Today I have found myself wondering, again, whether or not I would have recognized the Baha'i faith if I had not been born into a Baha'i family. It is one of those semi-useless speculations: I was born into a Baha'i family, so I never didn't know about it. But my husband, both my parents, all my brothers-in-law, and most of my friends encountered the Baha'i teachings from eclectic backgrounds and in their young adulthood; my husband was a lapsed Catholic, and met Baha'is when he was 24; my father was about 18, and destined for the United Church ministry, when he encountered Baha'u'llah and began to study; my mother was a teenager whose sister had become a Baha'i, in the '50s in the States. They were from a strong Baptist family.

I have known Baha'is who started out as Jews or Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus or atheists...and somehow found their way to the Baha'i teachings and accepted them. I find it fascinating: what creates that kind of openness to something which can seem very strange? What creates the willingness to commit to an entire lifetime spiritual goal-setting, commitment, and self-discipline?

So much of faith is mysterious, and I cannot know if I would have appreciated the Baha'i teachings, just meeting them along the way in life. But I hope I would have.