It has been a busy time, and continues to be. Friday night's evening of poetry and music, at the Baha'i Centre in Ottawa, went very well, and was very spirit-filling. There are many activities, particularly when one is involved with a religious community, as I am. Yet these are not activities for activity's sake; more opportunities to be open to what can happen when you are blessed with people in your life who have depth, caring, and spirit. Yesterday, I had a wonderful conversation with such a person, who is not well-known to me but who was one of the guests in attendance at a retirement party for our friend Marilee. Marilee, also a Baha'i and also a teacher with the Western Quebec School Board, has recently retired and is going to teach in China. One of her colleagues, a man named Ron, gave one of the most exceptionally excellent speeches on her behalf that I have ever heard at such an event. Wise, funny, and eloquent. I applauded enthusiastically!

Anyway, I had a chance, along with my dear friends Bob and David (the Elder) to talk at length with Marie Ange, who, as her name implies, is an angel! We first met when I was still working at Hadley Junior High, when she was introduced to the staff in her capacity of Spiritual Adviser to the schools in the district. The province of Quebec, where we work, recognizes that students need more than an academic education, and in addition to Moral Education, which is a class for all students to explore self-growth with a guiding teacher, there is, in each district, a cadre of people who go into schools to enhance learning about spiritual growth. Not religion: even the word, 'God', cannot be mentioned because of the concern about sectarian rivalry and promoting a particular denomination. Spirit, however, is recognized, and it is Marie Ange's job to go to 18 schools in our region (how she does it all I can't imagine!) to supplement the enrichment experience for both teachers and students. It's a lovely, critical job and she does it with grace, as I remember from my days at Hadley.

So it was a real treat to see her, and it also made me think that I should share with you the quotation which has been on my refrigerator door for some time, ever since my good friend Kurt Hein, in Oregon, sent it for my contemplation. I like it a lot, but it needs a word of explanation. As you may know, Baha'u'llah is regarded as the most recent Manifestation or teacher from God, a prophet following in the history and traditions of those from time immemorial who are sent by the Creator to remind us of our spiritual selves. He is given many titles (as were His predecessors, such as Buddha, Zoroaster, Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed...) and one of these is "the Blessed Beauty". I note this so that you will understand this quotation from 'Ali'Akbar Furutan, who compiled Stories of Baha'u'llah. Here, then, are words for this Sunday in February...a day when here in western Quebec, the sun sparkles on snow and the blue spruce outside my office window is a picture postcard.

"The Blessed Beauty often remarked:
'There are four qualities which I love
to see manifested in people:
first, enthusiasm and courage;
second, a face wreathed in smiles
and a radiant countenance;
third, that they see all things
with their own eyes and
not through the eyes of others;
fourth, the ability to carry a task,
once begun, through to its end.'"

Wishing you 'faces wreathed in smiles' and success in your endeavours.