Monthly Archives: October 2023

More Details, Under the October Sky

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

October 2, 2023- Since the early 2000s, one of my favourite inspirational stories has been “October Sky”, a film adapted from the memoir, “Rocket Boys”. The account of West Virginia coal town youths, inspired by Sputnik I to build rockets of their own, with the support of their high school teachers and principal-and gradually earning the respect of their families, shows that each and every community can produce leaders of thought and invention.

I am working, this week, with a pair of boys who are identified as having special needs. One functions at a basic level; the other, is seen by his peers as a leader and is vibrant and inventive, far beyond his apparent weakness. He will, with strong support, like what he has from his present teacher, rise to enormous heights.

The mind is a superbly equipped vehicle for transcending even the most harrowing disabilities. Penny showed that, in 2006-9, by earning her third Master’s Degree, after being discounted by a far inferior individual-her last supervising principal. Her example has sustained my belief in the human spirit, and will be in my heart, as I meet in two weeks, with a young man I have sponsored for several years, through an international child advocacy agency. He is dedicated to achieving high honours academically and going on to be a credit to his family and community.

I have encountered many such people, across the United States, Canada and western Europe, since 2012. Encouraging them, even in brief encounters and in small ways, has been hugely rewarding. As the scope of my journeys expands, between now and January, 2029, and ongoing contact via Zoom and other virtual means continues, I hope to be able to impart stories of many other rising stars.

Fourth Quarter- Frost, Frolics and Fastidiousness

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Entertainment, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

October 1, 2023- The air is supposed to be chill, tonight and tomorrow, followed, later in the week, by a few days of AUG-tober. Then the silly weather will subside, and we may expect that Home Base-Prescott, and hereabouts, will have a more conventional tenth month.

I will be at work, all week, helping two special needs children at a nearby elementary school. There will be other events awaiting in the evenings: Ecstatic dance (online), which I can join for an hour or so; a Healing Devotional; a Red Cross meeting; the tail-end of a Study Circle that I have been facilitating; and another early evening devotional. Saturday will see a Harvest Festival, as well as regular service activities.

Then comes the fourth journey of 2023- The Philippines, by way of California and Taiwan. More details will be shared, as the sojourn unfolds. Long story short, it will dominate October, and take me away from service activities here. This bothers some people, but my life has been about following messages from my spirit guides. Sometimes, that has meant staying in one place and being fastidious in meeting the needs of a few. Since 2011, though, it has meant being willing to go to certain places, connect with specific people and perform designated functions, from running Red Cross shelters here and there, to keeping children safe on Halloween, serving dinner to homeless people and sponsoring a child or two, in disadvantaged communities.

One such youth will be a focus of my time in the Philippines. Faith-based activities will take up much of the rest of my time there. My biggest hope is that a bond between Prescott and those blessed islands may be forged.

November and December will bring more work around here, holidays spent with family(Thanksgiving) and friends (Christmas and New Year’s) and another trip around the Sun completed. The Fourth Quarter is never dull-stay tuned.

Wildness and Woolery

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, Entertainment, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

September 30, 2023- The duo paid no mind to the wind that, off and on, gusted through the patio and blew a paper, a napkin or a ball cap away from its owner. The Bourbon Knights, at least the two remaining members, were too busy cranking out solid, vintage rock, to pay attention to such a mundane phenom as wind.

Their preference was playing the classic tunes of The Who, and when they got into the late riffs on “Baba O’Riley”, I half expected to see one of them break into an imitation of Pete Townshend’s Kazotsky kick. Alas, too much of their signature drink had found its way down their gullets, and they were content with their musical offerings, which remained solid. They also ranged from Stevie Nicks to Tom Petty.

This was the wild part of the evening at Rafter Eleven, where I went to close out the bittersweet month of September. Today would have been Penny’s 69th birthday, and true to form, not only one, but two Baha’i events got my attention, back to back. The Worldwide Celebration of Unity, of which I have written before, has taken its place in my Saturday morning routine. Only when I am not in a place where WiFi is accessible, do I beg off the task of co-hosting. The other event, which followed straightaway, was the annual Unit Convention, where Baha’is living in a designated area meet to elect a delegate to the National Convention, set for the following Spring, and consult about issues of import to the region and to the national community. I feel fortunate that the first event was able to be held at the Convention site, courtesy of the electoral tellers, who let me use their meeting room. Penny’s spirit, and my other ethereal guides, see to it that what needs to be done, finds a way.

A woolery is a place where the heavy cloth may be spun, carded and woven into the heavy cloth that is so comforting in cold weather. Our spiritual woolery is the Source of the guidance that comes from following those Spiritual Teachings that afford us protection, in the cold of challenges, tests and setbacks that are so commonly experienced in this life. So it was, both physically and emotionally chilly, at different times today, giving me reason to wear a woolen jacket, given me as a thank-you, by a once homeless man, who I helped for a time, nine years ago-and to seek solace in the Teachings of Baha’u’llah, when feeling the annoyance of people I normally help on Saturdays, who were left on their own today.

The day, and the month, ended well though. Even the country got a breather, from the political clashes that have played out, these past several weeks.

Here, for the curious, are The Who, and “Baba O’Riley”, though sans Kazotsky.