as the most challenging component of faith encountered by the western mind: obedience.

I think it is probable that people coming from Muslim backgrounds tend to understand the concept of submission more than most from the more secular countries, where the division of ‘church’ and state is more apparent. This is just a guess. It is also my perception that most of the Christian friends I encounter, if they practice, believe in a fairly ‘soft’ form of religion where one is not accountable (witness the vast numbers of Catholics who are probably not overly familiar with Papal doctrines on such items as birth control or abortion, and if they did know the official dicta, would find such tenets anachronistic at best and toxic at worst.) But my impression is that many self-declared Baha’is conflate “what I want” and “what the Faith should be”. To risk a gross generalization, we are attracted to the light, as long as it doesn’t mean we have to allow it to shine on us. Passive faith is so much easier, in some ways…and it is more comfortable to whine about the externals than to truly bring oneself to daily account. Another guess.

The question, for me, is one of authority. To be a Baha’i is to be a person who, by act of volition, or choice, accepts the claims of Baha’u’llah, and as a component of that ‘Covenant’, agrees to try to abide by the laws of the religion. No one requires anyone to become a Baha’i. This is simply a fact, although I’ve heard all kinds of stories about pressuring parents or friends (perception is everything). However, the simple truth is that if you want to be a Baha’i, you declare yourself so and then you proceed through your life accordingly…or not…and if you vote to leave with your feet, no one is going to chase you down the road waving tracts in your face. You are responsible for your own state of faith, as Baha’u’llah says quite succinctly:

“The faith of no man is conditioned by anyone except himself.” (from a Tablet which has been provisionally translated) and which you can find at Baha’i Library Online.

So you choose to be a Baha’i, and then you have to try and abide by laws. These are sometimes quite apparent (non-drinking/drugging, chastity, avoiding backbiting….the so-called ‘visible sins’), and are sometimes more obscure (whether you Fast, or not, whether you say your Obligatory Prayer, or not…) but are still, unless you are blatant in disobedience, essentially a part of your private relationship with God. To be a Baha’i can be a bit of a challenge, because sometimes Baha’u’llah’s teachings simply do not accord with the popular culture’s assumptions (whether it is a widespread acceptance of alcohol, as in North America, or a widespread acceptance of misogyny, everywhere, or any number of possible socially controversial topics...not for me to discuss, at least today). Many people find themselves having to work out, in their own minds why the faith says one thing or another, and this creates a sense of discomfort, of self-questioning. I do not think that it is coincidence that in one of the most significant Baha’i prayers, the Tablet of Ahmad, Baha’u’llah directs us “Be not of those who doubt.” He expected us to doubt, and offered warning, or perhaps it would be better to say, a strongly worded suggestion!

I think what is critical is that we continue, all of our lives, to ask questions, but to understand from what context we do so: Baha’u’llah, if he really is who he says he is, does have the right to mandate. He does have the right to change social practice, and he does have the right to say, “This is wrong” or “This is right.” I see him truly as a wise father: it is his son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, who mediates and helps us understand what obedience to the sometimes very difficult precepts mean.

This religion is more than just about principles, or social change; Baha’is often tend to be nice people, or at least idealistic ones, and often are benignly interested in the cultures in which they live (although that generalization, I realize, is again based in my life in North America). So many of us here decry the evils of materialism while living them, decry the frustrations of having to accept things we don’t always understand, or act, indeed, as rebellious adolescents. Others are more able to internalize, as a part of the development of spiritual process in their lives, that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, to grasp the broader picture and not get stuck in shooting ourselves in our own feet (if you will forgive the cliché). This is a religion of personal transformation (which often hurts), coupled with social action (which often requires a great deal of energy), and added to all of that is the overarching reality is that we are meant to love (genuinely) people in whom, in ordinary circumstances, we would have no interest at all, and even quite possibly despise.

Baha’u’llah doesn’t need Baha’is, or anyone else, to agree with him. Neither did Christ (who understood perfectly well why he was placed on that cross)…or Muhammad (who knew perfectly well what he was doing and why) or Buddha. What the practitioners of any religion need to do is to understand that they are embarked in a lifelong project, the progress of their soul towards God, and that sometimes, this will be uncomfortable and will not ‘agree’ with their cultural surroundings or their ‘intellectual dissonance’. It is not Baha’u’llah’s job to conform to the expectations of the people. Nor, if we believe, does it mean uncritical acceptance or blind faith. We must continue, all our lives, to ask questions about our beliefs, and to try and contextualize the uncomfortable issues along with the things that made us happy about the faith in the first place. Within this, it is critical that we look to the source. I believe it is our responsibility to become scholars, advocates, and “loyal adherents”; to come alive with acting, every day of our lives, with the loving and generous aspects of lives where we have deliberately chosen a mystical path, to be followed through in practical circumstances.

In his 1998 paper, LeRoy Jones quotes one of my favourite passages:

Shoghi Effendi stated that " the core of religious faith is that mystic feeling which unites Man with God." (Directives of the Guardian, p. 86) He goes on to say in this passage that "The Bahá'í Faith, like all other Divine Religions, is thus fundamentally mystic in character. Its chief goal is the development of the individual and society." He puts the development of the individual and society within the context of religion that is not only fundamentally mystic, but the mystic feeling is at its very core.

I like this because I think that the synthesis of mystic truth with everyday practice is the core of unity. The ability to feel our soul, to change our soul, to connect with our spirit; this is the reason to be alive. Faith is not about dogma; it is about this alive connection to our own core, and the corollary intimacy with all the other souls on the planet, and indeed in the next world. It’s…mind-boggling…and it’s way beyond trivial complaints about personal satisfaction. When we really understand obedience, when we really understand search, and when we really understand love…perhaps we will begin to sense what it is we are engaged in as Baha’is. It’s not meant to be fun, or entertaining; you want fun, go to the movies. We do come from a culture where complaint and blame are almost second nature, so it’s challenging to pull ourselves out of that morass. It’s easy to fall into apportioning our troubles to something external, so as long as faith remains “out there” as an abstraction, or something we choose for simplistic reasons. As such, we become ripe for our own limited perceptions to take hold. Faith is meant to be one of personal transformation and ultimately the means for the unification of the globe. This is a truth deserving of deep study and unhesitating participation in community life and a certain joy, which will give us “wings.”

At this point in my life, faith excites me more each day, in a quiet kind of way. I hope this feeling endures. I also feel quite shy about saying this publicly, but after reading blogs this morning, I felt as though this shining gift in my life was perhaps something I should stand up for more strongly. This is me, standing up.

That’s my little rant for today, for what it’s worth. Let me conclude: these views are mine and only mine. For those of you who read this who really want to know about the Baha’i faith, go to www.bahai.org or any of several Baha’i libraries online or find books in your community or locate a Ruhi circle or a fireside or a deepening or however you need to learn, and read the words of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha, because they’re the only ones who really know. Whatever the Baha’is say, it’s only commentary.

I am deeply grateful for the patient understanding of the All-Merciful Lord.

Yesterday was a deluge much welcomed by the gardens, and despite the fact that it was reasonably warm, I burned the first fire of the season. Our living room is cozy, and I still prefer the redolence of the wood fire, and the sound of its crackling, in the fireplace. I curled up for some of the afternoon for a Sunday cup of tea and finished up a novel (not memorable, so I won't give you more detail)...and then my sister-in-law Joanne, with son Barry, came for chicken dinner and the evening. We had a terrific discussion of books, because she had just finished reading one which I lent her, Barbara Gowdy's the white bone. She asked about my top ten list, and we found some agreement (by this time Jesse had come home and he and Barry had gone off to play video games or some such thing). So Bernie and Joanne and I munched (chocolate and cashews; I had not had chocolate for many weeks but couldn't resist a little bit of the dark one...mmm) and discussed books (which seems a propos since we are about to begin the annual Ottawa Writers' Festival).

