Tag Archives: Red Cross

The Road to Diamond, Day 188: Soaked

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 4, 2025- The rain came down three times today. This is not usual for June, one of the driest months in our area. We have now had three days of healthy showers, with the prospect of three weeks of dry weather to follow, before the start of the monsoon season. It’s fine by me, as those of us charged with helping the communities of northern Arizona through wildfire season can use whatever help nature wants to offer.

The roads were a bit on the saturated side, though flowing shallowly enough that those of us with errands to run could manage. I got a print job done, despite my own HP being dry of ink. Thanks, Office Max, for the flash drives and copier. It was in-between showers, when I went across town to co-host Baha’i Feast, and not too bad when I had to run to a provider, to give necessary information before tomorrow’s co-pay is due.

By the time I was up for a walk downtown, this evening, the sun was back out. It will likely stay that way until after July 4. That gives us the imperative to organize teams that can gather to set up shelters, in the event of wildfires, both before and during monsoon season. The rains also bring the challenge of flooding. Thankfully, the soil was too dry to repel the moisture of the past three days.

Our second such meeting, relative to sheltering plans, will be tomorrow-in the Verde Valley, which trends 15 degrees warmer than here in Prescott. There will be several other gatherings, over the next week or so, as well as online communication and logistical stockpiling. I hope that this model will persist, for many years to come.

The Road to Diamond, Day 186: Free and Discerning

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

June 2, 2025- For much of my life, I have resisted ad hoc authority and sought to chart my own course. In later years, it’s been easier to hold my tongue, look at what the officious ones might be trying to accomplish, and only resist them when my inner voice says that their actions will not achieve any wider good.

I viewed a four-part story about a king of the Frisian people, who live in the northern Netherlands. He was Redbad, who lived in the seventh and early eighth centuries AD/CE. In the series, he was a contemporary of the usurper Charles Martel, ruler of the Franks, who himself had gained power by apparently murdering his father, Pepin and brother, Drogo. Redbad and Charles locked horns several times, with the latter being defeated on the banks of the Rhine, at Koln. Charles outlived Redbad, and went on to rule a large area of western Europe, from the Pyrenees to the Baltic Sea. He is also known for defeating the Moorish army at Tours, in 732. Redbad’s legacy, though, was to affirm the independent spirit of his people and to teach the arrogant Charles a few things about observing and honouring the strengths of one’s rivals. It was another interesting story from modern Europe’s formative centuries.

I had a full day of service, going to a Red Cross Blood Drive, right after Monday’s coffee klatsch. I helped train a new Donor Ambassador, while abiding the presence of an officious trainer, for whom the main focus was a mobile phone application. It has its place, but wrestling with passwords during a civic service activity is not something on which I needed to focus. Ad hoc officials can often be helpful, and I will take the time to learn the application; just not today.

More cogent and useful was a self-appointed health monitor, whose focus was keeping trays in the hands of servers, as they were passed along the food line. That practice, at least, is mandated by Arizona law. It’s a fairly reliable way of keeping food sanitary and diners safe from being contaminated.

Each activity, it seems, has its challenges and it s blessings. Keeping a free spirit has to be balanced with an open, discerning mind.

The Road to Diamond, Day 182: Heaviness

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 29, 2025- It was hard, somehow, to maintain focus during a meeting I attended this morning and through the noon hour. It wasn’t the fault of the presenter, or of the subject matter. The air was cool, so it was not that, either. There was just a heaviness today, that stayed with me, requiring a more concerted effort to get what I needed from the Red Cross training session-for which I was an assistant commentator, to boot. It lingered, even as I purchased a dinner item from a nearby pizzeria, for evening consumption, and as I later exercised on a recumbent bike at Planet Fitness. It wasn’t a physical issue-my blood pressure read normal and I was breathing easily. There had to be some deeper cause.

In this late hour, I am reminded that today would have been the 61st birthday of my late youngest brother, Brian, who died in 1994, just shy of his 30th. He would have been proud of my service to the community, albeit at a very rudimentary level, as his disabilities made communication difficult. Nonetheless, there was a very basic love about the child, and later, the man. It was in our interactions with him that each of his four siblings developed a compassion for those less fortunate. That has informed our social and community behaviours, as much as any experiences we each have had over six or seven decades.

