I've thought of a potty training technique that doesn't seem to be covered in the books: get your child some diarrhea. Every time s/he urgently runs to their special corner of the room, it will immediately be followed with equally urgent calls of "Change, change!" Because while the regular stuff might feel nice and warm and comforting in one's diaper, who wants prolonged contact with gooey soup that smells like rotten eggs?
Not that I know this from experience.
Just an idea I came up with, instead of going to work today.
Go vote for him.
Anis Mojgani performing here am I
(Sorry for the MySpace aspect of having previously embedded this into the page. Don't hold that against him, please.
This weekend,
... I turned 34, starting the day off with the restorative power of saltwater.
... the five of us spent a relaxing 36 hours in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
... I became the excited owner of the cutest iPod shuffle ever! (Yes, somehow, it's cuter than yours.)
... on September 22, Dr. 'Ali-Muhammad Varqa, the last living Hand of the Cause of God, passed on to the next world. With this, comes the end of a unique time in history.
For the past twenty years, or so, I recognized how lucky I am to live right now - that I get to see the formation and manifestation of parts of the Baha'i Administrative Order (perhaps this is where my fascination with systems stems from?) laid out more than 150 years ago, while also getting to share the earth with Hands of the Cause of God. And not just getting to be on the planet with them, but having the honor to meet several of them, several times. I recognize how lucky I am to have been held by Mr. Faizi, to have considered Mr. Sears my extra grandfather, to have received a ringstone from Ruhiyyih Khanum. I also recognize that these experiences are not unique to me, but to the time in which I am so fortunate to live. I saw Dr. Varqa speak on a couple of occasions, most recently during our pilgrimage, in March of 2005.
While I anticipated it, now that there are no living Hands of the Cause, I think how strange it is that my children will not have this tangible connection to this period of history. I hope that they will still recognize the unique station of these individuals. And that will develop a personal relationship to some of them through the stories they read and hear. I also feel a greater urgency to hear more from those individuals who are still with us who were fortunate enough to meet, and receive personal direction from, Shoghi Effendi.
Light and glory, greeting and praise be upon the Hands of His Cause, through whom the light of fortitude hath shone forth and the truth hath been established that the authority to choose rests with God, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Unconstrained, through whom the ocean of bounty hath surged and the fragrance of the gracious favours of God, the Lord of mankind, hath been diffused. We beseech Him--exalted is He--to shield them through the power of His hosts, to protect them through the potency of His dominion and to aid them through His indomitable strength which prevaileth over all created things. Sovereignty is God's, the Creator of the heavens and the Lord of the Kingdom of Names.
- Bahau'llah, Lawh-i-Dunya (Tablet of the World)
Dear Alex Brandon,
Thank you for your photographic coverage of today's rally for the Jena 6. For all the pain and injustice these young men have suffered, I hope that it's your image - the one framed so beautifully by the arms of two police officers, their hands, of very different hues, clasped in one another's - that grows to represent what today is about and what comes out of it.
Touched,
shokufeh
Some months ago, we noticed that a tree around the corner had acquired a swing.
For a long time, I assumed that a neighborhood family had hung the swing on the neutral ground so that their child(ren) would have a nearby place to play.
Sam and MrMan frequent it in their post-work&school galavanting. But I only visited it for the first time a month ago.
How excited was I discover that this swing was not hung for any particular person's use? But a gift from the Red Swing Project. Not only is it awesome to have a nearby swing for MrMan to enjoy, it's awesome knowing that there's this care for the children of New Orleans.
This morning, on my way from the parking garage to my office, as I stood at the corner, waiting for the light to change, I noticed a strange sensation.... I was chilly.
Amen.
This morning, as I often do, I prepared travel mugs of tea for Sam and myself. With sugar and soy milk for me, and splenda and cow's milk for Sam. I poured hot tea into the mugs and then stirred sugar into one. I added the soy milk I had just heated in the microwave. Then I put some cow's milk in the microwave and came back to the counter to stir splenda into the other mug. Except that I couldn't find the spoon. (Some of you who have seen the clutter of our kitchen counter may not be surprised. What might surprise you is that the counter was rather empty, so the spoon should have been in plain sight.) Faced with the choice of having put it back in the utensil drawer (eeww!) or having put it prematurely in the sink, I decided I must have done the latter, though I had no recollection of such. So I got a new spoon and finished preparing Sam's tea.
On the way to work, as I took a sip of my tea, I found the spoon. Calling out to me, with a clanking, from the inside of my mug. Doh!
My favorite author, Madeleine L'Engle, passed away yesterday. For more than twenty years, I have enjoyed visiting and revisiting her characters, those of measured time and those of real time. I love that she makes a distinction between the two, and that only a few of her characters go between measured and real time, and that her characters' lives are so interwoven and interlinked. Even though I've read many of her books numerous times, I'm always excited to discover another connection. For a time, I kept a list of the characters, making note of various tidbits about their lives and who they knew and were related to. (I now see that Wikipedia has completed that task.) So much of so many of her books is real to me and I am so thankful to her for writing them.
When I think of Madeleine L'Engle, not only do various human characters flash through my mind, but I also think of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which also plays a prominent role in several of her books. When I lived in New York, I would sometimes make the trip up there for the solitude. But I think a big part of my feeling a connection to it was due to her books.
I am also just reminded of a report I did in junior high. It was for English class, but it was about mitochondria. I think my teacher thought it a strange choice, but I had just read A Wind in the Door and was curious.
Who is your favorite author? Are there things that you associate with him or her?
How happy I am that when people pass on to the next world, all that they've written don't go with them.
I love a morning where there's time to linger, to wake up slowly, to spend a little time with MrMan before we start the tasks associated with getting ourselves ready and out the door. On mornings like that, I like to whisper a prayer to him:
I have wakened in Thy shelter, O my God, and it becometh him that seeketh that shelter to abide within the Sanctuary of Thy protection and the Stronghold of Thy defense. Illumine my inner being, O my Lord, with the splendors of the Dayspring of Thy Revelation, even as thou didst illumine my outer being with the morning light of Thy favor.
Inevitably, it stills him. And when I've finished, he taps his fingertips together, signing, while saying, "More. More God."
Some mornings, like this morning, we even have time to look out the window, into the backyard, for Ms. Cat. This morning, she wasn't to be found. MrMan expressed his disappointment far too succinctly for my tastes, "Dawn!" He may have pronounced his 'r' like a 'w,' but it was still very clear what he was saying. And that I need to watch my mouth a little more.
Somebody actually funded this?
Men want hot women, study confirms
And why'd they go all the way from Bloomington, Indiana, to Munich, Germany, to find their study subjects?
I could have spent that money much more effectively, I think.