My all-time favourite remains Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude, which of course is translated from the Spanish. Second would be another book in translation, from the French: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. If you are a serious reader, don't bother with the abridged edition. Another one on the top list is very difficult but like falling into an ocean and swimming for the rest of your life, refreshed, with always a new view over the horizon: James Joyce's Ulysses. However, there are others, both favourite authors and books. John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible. I think I'd put the white bone up there too. The short stories of Alice Munro. Most of Alice Walker. The Kite-Runner, by relative newcome Khaled Husseini, is an impressive novel of Afghanistan. I still like the historical fiction of Leon Uris (Trinity, Mila 18) and some of James Michener (The Source, Poland).

I walked to the post office this morning (a fresh and beautiful day here in the Ottawa Valley), and had a mental conversation about some favourites. Actors: Ed Harris, Ed Norton, Albert Finney, and yes, the versatile and charming Tom Hanks. John Cusack is very, very cute. Actresses (is that too politically incorrect these days?): Kathy Bates, both for her past repertoire and for her absolute courage in stepping naked into a hot tub with Jack Nicholson, and the world, looking on, in About Schmidt. Of course, Judi Dench is incomparable, and Cate Blanchett is amazing...and of the younger generation, I think Scarlett Johannsen is lovely and has talent. Of course there are many others.

Music commentary, another day. One does not wish to go on interminably. However, I must admit that I continue to like the young Josh Groban, and no doubt Mom and I will listen to a song or two. But I'd like to give a little recommendation to a CD which tells the history of the Babi faith (which segued into the Baha'i faith), and is eclectic, very listenable...

Smith & Dragoman. Check them out.

Have a wonderful week before the Labour Day weekend.

The past comes back to me less and less; I have always been a future oriented person but I am finding, as I get older (50th birthday just over a month away) that I am learning to live in, and enjoy, the present. Nonetheless, there are always occurrences which bring something back. This weekend, I decided to have a look at a CD my mother had made as a gift, some time ago.

I then spent a couple of hours uploading some of these photographs, and I decided that today I would share some of my favourites. My mother had even labelled some of them. The "Heather loves Daddy" one would be from late 1957 or early 1958, since my sister was born in May 1958 and in this picture I look younger than I would have been when she was born. So I'm guessing at the time but I sure liked the feeling...

I also thought you might enjoy one of our favourites from our early years in Belize. I had left Papua New Guinea to go and see my family, who during the years I was in P.N.G. had moved from Canada to Belize. So I flew from P.N.G. to Belize (a story in itself) and from late December 1979 until May or so of 1980 I stayed in Belize with my family...and they did an amazing job of introducing me to many of the beauties of that country. Here you see three of my four sisters (Andrea was already married and living in northern Saskatchewan) at one of our most enjoyed swimming locales, Mountain Pine Ridge. It's actually called the Five Sisters, and is a series of waterfalls and pools created by erosion in the upper reaches of Belize, in Cayo District. It's about a two hour drive over very bumpy terrain, so we did not go often, but over the years almost all of the extended Nablo family, and our friends, have enjoyed visiting this area. It's slightly cooler, since it's in the 'highlands', probably about 3,000 feet above the sea level (the coast of Belize is pretty hot, especially in the cities or as you drive south). But this area is surrounded by species of pines, and has the most fascinating natural cave formations that we explored. The water is so much fun...sliding down the underwater rock formations, which have worn smooth with time, and into pools (which are safe for babies)...perfect temperatures...and the company of loved ones. What more could you ask? So in this picture, I would have been twenty-four years old (yes, that long ago!) and that would make Laurel 22, Coral about 13, and Sylvia 11. Now, I am the mother of three grown children, Laurel the mother of five grown children, Coral has five children who range in age from 3 to almost 15, and Sylvia's three girls are all ten and under. Time flies...

So although I don't think a lot about the past, sometimes something happens to bring it closer to your heart, and Mom's pictures did that for me this weekend. Thanks, Mom.

Devotional evening ruminations:

On the last Friday of each month, for several years now, we have held evenings of devotional readings for people to come and share their favourite passages and their insights. Last night, for me, was truly one of being transported.

I was immensely touched to see our friend Luc approaching the house just before seven. Although the devotional is not scheduled until eight, Luc has moved to the outer regions of the city in order to maintain a Baha'i presence there. It is an area called Buckingham, Québec, and since Luc relies on the buses, his ability to get to places requires lengthy journeys. He had left Buckingham at 1:30 in the afternoon and had waited the afternoon in the connector mall before taking the bus to our place. I doubt if I would have the same courage as he, to make such efforts to have an opportunity to participate in events in the community. He was very, very welcome.

Just before eight, our friend Linda drove up. She also lives quite a distance, and as a teacher, is also quite busy now with the start up of the school year. Nonetheless, each time she comes, and she has only missed one devotional in the years we have held them, she brings a sense of peace, joy, and always some interesting writings drawn from a variety of backgrounds. Her own tradition, at least the one from her adult life, is Christian Science, but she is also deeply versed in Baha'i writings and in numerous other spiritual writings. She included some wonderful lines from Rumi, last night, and she has often guided me towards someone's work: Deepak Chopra and Caroline Myss, for example.

Shortly thereafter, Bob and his friend Terrie arrived. Bob has been a friend of our family since 1971, and is more like a family member than a friend, which isn't surprising, given the admonition from our writings (Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha), p. 38:

See ye no strangers; rather see all men as friends, for love and unity come hard when ye fix your gaze on otherness. And in this new and wondrous age, the Holy Writings say that we must be at one with every people; that we must see neither harshness nor injustice, neither malevolence, nor hostility, nor hate, but rather turn our eyes toward the heaven of ancient glory. For each of the creatures is a sign of God, and it was by the grace of the Lord and His power that each did step into the world; therefore they are not strangers, but in the family; not aliens, but friends, and to be treated as such.

Bob has been such a friend for our family since I was fifteen. He brought with him Terrie, a woman who has recently declared her faith in Baha'u'llah, and who had also attended our fireside two weeks ago. So it was a smaller gathering than last month's on the deck, in the setting sun. The evenings are cooler now, with the rapid approach of September, but the coziness of the living room and the prayers being said set me off into a very mellow mood.

There is never a particular theme for our evenings of devotion, but Linda commented that the one on "forgiveness" had been memorable. Last night turned into one on "healing." So many friends are on my mind, these days, and Luc and I both shared that we are offering Baha'u'llah's Long Healing Prayer each day for the sake of many friends. He says it in French, and I do it in English. Included in my list are several friends who are battling with cancers: Kim, Peggy, Edwina, Joan...and one with HIV, Junia...and some older couples, Clyde & Bea, David & Belinda, Bob & Joan, with various health challenges...and some people less known to me, Julian & Fernand, who are Baha'is here in Québec...and yesterday I heard of another acquaintance of mine, Ridvan, who has cancer, so we kept him to mind while we offered our prayers. The flow of this healing prayer is very meditative; Luc read most of it in French, and Bob finished it in English, and by that time I think there was a true peace settling on the room. We continued to offer prayers for quite some time; I found a passage, Chapter 60 of Isaiah, that I found very moving. It was an evening, for me, that reminded me of 'Abdu'l-Baha's exhortation, and reinforced the feeling of being with a spiritual family:

When you love a member of your family or a compatriot, let it be with a ray of the Infinite Love! Let it be in God, and for God! Wherever you find the attributes of God love that person, whether he be of your family or of another....
(Paris Talks: Addresses given by `Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1911-1912 10th ed. (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1979)

The evening wound up by midnight; we had to take Luc for his connecting bus at shortly before eleven. We had visited over an apple cranberry crisp and cranberry tea, and I went to sleep very grateful that our home had been embellished with these friends.