Those who have left us will communicate in various ways. I think now that the spirit of my baby brother was reminding me that sometimes, life takes a gargantuan effort, just to get through an ordinary day. The heaviness lifted, as I sat and read some pages of a book on the ancient Mediterranean world. Brian liked to pretend to read aloud. He would surely have approved.

The Road to Diamond, Day 174: Heaviness

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 21, 2025- One by one, the four people with whom I met on a Zoom call, this afternoon, described the heaviness of their situations. Much had to do with the circumstances of their domiciles. Some concerned the presence of unruly or insensitive people in their lives.

I have had my share of heaviness, in the past. The 2000s and the first year or so, of the 2010s, were full of lead balloons. It prepared me to be here for other people’s heaviness, just as those who suffered in the Twentieth Century were able to help me get through the intensity and loss of my own time of travail.

The message I was able to offer, after hearing my friends describe their traumas, was one of hope. Much has gone on in this life, and still more is coming to pass, as this seminal year progresses. After I described the past two months since I last met with these friends, and mused about what the rest of 2025 might bring, the friends’ spirits were lifted, and they began to make plans of their own.

Therein lies the main value in sharing positive experiences. Those listening are given to inspiration, so long as there is no hook to their misery. The people on this call are not inclined to enjoy suffering. Neither are the Red Cross colleagues with whom I met earlier in the day, nor my fellow members of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Prescott, who I joined for an online meeting tonight. Certainly, my beloved friend whose birthday was today is no wet blanket, either.

As it happened, today also saw a new set of window blinds installed, to take the place of those that gave me fits last night and Sportage got a wash, a thorough vacuuming and full maintenance, after seeing me safely to the East Coast and back.

Even momentary darkness is followed by light.

The Road to Diamond, Day 173: Home Lands

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

May 20, 2025- Coming down the mountain from Strawberry Junction to Camp Verde, my main concern was putting my energy into the safety of the large load of logs being hauled in front of me, and staying in the slow line, regardless of my wanting to get back to Prescott. The truck was fine, even when an antsy driver behind us pulled his pick-up and drove around the line, crossing double yellow lines, when he spotted a minute or two. There is one in every crowd.

I arrived back at Home Base I around 3 p.m., picked up my mail and sorted out the junk from magazines and legitimate bills that still come through snail mail. The VA stuff is always among the latter. I also had to deal with a broken blind mount, for which duct-taping the blinds to the side window will allow privacy for a day or so, until I can get a new set of mounts. (I rarely have opened said blinds, in eleven years, so it must have been one of the workmen who are installing my apartment’s AC unit, who messed with the blinds.)

Home Base I is only one of my Home Lands, as readers have no doubt figured out, over the years. It is where those who believe in me the most happen to be, and I would say that this confidence in my skill sets comes from my having engaged in community activities here. My little family and others would feel the same, if I were to spend more time with them. For now, though, I am grateful for what time I do have in Home Bases II (Grapevine), III (North Shore), IV (Southeast Pennsylvania) and V( Makati). I know some of you will say “What about our area?” I appreciate all the love I get from friends, wherever I go.

What makes a place home, though, is not the mutual love and support that I get, as well as give. It is a deeper feeling, that is often hard to put into words. There is likely to be a time, in the not-too-distant future, when the Home Bases will get shifted around a bit. One scenario has me living closer to my son and daughter-in-law. Another has me in Metro Manila, or a place fairly close to it. Those situations will work themselves out, with Divine Energy in play, much as so many issues and problems have gotten resolved, especially since 2014.

For now, though, I need to give my trusty steed a wash, interior cleaning and routine maintenance, before week’s end. Tomorrow is my dearest’s birthday. I am glad to have been able to get gift and proper greetings sent. The Baha’i Spiritual Assembly and Red Cross need some time tomorrow, as well. So, too, does Bellemont, on Saturday, for a fire wise clean-up. There will be time to relax and ruminate on Sunday and Monday, being Memorial Day weekend.

