Six Weeks Later

Reflections on the life of the soul

Kuranda, a mountaintop rainforest in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

It’s been six weeks since my last post. A lot has happened in the inner and outer worlds - different acts of service, caring for my beloved in the sunset years of his life, engaging in meaningful coaching conversations with a youth teacher of children, participating in four sacred study gatherings, and completing a 19-day journey of clarity and confirmation.

In the midst of it all, Muzaffar and I spent a week in the lush rainforest of Cairns at the gift of his son. Meeting new spiritual family and friends in Kuranda and country was a very special meeting for me. Will forever be cherished.

I came away with a richness of spiritual experience that I’m still unpacking. It included many things: connecting in heart and mind with a host of new spiritual family and friends; an encounter with Aboriginal life and the profound responsibilities it calls forth; the opportunity to offer my wellbeing and mutual learning session on The Root Causes of Success for a third time - this time with 20 companions in learning; experiencing a rainforest and different animals for the first time; and, a deeper understanding of why the countryside is the place of the soul, and the city the place of the body…surrounded by the beauty and life of nature, in a calmer lifestyle, relationships in the countryside are qualitatively different.

According to ‘Abdu’l-Baha’, Baha’u’llah said during one of his long periods of imprisonment: “I have not gazed on verdure for nine years. The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of bodies.” – quoted by Adib Taherzadeh in The Revelation of Baha’u’llah, Volume 3, p. 416.

Now, back in the city of Melbourne, I find myself in deep contemplation about where and how to direct my most purposeful energies in service, so as not to lose life’s most precious resource: its spiritual vitality/essence/true life.

I am not quite ready to write a full article. Now I want simply to send music.

And if you’re longing for study, depth, and a warm collective inquiry, I encourage you to explore the Association for Bahá’í Studies Reading Groups. These free spaces have been places of rich nourishment for me.

More writings to come. But for now, wishing everyone a constant increase of peace, clarity, and confirmation on your unique journeys. We all are growing, learning, and journeying. Though our paths are different, the lessons are the same. We all are here to learn together and from and in support of one another, so we can become and create more together - the kind of world we want to live in and leave for our next generations.

May we all receive in ever-greater receptivity the personalized messages we each need for increased measures of understanding and inspired movements forward.

Curtain Fig National Park, Queensland.

Barron Gorge National Park, Queensland.

Warmest thanks to Vafa and Fereshteh, Saeed, and Soroor and greetings to all of the new friends in the Kuranda area.

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In Aboriginal English the term country means more than land or nature - it means everything that sustains life, including sacred sites and history and more.

Thought to share, also, a Canadian Indigenous artist who I have been learning about: