Margo's blog

Goodbye!

2008-09-03T14:24:00.006+02:00

Finally I've decided. From now on I will write in my Swedish blog only (they call it 'blogg'). There are many Bahá'í blogs in English, but very few in Swedish, so the need is more urgent there.

If you came here because you're looking for a Bahá'í blog, I can recommend you the following ones:

My Swedish blog you find here.

If you're really interested in studying the Bahá'í Faith the best way is to contact the Bahá'ís in your country. Good luck whatever you choose.

Twelve principles of the Bahá'í Faith

2008-07-18T14:14:00.003+02:00

You have to click on the picture to be able to read it.

A trip with Aeroflot

2008-06-03T16:00:00.003+02:00

It will be quiet on this blog as I will concentrate on my new Swedish one. But I want to share a video by Dutch/Maroccan comedian Najib Amhali I just discovered.

Najib invites the audience on a trip to "Tatyakistan" with Aeroflot. In the beginning and the end he speaks Dutch, but I think you get the main jokes.

New blog!

2008-05-30T20:17:00.000+02:00

Today I started a new blog in Swedish!

Bahá'ís in Iran

2008-05-26T17:57:00.000+02:00

Unnessesary problems

2008-05-25T09:23:00.003+02:00

A TV programme showed this week the story of an adopted woman who was going to find her real siblings in another country, which in the end turned out to be her own mother and aunts! A thrilling and touching story, but it makes me think of all the unnessesary problems we get ourselves into. Like in the case of the TV programme a child pregnancy which resulted in 'giving away' the child. Who later as an adult has to go and find her real family and background.

Life is much more easy than it seems. Just when you know the rules. Which Bahá'u'lláh gives for our time. One of these rules is that you get married before you move in which each other or even have sex. So FIRST you find somebody you are sure of you want to live with the rest of your life. And THEN you get children who are born out of and grow up with the love of you both. All other arrangements are sloppy and come with risks. Isn't it better to prevent problems than to solve them?

You teach your children to go out with warm coats, hats, boots and gloves in wintertime. You don't want them to freeze or get ill. You know that that can be the result of not following the rule of dressing warm in wintertime.

So why don't we teach them how to build up a safe and happy familylife when we know the ingredients?

Some of the world's problems we wouldn't have when everybody would accept the Messenger of God for our time and do what He says are:

Abortion, too many divorces (it's allowed but discouraged), children living with just one of the parents, aids, unneccesary adoptions, discrepancy between rich and poor, discrimination, surpression of women, illiteracy, war, pollution, backbiting, prostitution, cruelty against animals, criminality.

A little catvideo

2008-05-24T15:42:00.005+02:00

We have found future homes for our four kittens. In about 7 weeks they'll leave us, but so far we can enjoy them for full.

The Declaration of the Báb

2008-05-23T09:04:00.005+02:00

Today the Declaration of the Báb is commemorated by the Bahá'ís worldwide. This very day in 1844 is the beginning of the Bahá'í Faith and together with that the beginning of a whole new era for mankind.

We will celebrate this day with our friends in a nearby town. I'm looking forward to meet them. I made a dish of brigadeiros, a Brazilian delicacy, to take with us. I found the recipe on a Swedish travelsite. We had to test them of course, and they really ARE delicious.

Today also a column by me appeared in our local paper, Hallands Nyheter, and it's always exciting if I get some reactions. This can be anything between angry letters or people who want to shake my hand when I go out shopping. The paper doesn't publish this column on their netpage, but it will be published later on, on the Swedish Bahá'í site. I'll let you know.

Meanwhile a lot of things are going on in the world. Natural disasters, criminality, different civil wars and a lot of other problems. Serving Bahá'ís are rounded up in Iran, while grand Ayatollah Montazeri declares the Bahá'ís as rightful citizens. Two opposite news items from the country of origin of the Bahá'í Faith. The Báb declared Himself in Shiráz, Iran. Can they not just be proud in Iran about that the new and peacefull era for mankind comes from their own country!

Here a (incomplete) slideshow of Shiráz and the Báb's house (later demolished by His enemies).

Photo of the entrance gate to Shiráz: Birdfarm

Equality of religion

2008-05-21T13:56:00.003+02:00

I'm rather much involved and interested in the school of my children (they go to the same one). I sometimes hear complaints about that certain children and their parents are less involved in the school's activities and I'm afraid that those are mostly the families with a foreign, and specificly a muslim background.