The Road to Diamond, Day 149: A Slight Mismatch

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Community, distraction issues, impediments, Personal goals, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

April 26, 2025- Four of us gave a concerted effort, in trying to put a tent inside a bag, at the end of the school district fundraiser. Realizing that the bag was too small, we found the equipment manager, who remembered how easy it was to put a smaller tent into another bag, earlier in the day. Mismatch!! Two of us took the smaller tent out and put the larger tent in the big bag. Then came small tent reunited with small bag.

Many of us go through mismatches in life-usually, as with the tents, a combination of feeling hurried, thinking there is no alternative and thinking “I know I can make this work!” So, jobs don’t get done quite as well as they might; relationships founder and end up either broken or stale; programs are left to grow sclerotic and useless. A handy equipment manager can’t always come to the rescue.

So, it becomes a matter of proactivity. Plan, one must; plan, we must. As I consider what lies ahead, calling on those who are on my team-for Baha’i community activities, for Red Cross events and responses to emergencies; for get-togethers during my time back East, seeking rightness of fit is a big item. It has been a fairly good run, these past several years, with few mismatches. Much of that was from what I learned in marriage-“Consultation is finding out”, was Penny’s mantra. It still serves me well.

The Road to Diamond, Day 148: Silken Affirmations

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

April 25, 2025- The wind was a bit brisk this morning, as a group of us prepared a fund-raising pavilion, on behalf of Prescott’s school district. Zip ties and clips became the saving graces, keeping the necessary signage in place. A few road barriers blew down and were promptly put back up. Keeping vehicles out of the area is important, both for the many pavilions and for the safety of those whose annual event is the impetus for this fund-raiser. Hundreds of mountain bike riders have converged on Prescott, for the annual Whiskey Off-Road bicycle marathon.

I had several small tasks to do, before going to the pavilion site, to help set up the tables and secure the tents. I learned, a few years back, to just go and do errands, rather than overthink and end up making a mess of things. Self-confidence came hard in my life, but it’s here now, and is not going away. The reward to self was another delicious French omelet at Bear and Dragon.

I got confirmations on two service posts, this week: Again serving as Corresponding Secretary for the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Prescott. After a meeting this morning, I was also asked to serve as Sheltering Coordinator for the Northern Arizona Chapter of the Red Cross. Much of my hands on work, for both positions, will be done during the summer months. Many other aspects of the duties may be done remotely. The Red Cross Disaster Response Coordinator for the Chapter further said that there is no reason to cancel any travels, next month or later in the year. I will continue to be faithful in making an effort to connect with people here, via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or by phone, when the need arises.

There have been little hiccups, the past few days, but taking things slowly and carefully correcting matters have kept the missteps from having much effect. Life this week has been full of silken affirmations.

The Road to Diamond, Day 110: Clarity

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Family, Inspiration, Personal goals, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

March 18, 2025- My time with the AARP accounting team brought the news that this is the Year of the Pittance. At least I owe nothing and am not depending on a hefty refund. The year really takes flight, once the tax returns are filed. There is a clarity, as to one’s financial situation, which in turn helps define the path ahead-in tandem with family milestones, friends’ plans to visit and the overall prognosis for community needs.

I met with our local Red Cross Director, yesterday, and agreed to hold down the fort during the next six months, at least, in terms of arranging coverage for any shelters we may need,during Spring and Summer. Even when I am on the road, in the first three weeks of May, I can monitor and contact our team members, who are exceptional in times of crisis.

A call came from Filipino friends, who will visit Arizona, from April 7-14. I will meet them in Las Vegas on the 7th, and will gladly show them our state’s highlights, visit other friends, and just be a good host. Anything that can cement a bridge across the Pacific is worth whatever is needed.

Meanwhile, here at Home Base, the rest of March is a quieter time, though Naw-Ruz, the Persian and Baha’i New Year, is two days away-and will be celebrated with feasting, music and dancing. Spring will arrive, the next day, and somewhere in the area there is a trail that will feel my footsteps in honour of Vernal Equinox.

So much is clear tonight, and despite the horrors that unfolded in the nation’s midsection, over the past few days, I sense a sowing of seeds is coming, in more ways than one. We the People will get past all the nonsense and obfuscation, because we can.

