God Centred Baha'i-Inspired Life Coaching

In the Bahá'í Writings, we are told that our purpose in life is to know God, and to worship Him (we remind ourselves of this every day when we say the short obligatory prayer. But how can we keep this at the forefront of our day?

Here is something I do: Before I get out of bed in the morning, I take a moment to appreciate the day ahead of me, and to remember who is in charge. I determine to make my behaviour today, better than yesterday, and I turn my day over to God, so that my movement and my stillness is wholly directed by Him. My heart is sanctified from everything except God and I take care to put Him ahead of all else at all times and under all conditions. I don't pretend to know where my life will take me next, nor do I inquire or seek to know. I am in the flow of life and comfortable with the blessings which flow my way. I ask God daily to guide my steps aright through His inspiration, and am assured that every move I make is in accordance with Divine wisdom.

What do you do, to stay centre your life on God? Post your comments here:

Death – A Messenger of Joy

A Bahá'í friend of mine died recently of cancer; too young; her daughter only 21 . . .

My first reaction when I got the email was of gratitude that she had been released from this earthly prison and was reunited with her Lord. This was tinged with a bit of envy . . .

I called another friend to tell her and could hardly read the email, I was crying so hard.

What is this thing called grief? And why do we cry when we know we’ll see each other in a twinkling of an eye? When we know she’s in the celestial rose garden?

I haven’t seen her in over 10 years. I moved away. We lost touch. She pioneered to Kuwait. I didn’t feel bad when she pioneered, so why do I cry when she’s pioneered to the ‘Abhá Kingdom?

And I remember 'Abdul-Bahá’s lament to Thomas Breakwell, a man he’d only met a short time before his death. It goes on for pages . . .

Aren’t we lucky to have 'Abdul-Bahá as our Exemplar?!

A friend asked: "How should one look forward to death?" He answered: "How does one look forward to the goal of any journey? With hope and with expectation. It is even so with the end of this earthly journey. In the next world, man will find himself freed from many of the disabilities under which he now suffers. Those who have passed on through death, have a sphere of their own. It is not removed from ours; their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours; but it is sanctified from what we call 'time and place.' Time with us is measured by the sun. When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.
(‘Abdu'l-Bahá in London, p. 95)

Good Bye, Ellen! I know you’ve been promised a service in both worlds, so if you get a chance, I could sure use your help as I gear up to serve people in my Bahá'í-inspired life coaching endeavor!

What’s helped you get through grief? Post your comments here!

Laughter - a Source of Solace

A friend of mine sent me an email this morning, one of those chain things, that you are expected to send on to others. It was meant to be funny, and as I deleted it, I thought about the differences in our sense of humor. And I wondered what 'Abdul-Bahá would have made of it and how it would apply to Bahá'í-inspired life coaching.

And then I remembered the following story:

'Abdu'l-Bahá loved laughter and His laughter was often a source of solace . . . When they were in prison, He said, and under the utmost deprivation and difficulties, each of them at the close of the day would relate the most ludicrous event which had happened. Sometimes it was difficult to find one but always they would laugh until the tears would run down their cheeks. Happiness, He said, is never de­pendent upon material surroundings, otherwise, how sad those years would have been. As it was they were always in the utmost state of joy and happiness . . .
(Annamarie Honnold, Vignettes from the Life of 'Abdu'l-Bahá,
pp.149-151.)

And I thought of the following quote from the Bahá'í Writings:

. . . while laughter should not be suppressed or frowned upon,
it should not be indulged in at the expense of the feelings of others. What one says or does in a humorous vein should not give rise to prejudice of any kind. You may recall 'Abdu'l-Baha's caution “Beware lest ye offend the feelings of anyone, or sadden the heart of any person...”
(From a letter of The Universal House of Justice, 12 Jan, 1997.

Recognizing that this story met both criteria (not offensive, difficult to relate to the humour), I opened my delete file, read it again, and gave myself a good belly laugh. And you know what? I felt better! It was a real reminder not to take myself too seriously!

What is your experience with humour and how it helped? What’s your favorite funniest story of all times? Post your thoughts here!

Courage and Teaching the Bahá'í Faith

I’ve been meaning to write a blog for quite awhile, and the task seemed too daunting, so I’ve been putting it off, finding other things to do. Lying awake for several hours the other night, what came to me was the degree of terror it’s causing me – to put myself and my ideas out there for people to see and judge; afraid I’ll come across as sanctimonious, or “know-it-all”, or “holier than thou”, or even worse, perfect!

As I prepare the content of my new website, advertising my skills as a Bahá'í-inspired life coach, I realize just how much courage it will take for me to “go live”, and the following quote came to mind.

The source of courage and power is the promotion of the Word of God, and steadfastness in His Love. (Bahá'u'lláh, Bahá'í World Faith, p. 141.)

It’s always struck me as curious – not at all what you would expect for the source of courage . . .

So many of us (in Canada, at least) hold back on teaching, especially in the currently popular door-to-door campaigns, thinking we don’t have the courage it takes, forgetting about the courage shown by our brothers and sisters in Iran, and yet, this quote seems to suggest that courage comes from teaching.

A few years ago, I pioneered to Labrador, a remote part of Canada, a virgin territory where the closest Bahá'í was 8 hours away. I’ll never forget the day I got on the plane with a desire to serve, a love for Bahá'u'lláh, a longing to teach and all my remaining earthly possessions: my cats and their food, bowls and kitty litter, my laptop, clothes, a pot, frying pan, 2 sets of cutlery, plates, bowls and mugs, (so I could invite someone for a meal) – everything I needed to get started in a new location. I looked at my keychain, void of keys. I’d sold my furniture, my car and didn’t have a place to live when I arrived or any contacts to help me find housing. Now that took courage!

When I turned 50, I wanted to do something really big, to symbolize leaving fear behind and walking confidently into the future, so I decided to go skydiving! During the half hour flight to the drop zone, my smile was as wide as it’s ever been – until they opened the door! And then, I experienced a degree of terror such as I’ve never known! Fortunately I’d planned for this eventuality, deciding on a tandem jump, so the jumpmaster’s job was to peel my hands off the back of the pilot’s seat and push me out of the plane! (you can see the pictures on the website, once it’s up).

As soon as we were in free-fall, all the fear had gone, and my smile was back. Even though we were hurtling down to the ground for 6000 feet of freefall before pulling the cord of the parachute, there was no sense of falling. Instead, it felt as if I was suspended in mid-air, held safely in the hands of God, and I wanted to stay that way forever.

The “source of all courage is the promotion of Word of God, and steadfastness in His Love” – would I have been able to make that jump if I hadn’t been actively teaching? Something for me to ponder and be grateful!

What gives you courage? Post your comments here.

Welcome to YOUR Blog!

I’m new to the world of blogging and plan to develop this site into a forum which will become interactive, with people all over the world learning to share their ideas on how to apply the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith to everyday life situations.

It’s hard to just write for the sake of writing, especially when I am busy setting up a new Bahá'í-inspired life coaching practice. There are so many other tasks pulling me in different directions, and even more especially when I really don't know exactly what YOU want to learn more about.

So . . .

I'm ASKING you . . . what would you like to know more about? After all, this is YOUR blog. So post some comments about what you'd like to see, and I'll start the ball rolling by writing about it. Fair enough? :)

Post your comments here.