I believe that those families just feel less connected with schoollife, because of the huge difference in treatment of their and the common religion in Sweden (christianity).

Christianity has a huge advantage in schoollife. Christian Holy Days are free, and get much attention in the school. Religionlessons are for the greatest part filled with christian stories and subjects. Christian groups come in the classroom to deal out Bibles or give information about christian summeractivities.

Of course this group of muslim children feel a left outside, as a seperate group, and that works both ways: they are less motivated to participate in schoolorganized activities.

The only way is to change the attitude and start to treat both christianity, islam and all other revealed religions as equally true, which they in essence also are.

Why holding so strong to things of the past when in other fields the world changes in the fasted speed. In this age we should see the whole world as one, humanity as one and God as one.

2008-05-17T21:50:00.003+02:00

Eh no, my friend who recently was in China didn't visit us today. She was ill and could hardly talk when she called.

We did our Ruhi-2 afternoon without her and we were quite good by ourselves - my friend who is ill is our tutor normally. We studied the negative influences of backbiting (which is forbidden in the Bahá'í Faith).

This morning got an email of a childhood friend, whom I found on the Internet. I did not have any friends left from my youth, let's say before I was 19. I even hardly remember their names. But strangely enough this girls name I never forgot. I even have told my children about her parents farm. Now we got contact again, really cool. She remembers me well, she even knew I live in Scandinavia (how? I must ask). Exciting to see how this develops.

I have to do some writing for the religious column in our local newspaper.
I know what I'll write but didn't get started. So tonight I'll give it a start.

A message from China

2008-05-17T09:35:00.003+02:00

How often does one get a real postcard nowadays? I got one this week from China. My friend has been visiting her brother in Shanghai.

And today she will visit us!

The picture shows the Twin Bridges in Zhoushuang.

What will happen to them?

2008-05-15T16:24:00.004+02:00

Behrouz Tavakkoli, Saeid Rezaie, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi and Mahvash Sabet are the names of my co-Bahá'ís who were taken away from their homes in Iran by the national intelligence agents, yesterday.

Read the whole story.

Practise

2008-05-12T09:57:00.003+02:00

I drove our 10 year old son to a gardencenter where he is doing his one day practise. Schoolchildren in Sweden have a chance to look around in different workplaces from an early age. I think that is great. He was so proud, he was going to his job! I am proud to. Also of our 14 year old daughter who will do her practise in some weeks from now for a whole week at a children's doctor's practise. She wants to become a doctor herself.

It looks to become a beautiful day again. The trees are blossoming so abundantly this year. And new flowers come up in our garden, that I haven't sown nor planted myself. They came as a seed with the wind maybe.

Nice day!

2008-05-11T18:10:00.003+02:00

It was a real summer day, with over 20 degrees C. We were already on the beach in the morning and ... I took my first swim of the year. If I'm good at something than it's swimming in cold water. First it feels so cold that it hurts. But then all feeling of the skin numbs and you don't feel the cold anymore. And than it's just enjoying the lovely fresh water.

Of course my husband couldn't stay behind, but he doesn't want to get in the sea from the beach. He wants to jump in directly from the rocks or stairs in the deep water. We had a discussion, as the water was really cold and as my husband suffers from Parkinson I thought it might be too big a risk him jumping in. I visioned myself as a widow with two children. But he promised to stay close to the stairs and I could live with that.

We went home around lunch time, when the other beachguests started to arrive. I could do my shopping in peace as the supermarket was almost empty on this lovely day.

I wrote a letter to somebody as an answer in a religious discussion. In general I think letters should be answered seriously and I got a letter of this person first.

My husband made the dinner which means I will do the dishes. And then maybe more writing ...

All those smells!

2008-05-10T21:01:00.005+02:00

When I am out in the garden in the evening it is like being inside a soap. All these lovely smells of spiraea. lilacs, appleblossoms and woodruff blend and make the most beautiful perfume ever.

Also the herbs have started to grow like peppermint, thyme, salvia, or oregano with all their unique wonderful smells.

And the kittens! They smell new carpet!

2008-05-02T09:42:00.004+02:00

Today is the last day of the Festival of Ridván. In this period we commemorate Bahá'u'lláh's announcement in 1863 that He was the Promised One of all religions. He was bannished from Bagdad to Constantinopel these twelve days he spent in a beautiful garden outside of Bagdad to say goodbye to His friends, family and inhabitans of the city. Ridván means 'paradise'.

