Visiting Pilgrims and News From Home

More friends have come to visit the Holy Land on pilgrimage this week, and I am so excited to see them here! Brooke and Emad are here, as are Emad's family, along with their brand new baby girl, Navvab. I have to admit, that kid is absolutely adorable! Almost five months old, and she is such a little moosh moosh...cutie pie, basically. (It means mouse in Persian)

{We had a lovely dinner out at Greg's cafe last night; the food there just keeps getting better and better! I highly recommend either the cheese symphony salad or the chicken tortillas. Emad also said the goat cheese tortillas were to die for, but I didn't actually get to try one, so you'll have to take his word on that one.}

But it's really great to see them here and find out what's been going on back in our home community. Emad is lucky enough to be on the Local Spiritual Assembly there, and he's been filling me in on the past year that I've missed. A lot of drama, apparently; the Assembly's been busy, busy busy! It seems that we live in a community that tends to have two population groups: there are the permanent residents, the older adults who have moved there to settle or retire or whatnot, and there is transient youth population that comes in for a short time, revitalises the community with energy and fervour, and then moves on to their next stage in life. Usually elsewhere. Our community at home is one of many where the active Baha'is are mainly youth who, once their eyes have been opened to the possibilities in the world, cannot simply stay at home anymore. They must go out into the global sphere and teach and serve and make this world amazing. But...that means we lose them, in a sense, by not having their glorious spiritual energy in our community anymore. I suppose we must look at it instead as setting them loose upon the world and allowing their dynamic power to dramatically change another community for the better.

That's all well and good, but it means that our community has been going through a lot of ups and downs in terms of Baha'i activities and participation in teaching campaigns. Sometimes the town is red-hot with energy and activities, and sometimes it's very quiet and sedate with not a lot going on. Which is ok too, they just shouldn't let it stay down for too long.

I'm going home for a visit in less than two weeks, and I'm very excited to see what's been happening in my absence. Who knows, maybe me coming back for a while can provide a little boost of energy and encouragement to those youth that are still there...