Tonight I will also enjoy, no doubt, an evening of such embellishment. We are going to the home of Wendy & Bernie, in Ottawa, whose devotional evenings, firesides, and social gatherings are legendary for the richness of their warm hospitality. Tonight they have asked Deirdre to offer her wisdom. I quote from the invitation:

For this occasion, we have asked our dear friend Deirdre ... to give us a flavour of her relationship with God. This will be interesting because so many different reactions come to mind when people think of God: love, fear, rejection, reverence or a wish to understand more, if possible.

Like all of us who are seeking, Deirdre's experience with God has been evolving and will continue to as long as her heart is turned in that direction. We have asked her to share the concept of God she has arrived at based on her study of the Baha'i Writings and on her life experiences. What have been the implications for her choices and relationships? With that as our start, we will all talk and learn together.

For this occasion, I would like to offer this quote from 'Abdu'l-Baha:

I beseech God to graciously make of thy home a centre for the diffusion of the light of divine guidance, for the dissemination of the Words of God and for enkindling at all times the fire of love in the hearts of His faithful servants and maidservants. Know thou of a certainty that every house wherein the anthem of praise is raised to the Realm of Glory in celebration of the Name of God is indeed a heavenly home, and one of the gardens of delight in the Paradise of God. (`Abdu'l-Bahá, from a Tablet-translated from the Arabic)

Whenever I go to this home, I am reminded of this quote from Paris Talks: Addresses given by `Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1911-1912 :

This is in truth a Bahá'í house. Every time such a house or meeting place is founded it becomes one of the greatest aids to the general development of the town and country to which it belongs. It encourages the growth of learning and science and is known for its intense spirituality and for the love it spreads among the peoples.

Each day seems to bring something to fill my heart and spirit, whether wandering through our bountiful garden, or inviting a garden of souls into our home, or joining others in their homes. The sun is shining, this Saturday end of August morning, and I hope that all of you find

Healing.

Our friends, the Epps, pictured here, and a visit with celebrities...

Today I want to give 'props' to two movie stars, believe it or not. I have just been on the phone with my daughter, who is travelling out west and visiting. One visit they enjoyed was in Vancouver with our friends, Gord and Cheryl Epp. Gord and Cheryl's son, Angus, is 18, and has Muscular Dystrophy from birth. It was Gord and Cheryl who introduced my husband Bernie to the Baha'i Faith in 1983, and Bernie and I met thereafter and were married in 1984. So our families are close, and Melodie was able to spend a night with the Epps and catch up with their news.

Apparently, Angus toured her around some of his mementoes. The Epp family are participants in the program at Canuck House in Vancouver, which is a place of respite for people who are suffering from a variety of health challenges. I am told that Angus has pictures of himself with celebrities, many of whom visit Canuck House and support it financially. Among these are two actors whom I am already predisposed to like because of the excellence of their craft. Now I think they are even more wonderful: to take time from undoubtedly busy schedules in support of the Canuck House seems truly an act of really caring for other human beings.

Thus, I wanted to give a shout of honour to Robin Williams and to Hugh Jackman, whose pictures with Angus adorn Angus' room. They appear to be true gentlemen. My daughter said that Angus is very proud of his pics with the stars.

Addendum: I was chatting on the phone with my brother Robin, who has just returned from China and is staying in northern Alberta with our sister Sylvia, her family, and our parents. He regaled us with a few notes from his adventures there...

one of which was his visit to the zoo. Apparently he was there at a photo opportunity...many people gathered to watch an unusual sight...the mating of the bears. Two 800 pound lovers.

Ahem.

More importantly, here are words from someone I believe to be a hero:

THE 2006 XVI INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE CLOSING ADDRESS
BY STEPHEN LEWIS

This is the last speech I shall make at any of these international conferences in my role as United Nations Envoy. I'm glad, for obvious Canadian reasons, that it comes in Toronto. But I'm equally pleased because this has been a good conference, covering an extraordinary range of ground, and I therefore feel confident in asking you to join with me in giving force to the oft-repeated mantra: "Time To Deliver."

Of what would that meaning consist? Allow me to set out a number of items.

Number 1: Abstinence-only programmes don't work. Ideological rigidity almost never works when applied to the human condition. Moreover, it's an antiquated throwback to the conditionality of yesteryear to tell any government how to allocate its money for prevention. That approach has a name: it's called neo-colonialism.

Number 2: Harm reduction programmes do work. Needle exchange and methadone treatment save lives. More, it would be positively perverse to close the 'Insite' safe injection facility in Vancouver when it has been positively evaluated in a number of studies; in fact there should be several more such facilities in Canada and around the world. Russia, Central Asia, parts of India are all struggling with transmission through injecting drug use. To shut 'Insite' down is to invite HIV infection and death. One has to wonder about the minds of those who would so readily punish injecting drug users rather than understanding the problem for what it is: a matter of public health.

Number 3: Circumcision, as a preventive intervention, should not be subject to bureaucratic contemplation forever. We have enough information now to know that it is an intervention worth pursuing. What remains is a single-minded effort to get the word out, respect cultural sensitivities, and then for those who want to proceed, make certain that we have well-trained personnel to do the operating.

The men are lining up for the procedure in Swaziland. And when I was in the Zambian copper belt, just a couple of weeks ago, at an animated meeting with the District Commissioner, he indicated that he was a part of an ethnic group which was circumcised. I then revealed that I was circumcised, and there followed a joyous frenzy of male bonding amongst all the circumciseees. The fact of the matter is that even in the remotest parts of Africa there is now an awareness of the issue; it's important to act on it.

Number 4: The growing excitement around a microbicide is entirely warranted. This is a preventive technology whose time has come. To be sure, there can be no flagging in the dogged quest for a vaccine, but it would appear that where preventive technologies are concerned, the microbicide is first in line. Now is the time to make certain, in advance, that when the discovery is made, it is instantly accessible and acceptable to the women of the world, wherever they may live.

Number 5: In the hierarchy of preventive measures, the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission is very near the top. It is a bitter indictment that so few HIV-positive pregnant women have access to PMTCT. But that's just the half of it. It is inexcusable that in Africa and other parts of the developing world we continue to use single-dose Nevirapine, rather than full triple therapy during pregnancy, as we do in western countries like Canada. This means that hundreds of thousands of babies continue to be born HIV-positive, rather than reducing the transmission rate virtually to zero. I ask: what kind of a world do we live in where the life of an African child or an Asian child is worth so much less than the life of a Canadian child?

Number 6: It is now accepted as unassailable truth that people in treatment need nutritious food supplements to maintain and tolerate their treatment. And yet, there is a growing clamour from People Living with AIDS that decent nutrition simply isn't available, leaving them in a desperate predicament. The World Food Programme released a study at this conference calculating the cost of food supplementation at 66 cents a day for an entire family; what madness is it that denies the World Food Programme the necessary money?

Number 7: One of the issues that received an insufficient airing at this conference is sexual violence against women. Just a few months ago, I was visiting the local hospital in Thika, Kenya, which houses the one rape counseling centre in that part of the country. The rise in sexual violence has meant that there are over thirty reported cases every month, with multiples of that number never of course reported.

In April of this year there were forty-six reported cases. Twenty-two were under the age of eighteen; half of those were under the age of twelve. Horrific you say? Without question. But how would you characterize an emerging pattern of the sexual assault of women between the ages of sixty-five and eighty, the rapists confident that they can rape with impunity without fear of transmission?

