I Blog Poetry and Prose

Endings and beginnings pass through the same door. One exits while the other enters. In the journey of life, when one phase of life or road ends than another begins. Sometimes it is difficult for an individual to discern the difference between an end and a beginning, because of the hustle and bustle going on around the event that either ends or begins a new phase of existence. At other times the demarcation line is so obvious that the individual feels as if they are falling into an abyss.

It's the last Saturday in 2018, and the beginning of a new writing week for me. My goals to do list runs seven days, from Saturday to Friday. This week, it will take me a couple of days to redo the list because the Gregorian year begins on Tuesday, January 1, and I need to post the list on "Weekly Goals"  on Monday, December 31. On Monday, "I Write in 2019"  begins and, this coming year, I will place all or most of my contest entries in "Snow's Writing for 2019, 2020, & Beyond" .

On the last Thankful Thursday in 2018,
I give thanks to the Glorious Lord,
for being able to purchase a new pair of glasses,
for the ADA transport bus that run twenty-four seven,
for being able to move to a small apartment,
for the landlord who will take the deposit fee in payments,
for a year that has increased my faith in Baha'u'llah,
for my sister, brothers, and their families,
for De and her daughter,
for the Baha'i community in Las Vegas and across the world,
for being able to pay my Internet and power bill.

There are six day left in 2018. It has been both an inspiring and frightening year. I don't see the situation changing very much in the next six day. I could be wrong, the world situation could get either better or worse. The American political situation could get either better or worse. My life situation could get either better or worse. The truth is, there are only two ways any situation or event can go. The situation can either get better or it can get worse, because that's how life on the physical or material plane is.

It is Christmas Day. This is the day much of the world, traditionally, celebrates the birth of His Holiness Christ. As I said, in "Christmas Eve Thoughts on the Birth of His Holiness Christ" , I don't think it matters as much when Christ's birth is celebrated as the reason it is celebrated. According to The 1st Recorded Celebration of Christmas   by Dan Graves, the first time Christmas was celebrated on December 25 was in 336 A.D. Mr. Graves enlightening and educational article gives historical information and facts about some of the Christmas traditions that we incorporate into the Christmas celebration.

It's Christmas Eve the day before the traditional celebration of the birth of His Holiness Christ. Even though, December 25--isn't the month or the day on which Christ was born--it's the day the majority of the planet celebrates His birth. I don't think the exact date of Christ birth matters as much as the reason he was born. Christ was born to shed light upon the human race, to unity humanity in the bonds of love, and to teach human beings how to forgive. We need to remember that the gives given during the Christmas season symbolize the love God showered upon humanity when Christ was born.

I haven't had insomnia this month. The main reason, I think, is that I'm reading before going to sleep. Right now I'm reading The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I should finish in a few days. In addition, I either read or recite prayers revealed by Baha'u'llah, the Bab, or 'Abdu'l-Baha before I go to sleep, so my nights are restful. True, I've been getting up later this fall and winter, but that's because I don't like getting out of a warm bed on a cold morning. I take my first morning medication before getting up, the pills and water are on my bedside table so I can reach them easily.

I enjoy the myths of Christmas. I like the old ones and the new ones. I like the frightening and non-frightening myths. I enjoy reading and watching them because they are creative, inspiring, and--in most cases--teach a lesson on how humans should treat each other. Some of the older myths take in the pagan aspects of the season. Some of the newer ones use the themes of love, hope, faith, and joy to suggest how one human being should treat another. Over the decades and centuries, these myths have become part of the culture and are expressed in different way across the planet.

I don't celebrate winter solstice, and I won't be watching the meteor shower unless I can find an online video of the event. I will start working on a new poetry form I discovered through "~ The Poet's Place Cafe~"  called the "Golden Shovel"5. I will do a couple of reviews, posts some of my older poems to "Devotional Poetry"  and "Poem Experiments" , and (probably) do a couple of surveys. In other words, Winter Solstice is just another day for me.

Yesterday, December 18, I went to my podiatrist's office. After the appointment was over, I had to wait for the paratransit bus to pick me up and bring me back home. While I was waiting I wrote "Transformation"  in response to a prompt posted on "~ The Poet's Place Cafe~" . When I returned home, I copied the poem into "Snow Scribbles"  and posted it under the discussion on perspective on "~ The Poet's Place Cafe~" . The poem was about how transformation changes a person's world views.

After some contemplation and prayer, I decided to write about the only two birthdays that matter to me anymore. Those are the Birth of the Bab and the Birth of Baha'u'llah, which I cannot write about separately because they fall so close together. These two birthdays are celebrated on the first and second day following the eight new moon after Naw-Ruz. Naw-Ruz is the first day of the Baha'i year, and falls on the vernal equinox. The Universal House of Justice, the governing body of the Baha'i Faith (located in Haifa, Israel, on Mount Carmel), has established that the birthplace of Baha'u'llah as the location of the vernal equinox.

What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of being born into this world? For me, the purpose and meaning of life are interconnected with each other and with my spiritual path. A human being is a soul possessing entity, and is born into this material world so that the soul can develop the spiritual virtues it needs to survive in the spiritual world. When the body dies, it returns to the atoms from which it was created. At the death of the body, the soul ascends into the next world--the world of the spirit--and there it has only the spiritual virtues that it developed in its so journey with the physical body.