doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

has it really been five days since I last posted something? okay. Happy Ridván, everybody. See Martin’s pictures of the election of the Spiritual Assembly in Ottawa (warning: high bandwidth needed), as well as a list of Assemblies formed in Québec this year. The India Times has another interesting article about Ridván on its website, too.

The grass is so green now that we’ve had a good couple of weeks of rain. I’ve been seeing kids running around playing in it, people throwing frisbees about, and so forth. Today it’s cloudy, so few people are feeling perky enough to run about. Bahá’u'lláh often talks about clouds in terms of mercy and grace. In one of His prayers, we find the following supplication: “Rain down, then, upon me out of the clouds of Thy bounty that which shall profit me in every world of Thy worlds.” So we need rain as much as we need sun, no? The grass certainly does.

You may remember the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL); they won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for their efforts in securing a ban on landmines. The campaign received a lot of press in the Canadian media since Canadians were heavily involved – the co-winner (Jody Williams) was Canadian, and the treaty banning landmines was signed in Ottawa. Anyway, on a related note, I visited the website of the Canadian Landmine Foundation. They seem pretty cool too – they raise money to clear old minefields, and to help landmine survivors. Clearly an organization that does good work. Paul McCartney and his wife Heather are their international goodwill ambassadors. Nice! Some of their board members have unfortunate names, though… visit the board page and scroll down to the fifth name. I almost died reading the name of that guy’s company.

Oh, yeah. On another note, I tagged along with Phil Allard and co. to climb rocks at Vertical Reality last Thursday. It was a great workout. My arms and legs are recovering nicely. I think I spent most of my time falling onto the mats. Take a look at the photo of the week if you haven’t already – that’s one of the hardcore guys going up the wall with a rope. We were just bouldering – no ropes, far less altitude. If you’ve never been rock-climbing, I recommend you try it. It’s fun. It hurts like hell the first time around, but you’ll probably like it after a bit.

More later. I’m off to radiantly accept the dying of the light.

It’s time to take another look at bahai.org! The official presence of the Baha’i Faith on the Internet just went through a major design overhaul – a very positive one, if you ask me. Go see for yourself!

more and more baha’i youth are starting their own blogs. I just found out about two new blogs – and they’re done by people I know. check out The Andrew Smith Project and Who Is Chloe Filson. Actually, if you ask me, the whole thing smells like butterscotch. But then, who am I to judge? Exactly. Nobody. Oh, and by the way, Mahtab loves everybody.

Some events of note:

• Wed, April 20th (after sunset): Election of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Ottawa @ Tom Brown Arena.

• Thu, April 21st (1 PM): Election Part 2 and Ridván Celebration @ Hellenic Community Centre.
• Fri, April 29th: 9th day of Ridván. ALSO, Junior Youth Movie Devotional in Sector 9 in the evening.
• Sat, April 30th: Marriage Workshop (couples).
• Sun, May 1st: Marriage Workshop (singles). V: It’s NOT gonna be freakin boring!
• Mon, May 2nd: 12th day of Ridván.
• Thu, May 5th: Book Club devotional @ my bro’s place. All readers welcome.
• Fri, May 27th: Unravel the Mysteries Conference begins in Toronto. (Ends on Sun, May 29th.)

And so on. It was a nice day. I brought my bike out and tricked it out for the new season. All it needs now is an adjustment to the handlebars and some air in the tires. And probably some oil. Woot woot. I (heart) my bike.

In other news, Perkins announces its month-long special on Eggs Benedict. (Ed. Note, Apr. 23: actually, they had the special last month… doh… hmmm… foreshadowing?)

Saturday I got together with my fam and cooked up some jam. Cranberry jam, in particular, with a couple of other combinations too. Holy crap is it ever fun to cook. We made a bunch of pies, too – apple pies (with some spare apples from our last grocery binge — long story), and a lemon meringue pie. See my photoblog for the mouth-watering photos. I know one person who’ll be pleased to get his jar of jam (he’s been waiting for it since… hmm… last summer, right Mo?)

Imagine my surprise when my generally carnivorous friend Martin forwarded me a link to this wonderful compilation of the Baha’i Writings on vegetarianism and the virtues thereof. I thought it so enlightening that I’d share it with all of you. Thanks Martin. You know we can always use more apologetics for this beautiful and simple way of life.

For those of you who don’t know: although Baha’is are not prescribed any particular diet to follow, the Writings of the Baha’i Faith praise vegetarianism as a natural diet that’s better adapted to the human body than meat-eating. Not too sure about that? Read up on it.

P.S. (10 PM): …and here are a few other veggie links for your perusal: veg.ca, run by the Toronto Vegetarian Association; the UK’s Vegetarian Society; VegWeb, a site with recipes; The Green Door, Ottawa’s original vegetarian restaurant; Le Commensal, a Montreal-based vegetarian restaurant chain that also sells its own line of veggie products; La Manne, a vegetarian grocery store/restaurant in my old digs, Victoriaville.