Sexual violence is everywhere reported, from marital rape to rape as a war crime. The phenomenon is by no means singularly African; we live in a world community where the depravity of sexual violence has run amok. In Africa, however, the violence and the virus go together. And yet, we lack the laws, the jurisprudence, the enforcement that would give to women even a modicum of protection. If ever there was a cause to mobilize AIDS activists around the world, this is it.

Number 8: We urgently need a resolution of the vexing debate over testing and counseling. We made progress at this conference, but by no means definitive progress. It seems to me that the growing embrace of routine testing and counseling, with an opt-out provision to protect human rights, is the appropriate emerging consensus. Everyone should keep an eye on Lesotho where the Know Your Status campaign will, I believe, become the bench-mark, pro or con, for the continent and beyond.

Number 9: There is an ongoing epidemic of child sexual abuse. The dynamic of abuse of children is often different from that of the sexual abuse of women: what is common to both is the terrifying danger of transmission. Children require different interventions. Alas, we are nowhere near the articulation of a response. In this instance, as in every such instance, children are relegated to the scrapheap of society's priorities, and have been so relegated throughout the twenty-five years of this pandemic.

Number 10: It is impossible to talk about children without talking about orphans. And it is impossible to understand how, in the year 2006, we still continue to fail to implement policies to address the torrent, the deluge of orphan children. Countries have programmes of action; they languish unfunded. One of the most chilling pieces of statistical data is the finding that only three to five per cent of orphans receive any intervention of any kind from the state.

The monumental numbers of orphans, so many of them now adults because the pandemic has gone on for so long, pose a bracing, almost insuperable challenge for the countries which they inhabit. I appeal to everyone to recognize that we're walking on the knife's edge of an unsolvable human catastrophe. Inevitably we're preoccupied with the here and now, but the cumulative impact of these orphan kids, their levels of trauma, their overwhelming personal needs, their intense collective vulnerability strikes at the heart of the human dynamic, creating a sociological rearrangement of human relationships. And we're doing so little about it; our response is microscopic. We are inviting the whirlwind, and we will not be able to cope.

Number 11: It is impossible to talk about orphans without talking about grandmothers. Who would ever have imagined it would come to this? In Africa, the grandmothers are the unsung heroes of the continent: these extraordinary, resilient, courageous women, fighting through the inconsolable grief of the loss of their own adult children, becoming parents again in their fifties and sixties and seventies and eighties. I attended a grandmother's gathering last weekend on the eve of the conference: the grandmothers were magnificent, but they're all struggling with the same anguished nightmare: what happens to my grandchildren when I die?

We need major social welfare programmes that will recognize these essential caregivers' contributions to society as legitimate and difficult labour, and offer the guarantee of sustainable incomes to the grandmothers of Africa: from food to school fees to income generation, the answers must be found. It's another test for the delegates to this conference.

Number 12: In the midst of everything else, we must continue to roll out treatment. I am worried by the new figures. There were one million, three hundred thousand people in treatment at the end of 2005. Six months later, there are one million, six hundred and fifty thousand in treatment. The additional three hundred and fifty thousand seems a very modest increment. Treatment is keeping people alive; treatment is bringing hope; treatment is stimulating prevention; treatment is meshing more and more frequently with community-based care; we cannot let the process slow.

Number 13: And while I'm on the issue of treatment, I am bound to raise South Africa. South Africa is the unkindest cut of all. It is the only country in Africa, amongst all the countries I have traversed in the last five years, whose government is still obtuse, dilatory and negligent about rolling out treatment. It is the only country in Africa whose government continues to propound theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state. Between six and eight hundred people a day die of AIDS in South Africa. The government has a lot to atone for. I'm of the opinion that they can never achieve redemption.

There are those who will say I have no right, as a United Nations official, to say such things of a member state. I was appointed as Envoy on AIDS in Africa. I see my job as advocating for those who are living with the virus, those who are dying of the virus . All of those, in and out of civil society, who are fighting the good fight to achieve social justice. It is not my job to be silenced by a government when I know that what it is doing is wrong, immoral, indefensible.

Number 14: Unbeknownst to many, we are on the cusp of a huge financial crisis in response to the pandemic. I think we have been lulled into a damaging false security by the fact that we jumped from roughly $300 million a year from all sources in the late 1990's, to $8.3 billion in 2005. And indeed it sounds impressive. But we need $15 billion this year, and $18 billion next year, and $22 billion in 2008. Any straight line projection will take us to $30 billion in 2010 . the moment of universal access to treatment, prevention and care.

We're billions and billions short of those targets. If these circumstances continue, universal access is doomed. All governments, as they continue to expand their treatment and prevention initiatives, are spooked by worries of financial sustainability. They're right to be spooked.

The financial promises made at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles one year ago, are already unraveling. We will never accumulate the extra $25 billion for Africa by 2010 as was committed.

PEPFAR has not yet announced its extension beyond 2008; when it does (as it surely will), the annual contribution, given the other demands on the US Treasury, will probably remain at $3 billion a year. That large amount was a very significant percentage of the total expenditure on AIDS back in 2003/2004. But as a percentage of what is needed for global AIDS programmes in 2008 --- $22 billion --- $3 billion seems pretty paltry from the world's superpower.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is still half a billion short this year and more than a billion short next year. At the moment, there is no obvious way to close the shortfall. It is almost inconceivable that the extravagant promises of Gleneagles are revealed as so fatuous that the Global Fund is now compromised. No one is asking for any more than that which was promised. But the Pavlovian betrayal of the South has already begun.

Everything in the battle against AIDS is put at risk by the behaviour of the G8. Yesterday, Dr. Julio Montaner characterized that behaviour as genocide. I remember back in 2001, in an op-ed for the Globe and Mail, I used the phrase mass murder. It's hard, in the face of the annihilating human toll, not to be driven to linguistic extremes. This issue of resources makes or breaks the response to the pandemic. It is imperative that the delegates here assembled never let the G8 countries off the hook.

Number 15: I want to say a strong word about human capacity.

What has clearly emerged as the most difficult of issues, almost everywhere, certainly in Africa, is the loss of human capacity. In country after country, the response to the pandemic is sabotaged by the paucity of doctors, nurses, clinicians and community health workers. The shortages are overwhelming. Everyone is struggling. Most of the shortage stems from death and illness; some stems from brain-drain and poaching. But whatever the source, we have a problem of staggering dimensions.

The capacity crisis illumines, more than anything else, what is needed. There are solutions: investment in the public sector and in extensive ongoing training can begin to fill the gap. But again it needs the donor community to uphold its responsibilities. And most important, the key to recovery lies at country level. The key to subduing the entire pandemic lies at country level.

What has to happen, I think, is that we place a temporary moratorium on the endless, self-indulgent proliferation of meetings, seminars, roundtables, discussion groups, task forces ad nauseam, plus the production of reports, documents, monographs, statistical data ad repetition, and concentrate every energy at country level.

At the opening of this conference, Peter Piot talked of the next twenty-five years. He's right to do so. He indicated it would be a long and difficult haul; he's right again. But if the next twenty-five years are to take advantage of the guarded optimism of this conference; if the next twenty-five years are to overcome the lethargy and inertia of the last twenty-five years; if the next twenty-five years are to link, inseparably, poverty and disease and the Millennium Development Goals, then it has to happen, in-country, on the ground, organized and orchestrated by the countries themselves.

And the agencies on the ground, whether multilateral, bilateral or civil society, must be held accountable. That's what's been missing. That's the job of the delegates to this conference: holding people and organizations accountable. And that includes everything from the pharmaceutical companies that have been so intractable about prices of second-line drugs to bilateral trade agreements designed to deny access to generic drugs.

