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description= I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. -Abdu l-Baha;
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Text of the page (random words):
ing to have to start over from scratch my first lesson i wasn t allowed to play a single note after bow hold exercises i held the bow in my right hand with both hands resting on my knees i picked them up and placed them correctly on the instrument drawing two wide loops in the air i put them back on my knees i put them back on the cello i put them back on my knees the next lesson i played open strings the lesson after that i played four note scales then eight notes then i finally had music placed in front of me suzuki book 1 the first song twinkle twinkle little star i started to cry just looking at it i had been playing the cello for seven years it was so humiliating my friends were playing bach and here i was playing baby music my teacher bless him didn t seem phased by this he explained that we d move through relatively quickly but that my technique needed to be addressed at a foundational level before we moved on to more complex things and that it would require hard work and practice and a huge dose of humility but never humiliation there was nothing to be ashamed of in striving to be better no matter what it looked like to someone on the outside i stayed after school every day and practiced by myself twinkle twinkle french folk song the song of the wind the happy farmer minuet in c my orchestra teacher commented that it was so nice to hear the old songs again i did move quickly practicing every day and i improved the next year i found myself a section leader my teacher moved to another country but i ve never forgotten the lesson in humility he taught me when he watched me cry to see a book of children s songs now i serve as a tutor of study circles which are intended to raise capacity in individuals and communities to serve their communities each of the courses these study circles goes through includes three related units of study and at least one practice both of these elements is essential for capacity to be built and neither is particularly effective without the other the thing is we all live in communities we think we must know how to live together after all haven t we been doing it as individuals for twenty thirty seventy years haven t our families been doing it for thousands who doesn t know how to be a community anyway a hermit maybe certainly not us but the truth is that while we ve often been getting by our technique is frankly terrible and we need to start learning at the beginning from scratch this is why people who feel at the height of their influence struggle with the ruhi sequence of courses book 1 called reflections on the life of the spirit includes three units two of which have a practice component the first is to read the writings carefully and with intent every morning and evening the second is to visit two baha is and study a prayer with them not even to pray but to study the prayer itself the same way the first unit teaches us to study on our own i have literally had people refuse to study with me insisting that it is a waste of their time as though looking at a few words together with fresh eyes were somehow a demeaning task when they were capable of so much more i ve had people agonize over whether visiting someone in their home even invited were an appropriate avenue of service whether it was patronizing to study a prayer with someone else whether there was any use in it whether they shouldn t just skip it and get on to the real acts of service the exciting ones for books down the line but of course if you can t study fifty words with a friend you can t facilitate the study of hundreds in a group if you can t will yourself to talk about spiritual reality you won t be able to teach an entire class of children to pray if you aren t willing to visit a friend in their home you will never work up the courage to build bonds of friendship with someone previously regarded as a stranger you won t build community in your neighborhood you won t build unity in your world it takes so much humility to understand that how we ve learned to be in the world may have helped us cope but it s on some level fundamentally broken that we need to re learn something as basic as friendship or neighborliness or meaningful conversation it s a real struggle to overcome the sense that we re meant for something better than this that we re not children after all that we already have so much capacity already if people could just see it but if we can set it aside and practice the basics until we ve really mastered them the resulting music is so much stronger and i know because i m still here trying my best playing away tags community humility music practice prayer service study circle virtue categories from life today i feel loved november 12 2017 0 i try and keep to universals so that anything i share here can be useful to anyone but today i m getting personal because a few friends knew i was struggling with some personal issues and took it to heart and some of those friends serve on institutions because i know the prayers of my local spiritual assembly are with me because i know the prayers of my regional baha i council are with me because i know the prayers of my auxiliary board members are with me because i know the prayers of my continental counselor are with me i m a bit of a pessimist by nature a bit withdrawn slow to friendliness slow to happiness slow to hope or to love but the love of the individuals the institutions and the community around me are so palpable at times like this i can t help but to be happy there is a unity here in my little midwestern region that i haven t known anywhere else and i wouldn t trade it for all the progress in the world categories uncategorized on reflection gatherings november 12 2017 0 reflection gatherings are one of the most useful tools i know of on this path of service i m on but i didn t always realize it even now i m pretty sure that i only have a tenuous grasp on what they are and have the potential to be since this isn t something that everyone has a lot of experience with i thought i would share what i know about organizing reflection gatherings that are meaningful and successful what is the purpose of a reflection gatherings reflection gatherings are intended to elevate clarify and unify a group s vision of their service they provide a space to think about the progress and challenges that they have experienced in the recent past understand what has been learned see next steps and plan ahead for the future they also provide context for what individuals have been experiencing and learning both through study and through consultation with others first thing to consider who should attend a reflection gathering there are many different types of reflection gatherings all of which draw on a different subset of people perhaps the best known example is the cluster reflection where all those participating in the community building process from a particular geographic area in the us this is usually either several neighboring counties or a metropolitan area gather along with those who are new to the process but would like to learn more about how to become engaged this could include tutors animators children s class teachers hosts of devotional gatherings study circle participants and junior youth local institutions such as assemblies committees and those serving in appointed roles and more some participants might even live outside of the cluster