More on Pilgrimage: So many impressions remain, and will no doubt continue. Last night I was dreaming I was back there, and I half-woke to tell Bernie, "I was dreaming I was in the Holy Land." He murmured, "So was I."

Here, I am choosing to share pictures which anyone may see: a minaret in Akka, the posted doorplate outside the house of 'Abdu'l-Baha in almost-downtown Haifa, near Ben Gurion Avenue and the famous rise of the sculptured terraces to the Mountain of Carmel. In Akka, as we were listening to our guide one day, I heard, in the distance, through a window, the call to prayer, and our son was amazed to learn that Muslims are called to prayer five times daily...where Baha'is have Obligatory Prayer, our time for prayer is private. I liked being in a place where the call to prayer resounded; it was somehow reassuring to know that we were not alone as a band of pilgrims come on a journey of faith, and that many others from every religious tradition share this deep connection with prayer and land and the spiritual heart of the planet.

At the house of 'Abdu'l-Baha, we were blessed to spend some time in the room where He had passed to the next world, and also where his beloved grandson, Shoghi Effendi, had done so. I found myself lost in prayer, there, completely oblivious to the world, for a short period of time, alone in a room where spirit danced, I fancied, all about me as though my heart, for a short time, had become a bird. An overwhelming impression, everywhere, is of light and space, due to the architecture of soaring ceilings and arcs, not small rectangular boxes like the houses where we live. These homes reminded me of the Spanish architecture I like, of the Latin American countries and of the United States' Southwest, and I recalled a friend in San Diego, who had lived in Israel, telling me that I would be reminded of the area in its flora and fauna. I was, and another pilgrim, raised in India but now living in San Diego, said that the cacti, aloes and great branches almost like air-borne coral, reminded her of where she had grown up.

The very earth brings forth praise, and the seeds become mighty trees, and the olives will yield the fruit of peace, Insh'allah.