Number 16: This 16th International AIDS Conference, beyond any preceding conference, has given voice to youth. But it's still a limited and marginalized voice, reflecting the hostile ambiguity of the adult world. The figures are brutal and stark: fully fifty per cent of new infections between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. And yet who can deny the appalling absence of programmes for, and engagement of, young people in the fight against the pandemic. The situation cries out for redress, and it must be redressed well beyond smarmy tokenism.

Finally, in my view, as delegates doubtless know, the most vexing and intolerable dimension of the pandemic is what is happening to women. It's the one area of HIV/AIDS which leaves me feeling most helpless and most enraged. Gender inequality is driving the pandemic, and we will never subdue the gruesome force of AIDS until the rights of women become paramount in the struggle.

Last Monday morning, at the women's march, the signs read "Women's Rights are Human Rights". That was the slogan that captured the Vienna International Conference on Human Rights in 1993. It was the slogan repeated at the Cairo Conference on Population in 1994, and yet again at Beijing in 1995. It's never been made real, and so long as men control the levers and bastions of power, it never will be real.

Whether it's the apparatus of the United Nations, including the agencies, or the endless numbers of High-Level panels, or auspicious studies of human development like the Blair Commission on Africa, the demeaning diminution of women is everywhere evident. And those examples are but proxies for the wider world, particularly the developing world, where freedom from sexual violence, the right to sexual autonomy, to sexual and reproductive health, social and economic independence, and even the whiff of gender equality are barely approximated.

It's a ghastly, deadly business, this untrammeled oppression of women in so many countries on the planet.

My closest colleagues and I have come to the conclusion that one of the ways to diminish the impact of the AIDS virus is by creating a powerful international agency for women, funded and staffed to the teeth. There must be voice and advocacy and operational capacity on the ground for fifty-two per cent of the world's population. There is a UN reform panel at the moment, contemplating the creation of a new entity, provided they have the courage to confront the warped and abysmal gender architecture of the United Nations. If they find the courage, I deeply believe that we could begin to still the carnage.

And what works for AIDS can work everywhere.

I challenge you, my fellow delegates, to enter the fray against gender inequality. There is no more honourable and productive calling. There is nothing of greater import in this world. All roads lead from women to social change, and that includes subduing the pandemic.

For my own part, when I leave my post of Envoy at the end of the year, I have asked that my successor be an African, but most important, an African woman.

-- Stephen Lewis

Today's big news is that Bernie has taken delivery of his brand-spanking new 2006 Nissan truck. So now there are two shiny red vehicles in our driveway. He came home and took Jesse and me for a spin; our six-foot-two son can just slide into the seats in the slightly extended cab. He'd be more comfortable if he were still ten years old, instead of sixteen (on Sept.2) and taller than his father, but it is good to know that Bernie is driving a truck with a warranty on it. The last vehicle cost us more money than we wanted. The payments go up but the stress goes down! He's a happy guy. He's a happy guy anyway but today he's a happy guy with a new truck.

The internet continues to amaze me...

I have been checking to see if, when a person googles my name, they will come up with this blog. Once, yes. The rest of the time, no. More likely they will find my poetry connection, www.heatherpoet.blogspot.com, which I have called WomanWyrds.

What I do find is that my book, Partners in Spirit: What Couples Say About Marriages That Work, which is coming from Baha'i Publishing (Chicago) this October, is being advertised not only by Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Allbooks, but is also being advertised in German and Japanese. This is before the book is even out: I will receive my own first copies at the end of September, and apparently the book itself will be generally available at the end of October. Right now the various companies are accepting pre-orders.

A friend wrote me today and said that people need to know more about this book in order to determine whether they want to pre-order it. What I can tell you is this: I began writing this book a long time ago, because I was a little disheartened by all the stories of divorce that are out there. I began to think that if I were considering getting married in this day and age, I would be discouraged. People need models of success, not of the times when despite all their best wishes, they are not successful at an endeavour. So I decided to ask people about their marriages. I asked a lot of people: in the end, there were over forty couples and individuals from around the world who answered my questions. It is their stories that make up this book, and the book is easy to read and I think, heartening to people who still believe in marriage, and especially for those who invite spirituality into their lives. So I hope that helps for anyone who wants a full description or abstract.

If you do decide to order it and read it, I hope you enjoy it.

The heat has broken. Rain, all night and part of today, so needed for the gardens. We are beginning to harvest tomatoes: many, many tomatoes. This week I may have to learn a new skill, and make some salsa to can. I got a recipe from Andrea's mother-in-law, Joan Doran. Looks good. Looks like a lot of work.

I have been reading a lot, and not just summer reading. My sisters-in-law, Joanne and Genny, are both very good at finding good stuff and then sharing. I have just finished two novels, one quite stellar, the other very good. Try: Barbara Gowdy, the white bone Five stars & Nuala O'Faolain, my dream of you Four stars. The former is a Canadian author whose other works I will now seek out. I found that book at Value Village. Best 69 cents I ever spent. The other is a loaner, and, as you can probably extrapolate from the author's name, Irish.

I expect that this winter Dad and I will read some of these to my mother. My father continues to read aloud to her and they make their way through many recommended works. With them resident here for a good chunk of time, I should be able to give them quite a pile to enjoy. Dad won't have to go to the library: I have a small one here! One I think they will find fascinating, and which I think I have recommended before: The Golden Spruce. It is a story of the Haida Gwaii and a tree, and a mystery man. That's all I'll say...read the book.

Recently, due to the publication of Partners in Spirit, which is now being advertised for pre-order at Barnes & Noble (US), Amazon (UK) and Allbooks, I have had opportunity to connect with some old friends...Jonathan King, now of Austin, Texas, and Harsh Pancholi, just graduated in Victoria with a B.A. in Anthropology, among others. It is SO good to stay connected! My friend Hunter Goertz sent me a photo of himself and his brother Hans, scuba diving in Jamaica.

I am also working on writing, trying to get my next book finished up. Poems, too...some come each day.

A few leaves begin to turn colour. We live in a beautiful place to appreciate the fall. Tonight, a Baha'i feast to celebrate with the community.

I have a lot to be grateful for.

Yesterday I was writing here and I glanced out the window, to be given a gift: a hummingbird was sipping at the yellow dahlias beneath the window frame. I could almost have reached out and touched her. I felt so blessed, by the summer, by the many gifts of the garden, by time with loved ones, by the sense of light enveloping my heart. I hope that each of you reading this will pause for a small moment and give thanks for something in your life, no matter how tiny, perhaps even hummingbird size, that brings you joy.

There is a prayer in the Baha'i writings which returns to me often, and in which there is a line that offers me the most beautiful images. I will quote it for you in its entirety but put the line I am thinking of in bold face:

Intone, O My servants, the verses of God that have been received by thee,
as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him,
that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul,
and attract the hearts of all men. Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber,
the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty
shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth,
and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb.
Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue
of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise
its influence upon his soul. Thus have the mysteries of the Revelation
of God been decreed by virtue of the Will of Him
Who is the Source of power and wisdom.

I love the idea of angels taking the words of prayer, of joy, of fragrance, and 'scattering them' everywhere they are needed, unbound by the limitations of time and space, or of body. In my fancies, sometimes birds are like these angels. Yesterday while walking at the marina I gathered a feather, most likely from a gull. I know these are scavenger birds, I know that some people don't like them much, but I find them lovely, accompanied in my mind's eye with scenes of beauty over water. Each bird has its habitat, the place where it offers its beauty in long migrations; perhaps angels are like this, too, with our prayers. Soaring.

A feather, found, is a prayer. Love over water.

Aylmer Marina: moments of beauty by a river

Today I took my daily exercise in a different venue. My son wanted a ride to Aylmer (which has been amalgamated into the larger city of Gatineau but still retains its character.) It is an old town, old buildings, and along the river, a lovely walkway from the boats to riverside homes through a park.