During Ridván of this year the Universal House of Justice was re-elected. This is the body that guides the global Bahá'í community, has its seat in Haifa, Israel, and is instituted by Bahá'u'lláh Himself. These elections are held once in five years.

Photo by ArtLights

This and that

2008-04-27T22:19:00.004+02:00

The first kitten had its eyes half open tonight.

They are 6 days old

My boss, or better to say, the person that sends me work, Ulrika is back home in Sweden.

I expect some Openjet work soon

I believe I managed to fill in the tax forms!

The next step is to send it online to the taxauthorities

I baked krentenbollen (raisin buns).

Tomorrow I have a fasting-and-loose-weight day

I phoned my friend Marja in the Netherlands and talked about diseases and homeswapping.

We might swap our homes this summer. Yeah!

My daughter was too late to register for this year's Transformation for Peace.

We have to be earlier next year!

Kittens three days old

2008-04-24T21:31:00.002+02:00

Kittens!

2008-04-23T22:10:00.005+02:00

On the evening of the first day of the Ridván Festival (21st of April), our cat gave birth to the first kitten, while she was going upstairs to find a place to give birth. We could see the birth, the children too. It is a black and white one, just like it's father (or the cat we think is the father).

The next morning when we woke up our cat was lying pleased in her giving-birth banana box with three more kittens. Two red ones and one beige. Cute cute cute.

What's the secret

2008-04-23T21:55:00.005+02:00

of my old blog, which I closed down 10 months ago? It still gets almost daily visitors, sometimes even more frequent than this blog. Besides that the visitors come from much more widespread over the world.
Some frequent keywords visitors come in with are: 'knedliky' and 'margo blog'. The first word is a Czeck dish (dumplings) and leads the visitors to the sixth post from the top. And I wonder which Margo they really are looking for. Cannot be me.

So much life!

2008-04-16T08:45:00.004+02:00

It's really spring here on the Northern hemisphere. Springflowers, lambs, the first butterfly, birds making nests, green grass.

Remember our cat having a boyfriend? She sure is pregnant now! Look at the kittens move i her belly on the video below. It will soon be time for even more life!

Bahá'í Prayers

2008-04-09T21:10:00.004+02:00

Before I knew about the Bahá'í Faith I thought saying prayers was something 'ridiculous'. Too foolish for words.

But after learning about the Bahá'í Faith and accepting its truths I also accepted the importance of saying prayers as a means to keep the soul not only alive but growing too. Now I pray at least 2 times a day, often more. I couldn't do without it any longer.

Here you find Bahá'í prayers in many languages.

Photo by .leila

A Ruhi session

2008-04-05T18:34:00.003+02:00

We had another Ruhi session in our home today. We studied:

the Covenant between God and us, people
the life of Bahá'u'lláh

Studying the Word of God (especcialy the Writings written for our time) is always exciting, brings up many thoughts we shared and brings us closer to each other.

Besides all that, these Ruhi courses make it clear for me, what is expected of me in life. What might that be, you wonder? Well, showing others that a new world civilization is on its way and that there is a divine plan with clear structures showing us the path to this goal.

The dark side of the mobile phone

2008-03-30T10:53:00.007+02:00

Mobile phones are a wonderful invention, making life a lot easier. Remember having to look for a telephone-booth, which - when found- often was vandalized. Or people having to wait for you at the station for one hour, when the train was delayed. Now you can just call them and they can wait at home.

I have a mobile mostly for security. I want to have it in the car in case it breaks down and I want to be reachable when I am out, when something happenes to the children. This means I rarely use my mobile phone.

And I think that these phones have become more a kind of toy or means of recreation, which deminishes the joy of 'real life'. How irritating it is when you are in a conversation with somebody, abruptly broken off by a ring of the phone. People walk in the streets or drive their car (yes, that's allowed in Sweden) talking in their phones. Who are they talking to all the time and about what?

The saddest view for me is seeing a father or mother walking with their small child, talking in their phones all the time, in stead of having contact with their child. The child hears mom's or dad's voice continuously, but it's never directed to him or her. The phone is always more important than 'me', the little one must think.

Have we forgotten to show our children all the beauty of nature and the joy of having a deep contact with our own child?

