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Last week, I offered up on a new saga beginning. I wrote to the ideas of “silos to synergy” and “everything requires everything”.
This week, I find myself this morning on Day 4 of The Baha’i Fast. It is at this juncture that I often find what I call “the early wall”. The Fast is not about starvation. Indeed there are exceptions to fasting due to age, travel, heavy work, illness, pregnancy and so on. But, the Fast is more about the spirit. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said fasting “is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man’s thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow”.
The Early Wall
That all being said, at this “early wall’, I find myself challenged. So far, The Fast has seen and been less so; challenging, that is. But today, the body is reminded of the challenge.
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I arose before Dawn to have my protein rich first meal and water that will last me through daylight, to break the fast at Sunset. (It is not lost on me that, to those unfamiliar with fasting, we need to remember that Ramadan and Lent were intended as fasts and the word breakfast means to break the fast of overnight, but I digress.) I did arise this morning, with my body feeling “let’s not this day”. And I found my spirit reminding me of that why that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of… awakening, tender heart, spirituality, commemoration, and advancement.
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So, I will climb the wall, nay hurdle it. I will remember back to the new saga and “everything requires everything”. I will remind myself that my life is mine and that I am continually moving forward. Today, I will finish work on updates on the website and the work, moving from those silos to synergy. Today, I will focus my energies on building a new saga.
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Yesterday, I got great news around health. Blood tests came back and the results were good and great. My “pre-diabetic” status is reversed. I am no longer such. My markers are all great. And, I continue on my health road to being in the best shape of my life by the Summer. Indeed, this week, I address some other health matters.
Also yesterday, I got new phones and a car (to be delivered Friday) yesterday. Through it all, I am building the new saga. There are challenges going on inside my head and heart, but I am working through them. Indeed, the only way through them is through them.
My Point
Consider these words of Bahá’u’lláh…
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There was once a lover who had sighed for long years in separation from his beloved, and wasted in the fire of remoteness. From the rule of love, his heart was empty of patience, and his body weary of his spirit; he reckoned life without her as a mockery, and time consumed him away. How many a day he found no rest in longing for her; how many a night the pain of her kept him from sleep; his body was worn to a sigh, his heart’s wound had turned him to a cry of sorrow. He had given a thousand lives for one taste of the cup of her presence, but it availed him not. The doctors knew no cure for him, and companions avoided his company; yea, physicians have no medicine for one sick of love, unless the favor of the beloved one deliver him. At last, the tree of his longing yielded the fruit of despair, and the fire of his hope fell to ashes. Then one night he could live no more, and he went out of his house and made for the marketplace. On a sudden, a watchman followed 14 after him. He broke into a run, with the watchman following; then other watchmen came together, and barred every passage to the weary one. And the wretched one cried from his heart, and ran here and there, and moaned to himself: “Surely this watchman is Izrá’íl, my angel of death, following so fast upon me; or he is a tyrant of men, seeking to harm me.” His feet carried him on, the one bleeding with the arrow of love, and his heart lamented. Then he came to a garden wall, and with untold pain he scaled it, for it proved very high; and forgetting his life, he threw himself down to the garden. And there he beheld his beloved with a lamp in her hand, searching for a ring she had lost. When the heart-surrendered lover looked on his ravishing love, he drew a great breath and raised up his hands in prayer, crying: “O God! Give Thou glory to the watchman, and riches and long life. For the watchman was Gabriel, guiding this poor one; or he was Isráfíl, bringing life to this wretched one!”
This story speaks to me. The watchmen are not our enemies. Our challenges are not our foes. They are moving us, to our best life and love, if we but listen, and trust. I need to keep listening, and to climb that wall.
Peace, passion and prosperity…
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Barry
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