Memories of Snow

NaNoWriMo Day21: Memories (WC:1,312)

Jamál (Beauty), 18 Qudrat (Power), 173 BE - Sunday, November 20, 2016 AD about 10:30 AM Pacific Standard Time

NaNoWriMo Day 20 Update

It's NaNoWriMo Day 20 at about 10:22 AM Pacific Standard Time. I have written 40,783 words with 9,217 words left to go. The projected date to complete the 50,000 words is Friday, November 25. The minimum word count goal is now 838. This means that I don't have to worry so much about meeting my maximum word count goal. I can accomplish the minimum daily word count goal of 1,667 and still finished 50,000 words by November 25.

Kamál (Perfection), 19 Qudrat (Power), 173 BE - Monday, November 21, 2016 AD about 3:00 PM Pacific Standard Time

Thanksgiving Monday

It's Monday of Thanksgiving week. We have turkey and all the fixing for Thanksgiving dinner which two police officers brought by this afternoon. We also have a Turkey breast, that we got at the food bank this morning, in the oven. We will have barbequed turkey this afternoon for supper. It's nice to know we don't have to worry about food for the rest of the month. I'm not going to say what I'm worried about in this entry. I'll wait until another entry to discuss that.

November is a wonderful month. November is a stressful month. November is an interesting month. There are three Baha'I Holy days in November. Those are the Birth of the Bab, the Birth of Baha'u'llah, and the Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Then there is the Day of the Covenant and two Feast (the Feast of Qudrat and the Feast of Qawl) The Feast of Qawl is my Baha'I Birthday; that is the first feast I attended after Declaring my Belief in Baha'u'llah.

I remember that the feast was being held at the home of Gil and Marge Marzoline. I was fascinated by that Feast because it was so different from any religious service I'd ever attended. There was no preaching or passing around the collection plate. The Baha'Is placed their donations into envelopes so that no one else know whether they were giving cash or writing a check. In addition, no one knew how much the other Baha'is gave.

There were three parts to the Feast. There was the spiritual portion when the sacred scriptures were read. The business portion where the business of the Baha'I community was conducted and the Feast Reports read. The reports were from the Local Spiritual Assembly, the National Spiritual Assembly, and the Universal House of Justice. The third part of the Feast was the social portion where the Baha'is talked and got to know each other.

When I became a Baha'I I didn't know a lot about the Faith. The reason for this was that I did my research by going to Firesides (where Baha'is tell others about Baha'u'llah and answer questions). I knew that Baha'u'llah was sent from God because I had read the sacred writings and could feel the Holy Spirit flowing through them. I felt that Baha'u'llah was the answer to my quest for faith. I knew that He fulfilled a dream I had as a child about Christ Returning.

I declared my belief in Baha'u'llah sometime in the last century. I'm thinking it was sometime between January of 1986 and November of 1987. It was a long time ago. I don't consider too much about years because they don't seem that important to me. According to my figures I've been a Baha'I for about twenty-nine or Thirty years, but it seems like longer than that. Oh well, I don't think it matter much how long I've been a Baha'I as long as I'm a Baha'I.

My Mother

Mama died on November 29, 2012, one week after Thanksgiving. She died on Grandpa Franks birthday, which was appropriate because she missed her parents so much. I miss Grandma, Grandpa, and Mama. I'll miss them the rest of my physical life. I'll gree them again when I enter the Abha Kingdom. Before then I have a lot of work to do on myself and in the physical world.

I don't know how long I will live. I hope I live to be 100, but that may not be God's will. Mama wanted to live to be 100, but she died at 91 years, 8 months and 10 days. Mom lived a long and fruitful life. She a gave birth to two girls and two boys. Mom became a Baha'I when she was in her late seventies or early eighties. She began writing poetry after she turned eighty years old. She worked until she was in her early or middle eighties.

I'm Tired
I'm not sure how much more I can write today. I'm tired. I tired myself out this morning with all the running around, sitting down, and standing up. I suppose I should have ate something before I left the house, but we left so early that I wasn't hunger. The De purchase me a hot chocolate which took away my appetite for a while. For lunch I had two hot dogs and chips, which satisfied me for a little while longer. However, it didn't make up for not eating before I went out this morning.

All right, I do this a lot, well maybe not a lot, but a couple of times a year. I know better, but it doesn't change the fact that I still do it and will probably continue to do it the rest of my life. Just because I know better doesn't mean I'm not going to do it again. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm tired. I can't seem to think or rather focus on what I'm writing for a long period of time. I should go to bed early, but I probably won't.

I still have surveys to do which I didn't do yesterday. I think I will finish this and see how many surveys I can get done before I have to log off and eat.

Fiḍál (Grace), 1 Qawl (Speech), 173 BE - Monday, November 21, 2016 AD about 5:30 PM Pacific Standard Time

Feast of Qawl

It's after sunset on Monday, November 21, it's the first day of Qaw (Speech). This is the Feast Day of Qawl and the celebration of my Baha'I Birthday. About thirty years ago today, I became a Baha'I and attended my first nineteen-day feast. I think I must have signed my declaration card a few days before that, but I can't remember exactly when I declared my belief in Baha'u'llah.

That was the best decision I ever made. Being a Baha'I, living the Baha'I life hasn't been easy. I still can't say that I'm living the type of life a Baha'I should live. I don't know if I will ever accomplish that in my remaining time on this material plain. I don't know how much longer I have to live. I'm not sure that I want to know. I don't know if knowing how many years I have would make a difference. I would hope that it would cause me to be more conscious of the way I was living my life and teaching, or rather attempting to, teach the Faith.

I'm too tired right now to even think about how many years I might have left on this planet. The long morning really took its toll on me. I'm tired. I'm so tired that I want to cry, which isn't a good sign because it means I'm on the verge of depression. I know I should remain up until 9:00 standard time, but I'm not sure if I can make it. I think I'm going to post this, do my NaNo count, and go to bed. If I wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning then I'll write more about the feast or some other Baha'I related subject.