The Snowflake Chronicles

Ayyam-i-Ha Gift

As I look out my window, I see that the sun has set bringing the first day of Ayyam-i-Ha 162 has ended. What is the one thing I want to remember about today? That would be the gift received at Devotional Services today. I attended the service this morning at 11:00 a.m. on West Oakey in Las Vegas. The host of this morning’s service was the Sunrise Manor study circle, the theme of the service was Fast and the gift was a Meditation Journal.

The title of the journal is Meditation Journal For the Fast. The study circle created the nineteen-day journal with pages and meditations for each day of the upcoming Fast, which begins on March 2. Each page of the journal has a reading from the scriptures of the Baha’i Faith and blank lines under the reading to write short thoughts after meditating on the reading. The scriptures in the journal are about the Fast, each day you meditate on the reading and then write your thoughts about the reading underneath the scripture verse.

Because of taking medication, I am exempt from Fasting. Even though I do not fast, I am looking forward to getting up before dawn and saying the dawn prayer. In addition, I say the other Fast Prayers at intervals during the day. Fasting is a spiritual experience, it symbolizes abstaining from material wants and desires. Ala is the month of the Fast, from March 2 to March 20, is the last month of the Baha’i year. On March 21 a new year begins and Naw-Ruz is celebrated.

(2 Ayyam-i-Ha 162 B.E.)