The Road to Diamond, Day 107: Shelter

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

March 15, 2025- It started off in less than stellar fashion. As I went to put my backpack in the rear of a co-worker’s Jeep, the coffee cup I had set on the median caddy toppled over. Fortunately, the liquid was easily drained off the rear splash pad. Then, his door netting got caught on a grommet of my boot, and it took a bit of teamwork to get the net loose,without damaging it.

The shelter simulation started off slowly, like most of what I do. A few people showed up late and it took a fair amount of digging through the back of the Red Cross trailer, to find two large and fairly essential items. We did well, though, just by staying the course, and as our chief supervisor said, not acting like headless chickens. We did well on all but one scenario, and that one was more a matter of fatigue-towards the end of the exercise, and is not something either of us involved would repeat, in real time.

I relaxed alone at Home Base, after the day was finished. After a nap, I reflected on the way in which Home Base is itself a shelter. I watched the rest of “Long Bright River”, noting the ways in which people provide shelter for one another: Siblings, colleagues, kindred souls living on the street, parents and children. I saw the ways in which people can make good choices and strengthen community. I saw the ways in which people can make bad choices and drive wedges between themselves and those they otherwise love.

I have chosen the concept of shelter as my love language of sorts, and will be involved in it, one way or another, for the rest of my lucid life. The simulation only reflected how strongly I feel about this being a birthright of every human being, of every sentient being. Let it ever be thus.

Here’s a version of “Gimme Shelter” that you may not have heard, from 1970.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gimme+shelter+merry+clayton&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=cd29d8d78246c2c7&channel=entpr&udm=7&biw=1280&bih=639&ei=7GDWZ9nMOvbckPIP-trpkA0&oq=gimme+shelter-Merry&gs_lp=EhZnd3Mtd2l6LW1vZGVsZXNzLXZpZGVvIhNnaW1tZSBzaGVsdGVyLU1lcnJ5KgIIADIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeSJVGUPgNWP0zcAF4AJABAJgBa6AB0wSqAQM2LjG4AQHIAQD4AQGYAgegAsMEwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICCBAAGIAEGKIEmAMAiAYBkAYIkgcDNi4xoAeLKg&sclient=gws-wiz-modeless-video#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:46afeb7c,vid:AHvXhWJ0oHU,st:0

The Road to Diamond, Day 104: Efficiency

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

March 12, 2025, San Diego- The bow-tied server had my friend and I seated, took drink orders and was on the spot to take our meal orders, as soon as we put down the menus. The meal was delivered, fresh and hot, within fifteen minutes of our orders. On the flip side, he took our plates once they were empty and had check to table, and processed, within five minutes of taking my friend’s plate. Of course, once his work for us was done, we were free to sit in sobremesa for as long as we pleased. (This is the tradition of relaxing at table, after a meal has concluded.)

The lunch at Corky’s, in Ladera Ranch, northeast of San Clemente, was a prime example of intelligently executed efficiency-not plowing ahead, almost mindlessly, but carrying out one’s task with due consideration of everyone who is affected. Alberto, our server, deserves recognition for this. He probably would say it is the normal course of his work, but there we are.

I don’t always manage to get tasks done with the intelligently executed efficiency I would like. Sometimes, there are too many moving parts for the time frame that is established or I have too many items on my agenda. If others are involved, and their decision-making process is too fluid or changeable, I have to double back and find at least one or two work-arounds, just in case the process starts to look like Whack-a-Mole. If I have not given myself enough time, or rest, to be at my peak, it looks like I have my own game of Whack-a-Mole. Things are getting better, though, with allowing more time and focus.

I learn a lot from people like Alberto, and so paying attention to how others go about their jobs has reaped me a fair number of dividends. Things like overseeing a Red Cross shelter simulation, this coming Saturday or setting up a Baha’i election, to be held in mid-April, with notices sent out within the next week or so, are matters that require intelligent efficiency. For that matter, simpler and more quotidian tasks that affect other people deserve the same.

It’s fascinating what one can learn-when own leisure is the basis of someone else’s effort.