Foto: Rich Lem

A bottomless ocean

2008-03-26T18:25:00.005+01:00

Some weeks ago a column by me was published in our local newspaper. It was about the immensity of Gods words to humanity revealed in His Holy Books.

If you understand Swedish you can read the article here.

Photo: Dave

Gothenburg

2008-03-25T10:01:00.012+01:00

Yesterday I came back from some intensive days in Sweden's second city Gothenburg.

On the 21nd of March we celebrated the Bahá'í New Year, Naw Rúz, in the Gothenburg Bahá'í Centre.

Naw Rúz is one of the Bahá'í Holy Days on which we celebrate the end of the fast, the coming of spring and the unity of mankind.

The next day my family visited the Universeum, a scientific museum in Gothenburg, really great to spend a whole day to enjoy the indoor nature and many experiments.

You can take your own lunch with you or eat at the café (which we did).

I think God has made wonderful creatures, like the ones above and below.

In the evening we enjoyed a wonderful easter dinner at my brother-in-law's where the children were searching the house for eastereggs. On the picture you see our son (the blond one) and my brother-in-law's grandson (the darkhaired one).

The last 2 days of my Gothenburg-visit I participated in a Bahá'í meeting where we learned about God's Great Plan for the world and mankind and how we can be a part of His Plan.

The Fast: a practise in obedience

2008-03-16T06:15:00.005+01:00

The Bahá'í Fast is in my eyes not about food and drink, but about obedience. To me it is a practise in obedience to God, think about Abrahams obedience by willing to sacrifice his own child.

Just do what He asks me to do, without understanding why. It could just as well have been something else, like living barefoot for 19 days or staying outside for 19 days.

Obedience to God is always rewarded, even that in a way we not always understand.

Video about the Fast

2008-03-14T21:33:00.005+01:00

Until the 21st of March the Bahá'ís are fasting, which bounty can be deeply felt but is sometimes difficult to explain to others. A dear friend sent me a video today which might help a little:

World Day of Prayer

2008-03-08T17:17:00.003+01:00

The World Day of Prayer is a yearly celebration organized by Christian women all over the world. In our town this year the organisation was in the hands of the Pentecost Church.

My family, who are Bahá'ís were also invited to participate. We are no Christians as such, but we surely believe in Christ as one of the Messengers of God.

The programme was put together by women in Guyana and was the same all over the world. We saw an interesting slideshow about life in Guyane. Different Christian prayers and quotations from the Bible were read.

A talk was given by Sanna Mansouri. Besides reading from the Bible, she told the moving story about her road of life, from an Iranian Muslim girl to a Christian priest living in Sweden.

The last prayer read by the leader of the evening, was a Bahá'í prayer for unity. We were of course very grateful.

History of Religion

2008-03-03T16:06:00.008+01:00

On the map here below you can see in 90 seconds how and where the worldreligions were born and how they spread over the globe over time. It's very welldone.

Unfortunately the youngest world religion - the Bahá'í Faith - is not mentioned, that would be very interesting to see: it started in 1844 in what now is Iran, moved soon to what is now Israel, spread very fast in small growing dots all over the world, at this moment most densely in Iran, India and Africa, but present in every little corner of the world.

I found it here.

The Fast

2008-03-02T09:47:00.007+01:00

Today is the first day of the Bahá'í Fast. For 19 days we don't eat nor drink between sunrise and sunset.

The fast is a period of cleansing. It's a period of practising obedience towards our Creator and every world religion has some kind of fastingperiod.

It's not very easy, neither extremely difficult. I am never looking forward to the fast and at the same time I love it.

It is amazing how much time goes to preparing food and drink and consuming this and how much extra time per day you have while fasting.

Read more about the Bahá'í Fast.

Foto: Joka2000

His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav's Christmas talk

2008-02-28T08:31:00.003+01:00

I'm a bit late in writing this but I still like to mention that I liked the Christmas talk of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden very much. It was a lot about unity and understanding.

I'll try to translate the parts I liked the most (it's thus not a perfect translation).

...

The major religions of the world have this hope for a better existence for life on earth in common. My wish on this Christmas Day is that we all, no matter which culture or religion we belong to can connect to the hope for a better world and a more secure future for the generations to come.

All people have the need to believe in a new tomorrow. Continuously conflicts occur between people and countries. It seems we find it difficult to live together on this one and only earth.

