yesterday, i discovered an old friend's blog, and her first post is about her pilgrimage.
on monday it will be Martin Luther King, Jr., Day in america. i remember on that day last year (which fell earlier in the month), shaun tried to go to the U.S. embassy in tel aviv to submit our application for my permanent residency. naturally, it was closed.
it's funny that this year when i thought of MLK Day, i remembered shaun's four-hour fruitless trip, and for some reason i think i may always have this connection in my mind, of my coming to the united states on the one hand, and this great man (the famous one) on the other.
on monday my littlest, albeit tallest, sister will be arriving in seattle to stay with us for ten days. when i arrived here about eight months ago, she joined us soon after and stayed for the tourist limit of three months. sam is a kind, gentle, humorous, and wonderful companion, and shaun and i are SO VERY MUCH looking forward to picking her up at the airport in the afternoon next week.
her trip here coincides exactly with our pilgrimage dates from last year. i mentioned this to shaun in the context of Do You Know What Coincidence I Discovered Today? but it turns out for him a coincidence means something more like a collusion between two events, and so sam's visit and our pilgrimage dates are NOTHING LIKE A COINCIDENCE, YOU CONSPIRACY-THEORIST WIFE.
the thing is, because sam arrives on MLK Day---a national holiday---shaun doesn't need to take time off work to go and pick her up with me. and then there is the part where our pilgrimage dates from last year are the same one's of sam's visit, together with the discovery of my friend's blog about her pilgrimage. and because i was moved to do a comparison between today in 2008 and today in 2007, i realized that i have all these pictures of the Baha'i gardens that i haven't even looked at yet.
BECAUSE OF ALL OF THESE THINGS, i went looking at the folder that contains my journal and photos from 21 through 31 January 2007---our pilgrimage. (did you know that yet?)
and i realized that i have twenty journalled pages of mostly notes and key words that i haven't finished typing up yet, nor have i posted them to this blog. i have thousands of photos from pilgrimage that have never even been sorted through.
i think that almost a year after leaving the Holy Land, on the anniversary of our pilgrimage, and in anticipation of another big change in our lives, it's timely to go through the notes and reflect on those meditations.
here is an excerpt from my notes after the celebration of the Birth of the Bab, which was on the first day of pilgrimage, and is evidence of, let's face it, a pretty gory imagination:
"Thinking about the knowledge that I’ve gleaned from my reading the books before pilgrimage, like Giachery’s green and red symbolism on parts of the Shrine. Looking at colours around me, my head is bowed in focus on my pilgrimage to this Holy Shrine on this Holy Day; I don’t want to make eye contact with others, and I am remembering Giachery’s description of approaching this Shrine with the Guardian: head bowed.
The connection I make: red stones through my wind-whipped tears, with shreds of green leaves, look like a river of blood that I’m walking upon, laced with the Prophet’s green turban, towards the Shrine. Reminds me of martyrs, sacrifice, injustice, steadfastness. Mona and all the recent martyrs. The Bab. His Birthday. His Sacrifice.
'make me as dust in the pathway of Thy loved ones … that I may offer up my soul to the earth ennobled by the footsteps of Thy chosen ones in Thy path…'
This supreme Shrine rising up from, floating on, this many-armed river of sacrifice. Floods me with feelings of the justice of this Cause and thankfulness for being alive at this time of the Promised One, for knowing and being a Bahá’í, for being at the World Centre, for being a pilgrim. It is too much and I cannot contain it; am 'filled with inadequacy and reduced to a speck of dust'."
3 comments:
thank you so MUCH for sharing these intimate passionate thoughts! these words take me somehow directly into that mysterious experience of other worldly rapture that can be felt on pilgrimage and some of which we hope might infuse our daily lives too. Here is another coincidence for you...this is also the anniversary of my very own pilgrimage in 2005. I was there over my birthday which also coincidentally falls on MLK day this year :) so thanks for allowing me to wrap myself up into your coincidences.
You know Sam should be able to visit you guys for for up to 28 days.
it IS a coincidence! A whole series of them. Sham and I are going to Haifa in June, I cannot wait!
have a fabulous time with your sister - is that the change you're talking about or should we brace ourselves for other news??
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