P.S. #2 (Monday): Check out this book from Publisher George Ronald — “I’ll have the Fruit and Grains, please!“

I’m not much of a writer. Some people will readily attest to that (sometimes without even being asked). I actually get a lot more out of visual art and music than writing. My dad’s the writer in the family. He started blogging recently, and even had several blogs on the go until he got tired of it. For the longest time he had piles and piles of books lining his bedroom walls: books by Joyce, Faulkner, Nash, Vonnegut, and probably, um, thousands of other people I’ve never even heard of. Apparently he cleaned out a whole lot of them. I got some of his extra copies. Books like The Return of the Native, Jane Eyre, The Turn of the Screw, The Stone Angel. I’ve heard horror stories about that last one, from traumatized students who had to read it in twelfth-grade English class. Apparently it’s real depressing. I think in twelfth-grade English, I was reading The Glass Menagerie. Not to mention making home movies about it, complete with car stunts and death metal (and pinch harmonics – thanks Brandon). Ahhh, Tennessee Williams. As if I wasn’t insane enough already.

Anyway, all that to say that I’m not much of a writer (except for writing the odd piece of poetry). I read books, sure, but I have trouble finishing them. I get bored easily when books don’t move along fast enough. Some books are better for this than others.

Now here’s something I want to personally recommend to everyone reading this. Whether you’re single, married, divorced, or whatever, if you’ve EVER thought about marriage in any way, shape or form, Both Eyes Open, a marriage workshop facilitated by Baha’i authors Suzanne Alexander & Craig Farnsworth should definitely interest you. I’m going — it’s only $40 if you sign up before Friday, April 15th… it’ll be time well spent! This workshop can help you:

• DEVELOP the skills and practices that assist in creating lasting marriages by getting to know one’s own character and understanding one’s partner’s character

• LEARN vital consultation and communication skills
• EXPLORE how to apply the principle of the equality of women and men within marriage
• UNDERSTAND some of the spiritual practices that strengthen marriage
• LEARN how to make unified service and time choices

This is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL stuff to help you understand how to create the “fortress for well-being” that is a strong and unified marriage. Come on out! There’s a session for couples on April 30th, and an open session (singles, couples and everybody else) on May 1st – both at St. Paul’s University, on Main St (close to Lees).

Read the brochure

Salut, ça farte? Pour ceux qui ne le savent pas… le film Brice de Nice est sorti mercredi dernier, le 6 avril. Allez voir le site officiel. Euh… en tout cas… sorti en France, oui… quelqu’un sait s’il est sorti au Québec?

hey – got some good news the other day… after several times having my contract extended, my manager told me that they intend to keep me on until next April. That means I’ll be working at the Conference Board of Canada until next year — amply enough time to save up money to go on pilgrimage to Haifa! Neat, huh?

Tel une jolie fleur du printemps, un petit site web se met à pousser du sol de l’internet, et il s’appelle Jeunesse Baha’ie. Il est fait par les jeunes baha’is, et il est juste pour les jeunes baha’is. Il cherche des mots pour vous conter toutes ses merveilleuses histoires des jeunes baha’is du monde entier. Peut-être en fournirez-vous de ces mots?

Songez à contribuer des histoires de jeunes, d’ici ou d’ailleurs. Envoyez l’addresse à vos amis chéris ici et ailleurs, pour qu’ils puissent lire de leurs propres yeux, et s’en réjouir!

Strategies to advance the process of entry by troops cannot ignore children and junior youth, if the victories won in one generation are not to be lost with the passage of time. It is imperative, then, that at this point in the process of systematization of the teaching work, definite steps be taken to ensure that the vision of the community fully embraces its younger members. (The Universal House of Justice, 1999 Nov 26, Announcement of 12-month and 5-year plans)

The Great Sector 9 Baha’i Youth Gathering was PHAT! It was amazing how everything just seemed to fall right into place. Everybody who participated just seemed to come out of it so energized and full of ideas on teaching the Baha’i Faith. Also we ate a lot of pizza. 10 boxes full, at least. And watched crazy videos. And acted like heyvoons. No doubt you will see the pictures up soon; the above is a sample (and, admittedly, the nicest, most representative one I could drum up).

Seriously tho, the meeting was really something. Just seeing the youth working together and consulting together, so diligently and so sincerely, about ways to reach out to their friends and offer them a taste of what the Baha’i Faith is about was simply intoxicating. There were around 30 youth and junior youth, which is about the number we had expected. With the help of the Assistants to the Auxiliary Board and Junior Youth study circle animators, the whole day went smoothly and fluidly, without too much pressure and with just the right amount of zing and goofing off. Everyone I spoke to so far enjoyed the experience and several were clamoring for more events like this. Afterwards, many of us attended the always-interesting Howden fireside – the underrated Brian Braithwaite M.D. gave us an engaging talk on using our potential for service to humanity. All in all, a day (and a night) well spent.

Today’s gathering was Ottawa’s first large-scale “planning party”, a gathering meant to help guide participants through the process of reflection, consultation and action in a Baha’i teaching campaign, and the first one aimed at youth and junior youth. What does this mean? It means that the youth are more freakin plugged in to the plan than all of you adults out there. Be warned. The youth are taking over and are gonna blow up your spot. WORD. Holla!

A couple more random comments: As these young heroes were walking the path of spiritual transformation with us this afternoon, Pope John Paul II, away in an apartment in Rome (or the Vatican?) passed on to the limitless worlds of God. Being a Baha’i, I don’t have any particular attachment to clergy (the Baha’i Faith has no clergy and promotes individual investigation of reality and a personal search for God). Still, having been educated partly in Catholic schools, I learned to appreciate, at the least, the role of the head of the Catholic Faith. Besides which, I know sorrow, anguish and bewilderment when I see it. What would you do, how would you feel if the man you regarded as your spiritual Father, the man who provided you with spiritual leadership and direction, were to pass from this life? All any of us can do, really, is offer prayers and comfort – so please accept mine. This, too, shall pass.