but travel to serve within it especially in early stages of development the main factor is their geographic focus but this isn t the only kind of reflection gathering next week i ll be hosting a children s class teacher reflection for my state participants include anyone teaching assisting with or learning to teach grade 1 2 or 3 of the children s class program of the training institute anywhere in the state of indiana sometimes folks from neighboring states also join and that s not a problem as we ve never run out of room this is a short gathering only three hours or so last week was a gathering for people all over our three state region who are focused on learning about engaging youth and young adults in the main sequence of courses while all of the participants were tutors they had different roles in this particular learning process some mainly tutor those study circles some primarily focus on visiting the families of youth especially those who are younger and are still under the care of their parents some are animators who are working on helping to accompany other youth on this particular path of service but all are committed to continuing the conversation in their own communities and widening the circle of people who are engaged in this area of learning this gathering was just over two days long so you can really have a reflection gathering at any level people who serve one particular neighborhood can benefit from a reflection gathering people who are currently tutoring book 10 of the sequence of courses people who have started a new junior youth group within the last three months second thing to consider what questions are being asked sometimes this is actually the first thing in that case the people coming are whoever is thinking about these questions having particular questions at the center of the gathering gives it purpose aside from just a recitation of recent events in the case of our group focused on youth in study circles we have several questions that we started with at our gathering in august what is the nature of a conversation that attracts young people to join a book 1 study circle what are ways and spaces in which study circles can be formed how can we accompany participants in book 1 immediately into the field of action how can a cadre of tutors support one another in action and learning in november we saw that we needed to focus more tightly for now on the first two questions with an added question of how animators can also serve a role in inspiring youth to become engaged the point here is to show that the questions a gathering is focused on should be few in number specific focused on immediate needs and steps answerable through action and reflection on action a question like how can we have lots of new study circles would be too broad a question like how can every cluster in our region have 50 100 new participants in study circles in the next three months while somewhat more specific doesn t make sense where most clusters in the region have yet to learn how to engage 10 new participants in study circles in a three month cycle how many study circles have taken place in our region over the last year is specific and easily answerable but is rooted in study rather than action and reflection you can see how choosing the right questions can easily make a gathering fruitful and productive or create confusion boredom or despair third thing to consider do you have something on which to reflect there is nothing sadder than a reflection gathering where asked about their experiences there is nothing to share because nobody has been engaged in the process in question more commonly is the situation where everyone has something to reflect on as an individual but the experiences are so scattershot and unrelated to each other that there is not enough experience with any one particular thing to answer any questions about it in this case it can sometimes help to include an experiential portion of the gathering just so that everyone has something pertinent to talk about for example if a children s class teacher gathering is focused on learning about how to effectively describe the nature of the program to parents in order to elicit their support for and reinforcement of the qualities being taught part of the gathering could involve all the participants going out to visit with the parents of children in a local class and speak with them about the program yes this takes a fair bit of organizing the organizer needs to consult with the teachers of the class reach out to the families organize times for them to be visited assemble information and addresses for each family put together pairs or teams arrange transportation for those who need it and then also help to coordinate the collection of information and the organizing of follow up but it s so much more effective than having a theoretical chat with a group of teachers about how they might go about talking with parents should the opportunity arise fourth thing to consider where are you strong if you have a lot of things you could reflect on and are not sure where to focus focus on your strengths where was there the most growth it might feel a little backwards i know my first instinct is always to shore up my weaknesses before anything else but strength builds on strength if your group is fantastic at starting new junior youth groups it s natural to build on that strength and focus on how to expand groups so that they have a sustainable number of participants over time those new and strengthening groups might very well inspire more adults to become engaged in study circles on the other hand to ignore those small new groups in favor of throwing all your effort behind bringing new adults into the process means that the groups continue to form meet for a while and die out within a few months the animators without support eventually become disheartened the adults seeing no long term value to the community fail to become engaged parents having noticed that activities don t last over the long term don t trust the teachers of children s classes to stick around yes i m making all this up but there s a real inertia involved in both growth and stagnation focus on what s already moving and then move on from there fifth thing to consider stop considering and start doing if you re not having reflection gatherings because you re not sure you could do them perfectly just try something truly some of the one s i ve put together over the years have been a mess but they ve always been a net positive experience i ll almost certainly look back over all this advice in a year and be so embarrassed by my lack of understanding that s one of the side effects of blogging i suppose we put things out there whether we re feeling totally prepared or not coordinating is a lot like that too whether you re serving in a formal role or just as one tutor in a group of friends who wants to help make things a little more organized maybe your first gathering is just about learning what you want to learn about and that s totally legitimate as long as you re focused on learning through service and moving forward you re doing it right tags coordination learning reflection service unity categories from life two reflections on breath november 11 2017 0 yestderday i was dealing with a family crisis and didn t get the chance to write a new blog post so instead of my regular reflections you get a poem i wrote a month ago sorry for the abrupt change of pace but the blog must go on bahaiblogging two reflections on breath 2017 i hadn ...
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