Sojourn

Dear friends, comment leavers, silent perusers, ghost readers.

I'm planning on taking a little break from the blogosphere so I can focus on my college applications. I look forward to reconnecting when I've returned from planet GRE.

Those of you who have my email address are welcome to contact me personally during that time.

I want to leave you with this beautiful prayer that's been doing something revolutionary to my soul over the last 24 hours:

"God is sufficient unto me; He verily is the All-sufficing! In Him let the trusting trust.’ - Baha’u’llah, quoted in The Dawn-Breakers, US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1932, p. 632

Peacelove.

BNASAA: Vanguard of the Baha'i Faith

Last Sunday night I arrived back in San Jose after one of the most faith affirming weekends of my life. The last four days had been spent at the exquisitely situated Bosch Baha'i School at the annual BNASAA Conference.

For those of you who don't know, BNASAA is an acronym for the Baha'i Network on Aids, Sexuality, Addictions and Abuse. Over the weekend, I had the honour of praying with, crying with, singing with, laughing with, hugging wih, consulting with and healing with some extraordinarily courageous souls who, due to BNASAA specific issues, have felt misunderstood or marginalized both within and without the Baha’i Community. I met gay Baha'is, Baha'is who have struggled with addiction to drugs, alcohol and gambling, Baha'is who are survivors of rape, child sex abuse and domestic violence and Baha'is with HIV or AIDS - essentially, a cross-section of any contemporary Western population at this time of radical unrest and spiritual upheaval. While we came to the weekend with a variety of histories to share, hurts to mend and triumphs to celebrate, the common thread was our sincere desire to express our love for Baha'u'llah through faithfulness to His Covenant. It was truly beautiful. I believe this is what the beloved Guardian was talking about when he declared that the ideal Baha'i Community will be characterised by "unity in diversity". – Shoghi Effendi, Dawn of a New Day, p. 47.

Arguably, the areas BNASAA focusses on are some of the most difficult issues facing the Baha'i Community at this point in our evolution. In an emerging culture where the highest standards of morality have been prescribed, Baha'i Communities and Institutions are still learning how to acknowledge and support those of us who face spiritual tests in these areas, while at the same time ensuring they do not condone behaviour that transgresses Baha'i Law. In Al-Anon speak, it's called "supporting the alcoholic, not the alcoholism" and make no mistake, it is an art.

As the Baha'i Faith becomes more visible to seekers of diverse backgrounds, we are going to need to be artists one and all, adept at wielding some hefty spiritual qualities. I am not talking here about judgment, punishment, fire or brimstone. The most effective tools we possess for the building of a unified, inclusive Baha’i Community wholly committed to humanity's salvation are humility, tolerance, open-mindedness, justice and above all, unconditional love.

"...all of you ought with your hearts and minds to endeavour to win the people with kindness, so that this great Unity may be established...” – ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Abdu’l-Baha in London, p. 45

Back in 1998 on a visit to a BNASAA Conference, Counselor Stephen Birkland commented that these brave men and women whom God has chosen to perfect through intense tests are the 'vanguards' of the Baha'i Faith. As survivors of abuse, as Baha'i's in Recovery, as individuals who have learned to sublimate desires that run counter to Baha'i Teachings, BNASAA has something unique to offer the both the Baha'i Community and the world at large: expertise in overcoming hardships through Baha'u'llah's Grace.

As our worldwide Community grows, this expertise is going to be indispensable. I seriously doubt that when - as has been prophesised - large groups of people start to be attracted to Baha'u'llah's healing Revelation, they will be celebrities, soccer mums and stockbrokers. Indeed, as an Auxiliary Board Member (who participated in the weekend and shall therefore remain anonymous) reminded us; these affluent, 'upwardly mobile' members of society are in fact the least receptive demographic to the Baha’i Faith. On the contrary, I believe the future champions of Baha'u'llah's Cause will be survivors of all manner of atrocities because they - like BNASAA members - will understand first-hand that Baha'i Law is “the Law of God, through which the breezes of justice have been wafted over all who are in heaven and on earth." - Baha’u’llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 81. Integrating these people into our Community is not going to be glamorous or easy. I'm talking about refugees, war-orphans, torture and rape-victims. The global Baha'i Community will need to be prepared to deal with post-traumatic stress en masse.

However, therein will lie our greatest victories. Not only will we be galvanised and unified by drawing together to serve our brothers and sisters, I believe we will benefit enormously from the amazing insights these individuals will have when it comes to teaching the Faith. I can testify to this from very personal experience. I am so grateful that the blessed sister who introduced me to Baha'u'llah - and incidentally, I have her permission to tell you this - was an ex-crack addict and former prostitute who I met in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. Paradoxically, it was her unconventional past that initially convinced me to investigate Baha'u'llah's claims, chiefly because it was so at odds with the ordinances He had laid down. My teacher had tried the very opposite of these ordinances and found it to be a spiritual, emotional, material and social dead-end - just as I had. Yet here she was, with an unwavering conviction that the guidance contained within the Baha'i Faith held real answers. It was irresistably compelling. I'm sorry to say I would not have been receptive had she been a picket-fence-living, apron-wearing, cookie-baking Nancy...no offence to any readers named Nancy.