Someone was flying a kite shaped like a fish, multicoloured. A small girl ran after a seagull. She did not think about running. She just ran, calling to the bird as if expecting it to come. On the water, sailboats, a kayak. In the water, a few small children on the sand. Along the pathway, an older, rather portly couple, holding hands. Slim young runners. Many cyclists, one an older man, grey-haired, carrying a bag of milk in his basket. Some helmeted, some not. Beside the pathway, a fountain. A breeze. I gathered a feather, a shell. Two small schoolboys were eating lunch near their summer class in sailing. They greeted me with a friendly bonjour, much to my surprise.

I could feel the smiles inside. For a while, I listened to the sound of water and wind. Then, my trusty iPod, starting with Van Morrison, then hearing Alanis and Seals&Crofts and Cat Stevens and Smith & Dragoman, Rosemarie Petersen, and the Baha'i Choir singing Blessed is the Spot. It was exactly that: 50 minutes along a river, blessed in summer sunshine. A breeze.

Book woman is reading again, and I will share a couple of titles for your consideration. First, however, an update of some recent pleasures.

We have had such a flurry of activity, and visitors, with highlights being a fireside on Sunday morning and family barbecue on Sunday evening.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term "fireside", this is used by Baha'is to denote a gathering of people who have come together to investigate the teachings of the Baha'i faith. Although the worldwide Baha'i community is now putting a great deal of effort into children's classes, youth and pre-youth activities, Ruhi institute courses and other methods of study, and devotional gatherings (we have one of these each month as well), there is still a need for opportunities for people who are interested in the Baha'i teachings to have a forum for their inquiries to find response. Accordingly, my husband and I decided to host, once a month, a Sunday brunch and fireside. These have now been occuring for several months. We started with one condition: we asked that our Baha'i friends attend with a friend who was investigating the faith, rather than just having all-Baha'i gatherings.

Let me tell you a story. Years ago, when we were still relatively newlywed and quite poor, I spent a lot of time at garage sales. It was an excellent way to dress our three pre-schoolers (and ourselves), find kitchen appliances, and sometimes furniture, and decorate. One day, Bernie accompanied me and spied a waffle iron. "Let's buy it," said he, and I agreed on one condition: that he would be the one who made the waffles! He did, and thus our waffle Sundays were born.

After we moved to this area in 2000, the waffle brunches faded for a while. We did not have much space and he did not have much time. However, one day we were remembering what fun they had been, and by this time we had moved into our new home here in Gatineau. It seemed a good time to re-institute the waffle breakfasts...and for Baha'is, the opportunity for firesides is always a pleasure. So Bernie bought himself a waffle iron (this time a very nice one) and our format became: 10 a.m. waffles (with all the accoutrements, and since we live in Québec, you can believe that the maple syrup is really good!) and at 11 a.m., a guest speaker on a topic of interest. From the beginning, there have been some friends who come regularly.

Last Sunday I invited Louise Profeit-LeBlanc to be our speaker. Enough can not be said about this talented woman, who embraced the Baha'i teachings during her time growng up in the Yukon. She is of Aboriginal background and is internationally renowned as a storyteller. She accepted to speak about the link between spiritual development and storytelling.

I invited a few friends, especially some whom I know are very interested in Native teachings, and word got out, spiralled...and on Sunday we welcomed almost thirty people for waffles and for Louise's exceptional talk. Bernie outdid himself with the breakfast! It was a hot summer day, so after breakfast we rearranged the furniture (the deck, which extends deep into the back yard, holds twice as many people as inside the house, and it was full). To afford some shade, we set up benches and chairs in the living room, and Louise stood tall and strong in the sunshine, addressing those who had remained outside along with those indoors.

I was particularly delighted because my sister Andrea, her husband Steve, their youngest son Mitchell, and granddaughter Mary Jane were able to come. They have been in the area for about ten days, visiting Steve's in-laws (Mom has cancer), and were able to drive over and spend the day with us. They had known Louise in the Yukon days, and also were pleased to see our cousin, Jack McLean (some of you may have read his books), who came along with our Buddhist friend, and poet, Damien. Friends from my teaching days arrived: Catherine, accompanied by her elderly mother, neighbour, and sister Frances; Judy, formerly the principal at the school where I taught but now a dear friend; Linda, a teacher who has become my dear friend as well and with whom I have shared many a fascinating conversation about the similarities and differences between our views (she is a Christian Scientist). Catherine had also invited other friends, Elaine and Gloria, one a First Nations lady and both of whom were known to Louise through a drama group. There was our new friend Pierre-Hughes from the former Aylmer, who pitched in and washed dishes (right at home! merci, Pierre) and our friend Debra, along with Belinda, who has been looking into the teachings of the Baha'i faith for some time now and who has frequently attended our gatherings: a blessing.

Our neighbour, Nathan, came along with his friend Leona, a woman from Africa of exquisite beauty and radiant smile; our friend Kathleen came along with Luis Eduardo, an angel of a man from Colombia. Our friend Bob ensured that Terrie, a new Baha'i from Ottawa, was able to join us.

Can you see how our home was filled with joy? The friends just kept arriving, enjoying breakfast, and at about 11:15, I introduced Louise and we opened with a Baha'i prayer for unity. Then Louise gave her talk: here are some highlights.

First, she told about her own journey, as a young girl in the Yukon who was fascinated by the different churches in town...and her Sundays were spent going to different services. She made us laugh several times (exclaiming about how she liked the snacks at one, the incense at the Catholic Church, the craft activities at another!) and then shared her own introduction, and eventual declaration of faith in Baha'u'llah, and the effect it has had on her life. It was a critical part of her honouring of her grandmother, who had raised her for many years and who had told her always to keep in her heart the central truths: there is only one God, there is only one religion, and we, as humanity, are One. Since these are also central teachings of Baha'u'llah, it was a good "fit".

She also shared a story from her traditions. She spoke of the aural tradition, the stories of the elders as guides, and shared one story which she reminded us would have been about four hours long if she were to tell it as it ought to be told. She gave us the "condensed version." It was a lovely story of a man who searches for joy and finds a bride who is the daughter of the Sun Chief, and who comes to earth with this being of light and love...but beyond that, I will not tell. It is not my story and I could not possibly do the story justice. Louise, even in the 'edited' version, brought the story alive with rich allusion and imagery.

We finished the morning with Louise quoting, from memory, this Hidden Word from Baha'u'llah.

O SON OF SPIRIT!

My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

You can bet, we were full: of food, of spirit. Our guests gradually left, and in the early afternoon we relaxed with my sister and her family. Then we decided to have a swim in the Gatineau hills, and most of us piled into two vehicles and drove to Meech Lake, where we had a dip. We got back home in time to prepare supper together, and for the arrival of Bernie's sisters Joanne and Genny, along with our friends and neighbours, Bob and France, who are also Baha'is. France made a wonderful dessert...and we all ate a wonderful BBQ supper together. Andrea and her family had to leave around ten...and by midnight, I was asleep.

Monday evening was also full. I had invited my poetry group for a BBQ, so we enjoyed having poets rob mclennan, Amanda Earl, Jennifer Mulligan, and Pearl Pirie here for burgers and brownies! Pearl has posted about the event, complete with pictures, so I will just offer you her link.

And now, for your reading pleasure and edification:

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,

both by Malcolm Gladwell

and both fascinating.

I am thinking about them both.

Perhaps our fireside was a little thing...but to me, it made a big difference.

Until next time, let me leave you with the wise words of Baha'u'llah, telling us one of the ways to think, and given the times in which we live, of critical value to me as a guide:

O SON OF SPIRIT!