There must be a way to live side by side with mutual respect for each other's differences. This vision we should try to keep alive.
...
Sometimes we are afraid for changes, but I see changes as a mirrage of the time we live in. To welcome differences and let the mixture of cultures and experiences enrich our lives and our society is the only way forwards.

....

I believe that we together and with new knowledge have an exciting world ahead of us. Let us help to create a better tomorrow. That is my highest wish for the new year.

...

I can only but agree.

A Bahá'í quiz

2008-02-27T08:42:00.002+01:00

How much do you know about the Bahá'í Faith? Try yourself here.

I had 10 out of 10, but that should have been expected after having been a Bahá'í for more than 20 years.

Dizzy Gillespie's music still lives

2008-02-26T10:17:00.006+01:00

I saw this poster by the railway station. Dizzy Gillespie's music will be played in Falkenberg on Saturday the 1st of March in the Tångaschool at 17.00 by the bohuslän big band. I am not a real fan of bebop music, but would have liked to have listened anyway if we would not have had a Ruhi course at the same time. The concerts will be held until the 10th of March in different Swedish towns.

Many don't know that Dizzy Gillespie was a Bahá'í.

Olle has passed on

2008-02-25T12:32:00.005+01:00

Our dear friend, musician, writer/publisher and exemplary Bahá'í, Dr. Olle Åhs passed away in his home last saturday. Olle was a devoted Bahá'í, he was brave and had a large sense of justice. Olle really lived what he taught. He saw the whole of mankind as one body and treated everybody as a close friend.

Olle was critical about the development in the educational system and wrote three wonderful books about the subject. All Swedish and Danish teachers should read them. A fourth book will be published posthumously.

Olle will be deeply missed by many. But we know he is still around, only on a higher level.

Enough about sex

2008-02-23T10:00:00.004+01:00

Living in a western European country I get a bit tired about all talk about sex. Especially when directed to children and youth. As if there is nothing else to talk about. For instance a youth programme that is broadcasted on TV every evening at 19.00 o'clock talks more about sex and being in love than anything else. OK, sex is an important part of life, but so are our feet. Why not talk more about feet? I'd rather do without sex than without feet to be honest.

What is most embarrasing is, when talking about sex, that it is mostly about the practical things. How to do this and that. Nothing is strange. Everything is normal. But why are they giggling and red in their faces anyway? Young children look at this, also my 10 year old, but he gets an additional relationship education at home and through our religion. I am afraid that many of these sex talks and tips encourage our youth to start experimenting far too early, before they know what is important in a relationship. With single teenage mothers and abortions as a result.

I have nothing against the sexual education at school, but besides the biological part, I would like that our youth worldwide would learn more about how to establish a steady relationship that lasts a lifetime. It's not só difficult, when you just know the trics. Like not having sex before you've decided to stay together through life. If you're not sure that this person fits you the rest of your life, he/she doesn't fit to get children with. This is very important. And the acceptance of the fact that a person changes when growing older. For me to chose my lifetime partner the most important thing was that he should be good with children. And it has worked out very fine. And be sure, when you first chose your lifetime partner and only then have sex: you'll have the rest of your life to do all your experiments and have all the fun that belongs to sex.

It is difficult to talk like this in the society I live in, as people get angry and think I am from the Middle Ages. I guess no sex before marriage and taking a relationship as serious as your life is the taboo of this age.

Photo: Wipeoutpdr

My photo in a book?

2008-02-22T17:54:00.002+01:00

Today I was asked whether one or some of my photo's on Flickr may be used in an Australian book about the Bahá'í Faith. We first were amazed, then proud, then happy. It's about photo's of the Prison in Akká where Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned: these ones.

Nature cannot be planned

2008-02-20T18:24:00.003+01:00

Somewhere in the autumn I stopped to give our cat contraceptives. According to my calculation we would have kittens around Christmastime so we could enjoy them in the holidays and before the summer they would have gone to there new homes.

Every now and then I felt on her stomach and I was sure she was pregnant. Her stomach was huge. I went to the vetenarian who explained that Izzy just had a lot of food in her stomach.

Hahahaha. Nothing happened at all.

People explained to us that catladies are in heat in springtime, around March. A new calculation showed: probably the kittens (if any) will be born in the beginning of the summer and can leave their mother, well, when the schools start again.

Hahahaha. We will have to spend our summerholiday at home. So be it. We have accepted the sour facts. Kittens will be a lot of fun too. And we might travel somewhere in the autumn.