In an AA Meeting, it’s often the newcomer talking to themselves in the back row smelling vaguely of urine who is the most cherished person in the room. Why? Because us sober ones know that if they manage to recover, it will provide further proof of God’s infinite love and the solution offered by the 12 Step program. We also know that if he or she gets well, their story may help countless others who are in need of the same solution. Hmmm. Countless others…in need of a solution…Now why does that sound familiar?

“The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men...after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a distressed and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth.” – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 215

So when we encounter such a soul as described above, AA members stick out our hands, offer our phone numbers and do all we can to make them feel uber-welcome. We call it 'loving them back to life'. I look forward to the day when the Baha'i Community not only nurtures but celebrates its most disenfranchised members as 'vanguards of the Faith' in a culture of love and encouragement. In this way, perhaps we can all experience the unique camaraderie born of overcoming our common challenges by leaning on Baha’u’llah and then helping others to do the same. Open, honest, authentic dialogue about who we are and what we're struggling with is where true community will begin. BNASAA has started that conversation. You, dear reader, are most warmly invited to join us.

Big Old Jet Airliner

So. It's nearly 1am and here I sit, all packed up and ready to leave the country for three months tomorrow (this!) morning. Praise God for the frequent flyer points that are taking me direct from Melbourne to LA. Praise God for the strong Australian dollar that has bought me a tidy wad of American Travellers cheques for my battered old wallet. Praise God for the pure serendipity of scheduling my flight the same day as a dear Baha'i sister who hails from the City of Angels and whom I've not seen for months, so that we can hang out at the airport together. Praise God for the new friend in recovery who has never laid eyes on me yet is picking me up from LA International Airport, taking me home to her place and doing everything (I mean everything - she is emailing me the weather so I can pack the right clothes and asking me what kinds of food I like so she can stock the fridge, can you believe it?) she can to make a total stranger feel loved and welcome. Praise God for the sunrise that I can already see illuminating the sky in my mind's eye as a girlfriend and I drive from LA to San Diego at daybreak this Friday morning, Thelma and Louise style. Praise God for all the wild adventures that I can't begin to imagine.

I love travel. I love the stretched consciousness that comes with encountering a different culture. I love making friends with random people at bus stops and in cafes. But most of all, I love being thrust into the arms of my Higher Power. Once that plane takes off, I'm forced to confront the reality that I have absolutely no power over whether my luggage ends up in Paris or Paraguay, or whether the planes lands safely or slams into the side of a mountain and strangely I find that so comforting. All I can do is trust. There's not much choice but to surrender my will and my life to the All-Loving, the All-Merciful. And for a control freak like me, that is one huge relief.

As I embark on this journey, I'm aware that this trip is the culmination of many heartfelt prayers. Ever since becoming a Baha'i, I've been longing to find a way to integrate my Baha'i identity with the fact that active service within a community of recovering addicts ensures I remain alive. And so I'm off to the nation where the 12 Step movement begun back in 1939; the country Abdu'l Baha promised would set the benchmark of justice and spiritual wealth for the whole planet to follow, the place

with the pulse whose rythym fits my own so snugly, so comfortably. In essence, I go to see what I can learn about how to marry the two most precious things in my life: my recovery and my religion.

I believe God is about to reveal a little more about what She has planned for my life's work; how I can contribute to the unfolding of the future Baha'u'llah envisioned. For me, a integral part of that is sharing the priceless gift I've been given - the option of turning to the Holy Spirit for courage and connection rather the cheap, life-destroying bottled substitute in all its various guises:

"O Divine Providence! Bestow Thou in all things purity and cleanliness upon the people of Baha. Grant that they be freed from all defilement, and released from all addictions. Save them from committing any repugnant act, unbind them from the chains of every evil habit, that they may live pure and free, wholesome and cleanly, worthy to serve at Thy Sacred Threshold and fit to be related to their Lord. Deliver them from intoxicating drinks and tobacco, save them, rescue them, from this opium that bringeth on madness, suffer them to enjoy the sweet savours of holiness, that they may drink deep of the mystic cup of heavenly love and 150 know the rapture of being drawn ever closer unto the Realm of the All-Glorious. For it is even as Thou hast said: 'All that thou hast in thy cellar will not appease the thirst of my love -- bring me, O cup-bearer, of the wine of the spirit a cup full as the sea!'"-Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 149