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not the knowledge of thy neighbour. Ponder this in thy heart how it behoveth they to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

Our time has been full, along with hearts and bellies. We have had visitors galore; this morning, waffles for over twenty guests followed by a dynamic talk given by Louise Profeit-LeBlanc on the connection between story and spirit. Guests included four of the Doran clan here from Saskatoon, and cousin Jack McLean, who hadn't seen Andrea and Steve in a very long time, or ever met Mitchell and Mary Jane. Amongst the guests were our Colombian friend Luis Eduardo' a beautiful woman who is, I think, from Zimbabwe; and a couple of First Nations friends, as well as many different faith backgrounds...

then this afternoon Andrea, Mitchell, Mary Jane, my children, cousin Audrey, and Jesse's girlfriend Erica piled into two vehicles and drove for a swim to Meech Lake.

We got home at around five and made a big dinner barbecue, joined by neighbours Bob and France, and sisters-in-law Genny and Joanne, as well as cousin Barry.

All our relations!

All our many blessings!

Tonight, however, let me encourage you to follow the link to the Stephen Lewis foundation. Our entire Ottawa Citizen today is guest edited by the amazing Mr. Lewis, and includes articles and pictures from an astonishing number of sources, including a feature on the Wakefield Grannies and their partnership project with African grandmothers. Marilee Rhody, a dear Baha'i friend, is one of the participants. See her smiling face on pages B2 and B3. It may take me a while to get through the entire paper, but it is a truly amazing edition.

All our many blessings!

All our relations!

Something sweet this way comes....I am learning to bake with stevia. This will give my Dad more selection, when my parents come to stay for the winter, and also provides a sweet that I am willing to try on my sugar-free regime. For any of you wanting to get thinner, this works: no white sugar, no white flour, no white rice, 1 hour per day of aerobic exercise, and 2 or more tbsp. of apple cider vinegar per day. You get used to life without sugar and flour, and learn to cook creatively. It's a good time to try it during fruit season: we have been enjoying cherries, melons, nectarines and peaches in abundance.

We have enjoyed visits, too; another sweetness. My sister Andrea came over yesterday with granddaughter Mary Jane. I realized I had little in the house to entertain a four-year old, until I pulled out my art supplies. Then Mary Jane very happily made many, many pictures with sparkly glue. Mitchell hung out and visited with us, and of course Andrea and I wandered through the garden for quite a while. There are so many sunflowers...and we are starting to enjoy fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Our family friend Elizabeth Asbury was here for a couple of evenings, and she and I went to see the movie "World Trade Center", which we liked. It's not too overly American rah-rah patriotic, there is very competent acting, and it brings the events of that time truly close to heart. Again. But not in a maudlin or overly sentimentalized way. It's worth watching.

Then today my daughter and I took in the new Woody Allen movie with the very attractive Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johannsen. It's called "Scoop." It has some very witty writing and lovely, plush English settings...and a weak ending. 3 stars on a 5 scale.

Have a wonderful weekend.

The many gifts of this summer now include a visit with my sister Andrea, who with her husband Steve, their youngest son Mitchell, and granddaughter Mary Jane have come to spend time with his family in Barrhaven, just outside Ottawa. Yesterday we joined them at his brother's home for a BBQ and swim in the pool. My son Jesse and niece Audrey went along and Jesse just about lived in the pool all day and evening with cousin Mitchell and little Mary Jane. Andrea and I were joking about us having the Nablo waterbug: our father is still an avid swimmer and clearly some of his grandchildren, as well as his one (so far) great grandchild, have inherited this propensity. We just like water! Andrea played "underwater dragon" with Mary Jane for a while, carrying her on her back and diving under like a dolphin. I tried that and had to keep my head above water but Mary Jane had lots of fun. Audrey was also very good with the children in the water.

Above, you will find a photo from last year of our parents with Andrea, Mary Jane, and Steve.

Movie Review:

Last night my daughtr and my niece Audrey invited our family to their new apartment for supper, and cooked a lovely feast. They have painted it up, with Bernie's help, and we have all contributed to furnishing and dishes, and they now have a truly lovely spot. Joanne, Bern's sister, was also able to join us, and after supper we visited for a while and then all went to StarCité to see "Bon Cop Bad Cop", which bills itself as Canada's first bilingual movie. There were subtitles in English for the French, but none in French for the English, however, so Audrey had to struggle to get a few things from context. However, an English person would be able to get most of the movie, which is about two cops (one from Ontario, one from Québec) solving a multiple murder case together. It was very funny, and more violent than I had thought, but the theatre was packed and there was lots and lots of laughter. A good movie made more interesting by its bilingual plot and some fine acting, anchored by Colm Feore and Patrick Huard, (the former probably Canada's foremost actor and the latter Québec's best known). Huard had also co-written and the idea was his. A very talented man. I doubt if the film will get much play beyond Québec, which is unfortunate.

And tonight I am off to Barrhaven for time with the Dorans. Andrea and some of her family are there and will barbecue and swim, and we're invited along. I can hardly wait to see them.

Have a great week.

Fireworks From Slovakia

Bernie gets very creative about our outings, and last night came home and proposed an outing to nearby Lac Leamy, where there is an international fireworks competition for the summer. Not realizing the implications, I agreed...and enjoyed myself immensely but it was a little work to bring the evening off: I have never seen such crowds. The traffic getting there rivalled a lineup you would see for a rock concert or a playoff hockey game, and every parking lot within a couple of kilometres of the lake had volunteers directing traffic...and charging 8 bucks. Bernie carried a couple of chairs and not realizing we would have a walk, I was wearing flipflops, but we joined the crowds threading our way down the kilometre to buy tickets at 10 bucks each, wandered along with the other thousands through a sea of concessions ("It's like a fair, isn't it?", said my gallant date, wearing chairs on his head), ignored the smell of poutine and the lure of cappucino in what used to be the woods...and continued walking the paved path around the lake until we could find a small opening and sit down. One silhouetted tree slightly obscured my view but proved to be quite an addition to the artistic display.

At 9:15 loudspeakers provided some announcements from two local radio personalities (one French, one English, one female, one male, very pc), giving out thanks, kudos, door prizes, and a small introduction to the Slovakians. Around 9:40 we stood for the Slovakian national anthem and then: boom! We were launched into about twenty minutes of non-stop "feux d'artifice" starbursts, set to music. It was spectacular: the summer night sky, incessant pounding of the sound of fire over water, colours (a predominance of reds and greens, occasional blues, punctuated by dramatic gold, silvers, and star-like rockets in shimmering whites which I found the most beautiful), the rain of embers into the reflecting water, glow of the lake, a circling plane, a bright August moon, not quite full. We were quite entranced, a feeling enhanced by a collective "oohh" from the thousands around the lake after some of the more unusual displays, including a ground-level simulated silver waterfall cascade burning below rising rockets, and an almost phosphorescent finale.

I have suggested that Bernie goes early next Saturday and finds a key viewing point elsewhere in the city where he can park, avoid the crowds, pay no admission, and still see, and take the kids and cousin Audrey, all of whom would enjoy this...we had invited Jesse to join us, and I regretted that he had opted out, because I think it would have been lovely for him too. Less of a 'date' but at our age, a date is also pleasant with company!

It took a very long time to walk back to the van with the thousands streaming around us: one African couple caught my attention, the mother hand-in-hand with her child, who was about six, and the father carrying a baby of about two on his shoulder, where the sleepy one rode with his head drifting onto the pillow of his dad, unable to keep his eyes open even while riding. Quite a tender sight. In the parking lot the traffic was backed up forever, so we waited for almost an hour to be able to zip out onto the highway home and come in at eleven.

Stars in our eyes, real, and made in the fiery heavens.

The National Art Gallery

Yesterday was the last super-hot day, perhaps not of the summer but at least for the last little while, as the evening cooled off and today is perfect, a sunny and pleasant morning, 18 degrees and meant to climb to 26. I spent most of the day, however, in air conditioning; my friend Fraser Glen was visiting from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and we spent three hours in the Art Gallery.

Each time I go there I notice something more: this time there were some new-to-me Kureleks on display. I sat and looked at a very evocative one, "Green Sunday", in which Kurelek's foreground is a detail of a Ukrainian family on the prairies, looking out into the background through a window to what looks like a lane lined with spring poplars. The detail on the woman's clothing is gorgeous, with minute attention to embroidery, and the man, in profile, is playing an accordion. I was also very taken with a painting by Allen Sapp, from Red Pheasant Reserve in Saskatchewan, in which he depicted a circle of people in a field, engaged in an unspecified activity. Follow the link for an amazing presentation about Sapp and the Cree.

I also sat in wonderment before a small painting by Tom Thomson, (for those of you who are not Canadian, you really should have a look at everything you can by our Group of Seven). This particular painting was a landscape of a quiet lake, in fact titled "The Silent Lake 1913"), an oil on canvas, but what I liked most was the dark water (no blues, just greys and blacks) reflecting in juxtaposition against a sky done mostly in fine shades of very soft yellows and browns, a little pink, which created the most amazing evocation of evening light. This was not a 'photograph' painting but a PAINTING, emphatically something for texture and human creativity that could not have been a "postcard photo". I sometimes hear people ask why painters still make landscapes when photography can do the same thing. It's a strange question to me (somewhat analogous to asking why we still think when we've got computers!) but...this painting was, in itself, an answer to the question. The light in it was magic.

There were also several 'feature' areas where several paintings by an artist could be found, and one of them was David Milne, whom I know is a particular favourite of my friend, Saskatoon artist Lorenzo Dupuis, whom you can google for lots of glimpses of his work and to whom I am supplying you one link. I like his work a lot and am a proud owner of one of his paintings...

so I recommend that you fill up your spirit and soul with the arts, today.

Hot August Nights

Even the hard, soft rains do not bring much respite from heat. I am grateful: for air conditioning, for small sudden unexpected breezes, for the garden in full bloom, for friends arriving, for family too. Sometimes in this heat it is challenging even to think. Nonetheless, last night I attended the final session of study on a book I have already recommended to you, One Common Faith. There are lines which I find quite electrifying, so this will be my post for today: sharing some perspectives from this important analytical document, commissioned for study by Baha'is and their friends by the Universal House of Justice.

I should note that the document goes through several stages. I will share, first, some fascinating insights as to the developmental nature of religious truths, which declare unambiguously and emphatically the significance of Bahá'í teachings, but which go on to do so in the context of a view of history and its intimate connection with the soul and with social development.

Witness:

"Because free will is an inherent endowment of the soul, each person who is drawn to explore Bahá'u'lláh's teachings will need to find his own place in the never-ending continuum of spiritual search." (p. 52)

"While the mind seeks intellectual certainty, what the soul longs for is the attainment of certitude." (ibid.)

Read that again!

"One of the distinguishing features of modernity has been the universal awakening of historical consciousness...Beneath the surface language of symbol and metaphor, religion, as the scriptures reveal it, operates not through the arbitrary dictates of magic but as a process of fulfilment unfolding in a physical world created by God for that purpose." (53)

"The declared purpose of history's series of prophetic revelations, therefore, has been not only to guide the individual seeker on the path of personal salvation, but to prepare the whole of the human family for the great eschatalogical Event lying ahead, through with the life of the world will itself be entirely transformed. The revelation of Bahá'u'lláh is neither preparatory nor prophetic. It is that Event." (54)

And here is the analysis:

"The moral vacuum that produced the horrors of the twentieth century exposed the outermost limits of the mind's unaided capacity to devise and construct an ideal society, however great the material resources harnessed to the effort. The suffering entailed has engraved the lesson indelibly on the consciousness of the earth's peoples. Religion's perspective on humanity's future, therefore, has nothing in common with systems of the past-and only relatively little relationship with those of today. Its appeal is to a reality in the gentic code, if it can be so described, of the rational soul." (55)

I find this fascinating: the link between historical development, evolution, and the evolution of the conscious soul. We have the capacity to learn from our mistakes, albeit not quickly. In the context of current and past outrages, it is heartening to be able to place conflict in its rightful perspective, as an anachronism destined to itself diminish and die-off like an unwanted virus for which a cure is found. If unity is the goal, and for Baha'is, it is, perhaps a future time will look back on the centuries glorifying warfare and will view them as if that period in human history were no more significant than the defunct common cold. We will find cures, I am certain, as science advances, for the grievous afflictions of the body. Religion, which in the past has been used as a force of evil, can become, through curing the soul as a component of our conscious knowledge and desire for unity, as important for a future, close and distant, where we all know that we are, in fact, one people.

A thinking soul. A rational soul. Consider that Bahá'u'lláh says, "Ponder this in thy heart, how it behooveth thee to be." How are we meant to be? How are we meant to live? How are we meant to think?

I would like to offer you some links to documents which I think are really worth studying:

Promise of World Peace

Century of Light

Rights and Freedoms

One Common Faith

I am constantly amazed at the depth of these documents, which offer unique perspectives, broad historical scope, excellent scholarship, spiritual sustenance, critical analysis, and beyond these....hope.

My dad told me that when he first read The Promise of World Peace, he was walking uphill from the post office in San Ignacio, Belize. It was a hot, hot day (most of them are, there) and as he climbed, he read. And he wept. I hope he doesn't mind my saying this (it's funny, I don't remember Dad crying at all when I was young, but he is often moved to tears in his old age...I hope I will be too). I like it that my father is a man who is able to be moved to weep at the vision of a document outlining the inevitability of world peace. So many people who are unfamiliar with the Baha'i faith see such hope as utopian or facile; I understand this. It is very challenging to be hopeful in a world which appears to be so grievously undermined by the human propensity for shooting ourselves in the foot (and so many other parts of our anatomy). Yet spiritual progress requires analysis, vision, and scholarship...thus I recommend these documents to your study. I am only beginning, myself, to get a glimmer of what they are talking about, but sometimes I try and imagine what it would be like to not have them available to me, for figuring things out, for understanding the progressive and developmental nature of the human condition, for holding in heart and mind the ideals of an "ever-advancing civilization", and I am glad that I have something so intelligent and reasoned, so real and passionate, at once, to turn to.

Take a look.

Happy Birthday to dear friend Dale Leftwich, who is undoubtedly having a joyous time since he and his wife Ailsa are newly parents to a daughter, Aleta Grace.

A link of interest: see blog done by a Baha'i named George Wesley.

We are now looking forward to a visit from my sister Andrea and her husband Steve, son Mitchell, and granddaughter Mary Jane, who are coming to spend some time with the Doran side of the family, who live nearby, but who will also spend some time with us. I do not envy them the drive, but am glad we will see them all. My prayers continue to be with Bob and Joan Doran, Steve's parents, daily, and I have added a new name to my prayer list, Edwina Power.

Edwina Ozon Power lives in Stittsville, not far from Ottawa. I saw photo in The Ottawa Citizen the other day so we reconnected. She and I were roommates in St. Pierre in 1074-75; she doesn't look much different, although in the photo she had no hair as she is fighting cancer. We had a good chat on the phone yesterday. I also had a note from Don Todd, a family friend who has spent his life in Africa, along with a photo which shows him unchanged, as you can see from the pictue he sent along and which I have copied here.

Today I am very grateful for air conditioning. However, when I am beginning to talk about the weather, it's time to say adieu. To all the Baha'is around the world: have a great feast.