Look here what is going on around our house: our cat is the one in the front. Will her boyfriend become a father in a few weeks?

Should be dead

2008-02-19T21:11:00.009+01:00

This marigoldplant is still alive in this Swedish February.

Is it the climate-change? Don't know. 250 years ago a winter was just as warm as this one, they said on the news.

But it still is strange. We might skip sowing new seeds in the spring anyway.

Nature is cruel

2008-02-17T13:46:00.005+01:00

Our cat, who has a little bell on her necklace to take away her ability to catch birds, was still coming in with a beautiful but dead great tit in her mouse.

No energy

2008-02-16T18:20:00.005+01:00

Almost a week ago since I wrote. I've got some things in my head that could be written down, but I haven't got the energy right now.

This week was full with visits to the hospital, dentist (3x), doctor and some therapist for both our daughter and myself. Nothing serious, but all this disrupts the regularity of my weekdays.

I'll come up with something 'real' soon.

Internet changed my life

2008-02-09T08:54:00.000+01:00

We are a so-called poor family (in Swedish terms) and didn't have a computer until about 4-5 years ago. But since we have this machine many things changed in my life. I work totally internetbased as a translator and blogger (yes: this can be a job). I've never seen nor spoken to the wonderful people I work for (mostly for Travelstart/ Openjet). Really strange in a way.

But the greatest change for me through Internet has occurred recently: I have direct contact with my beloved Iranian co-Bahá'ís. This is unbelievable. I can't travel to Iran, just because I am a Bahá'í. It would be very unwise to do. And the Bahá'ís from Iran cannot so easily travel to Europe, they would have to flee in that case. And now I can just chat about this and that with them and who knows I will meet both my collaeges and Iranian co-Bahá'ís in real life one day.

Amnesty takes up case Bahá'í prisoners

2008-02-08T10:07:00.000+01:00

Read here. I wrote about these three prisoners before.

Ruhi book 2

2008-02-02T18:57:00.000+01:00

Today we started the second course in the Ruhi-sequence. Book 2 is about service.

One of the things I learned was a view on 'sacrifice'. Sacrifice is letting something on a higher level go before something of a lower level. For instance if you are sitting and eating, and somebody calls for help, the higher thing to do is to go and help. You sacrifice the food for the moment.

These courses are rather intensive, so I am quite tired in my head.

What is famous?

2008-01-31T12:32:00.000+01:00

Sweden is a large country in size, but little in number of people. I notice this especcially in connection with 'famous people'. Often my husband says, when seeing some politician on TV: 'I've been playing with her in the sandbox when I was 5', or seeing some famous actor: 'I've been travelling with him to Prague'.

I'm reading a book by the Swedish writer Marie Hermanson right at the moment when she was going to give a talk here in our town (which has the size of a village). My husband has been listening to her and, while there, met the choirleader of our children of whom we got our cat. This lady is a cousin with the writer.

I am grown up in the Netherlands, which is a small country in size, but large in number of people. 'Famous people' are kind of far away stars. You see them on TV or in magazines, but never in real life. Having a cat from the cousin of a famous writer would be quite special in Holland. Something to talk proudly about.

It also happens that I meet famous people on the train here in Sweden. Once I saw a comedian on the train. I had just seen him the night before on TV and he was wearing the same shirt! I don't think famous people travel by train in the Netherlands. They would get everybody after them.

Square candle

2008-01-27T16:50:00.000+01:00

Made this photo yesterday...

I'm going for square candles from now on, as they melt down beautifully and become like a flower.

A quiz

2008-01-26T11:10:00.000+01:00

Since some time I am a member of Facebook, a great and fast tool to keep contact with aquaintances and friends. But Facebook is full with quizes and games and I wonder if people don't have anything else to do. The quiz: 'Are you like me?' seems to be popular. Rediculous, because we all are unique and there is nobody like me. To give it a test:

When I left my parents house, 29 years ago, I got a set of towels with me from my mother and some of them are still in use. I married 16 years ago with a man who moved in to me with a couple of towels. We always had enough towels to dry ourselves after a bath or a swim. Some years ago my mother-in-law past away and left heaps of towels behind. We don't have place for all of them and a lot of them are stored to give with my children when they move out.

I am a woman of almost half a century, married with a daughter and a son. I have never bought a towel for myself nor my family in my whole life. ARE YOU LIKE ME?

Photo: The summer is magic

A bargain

2008-01-24T22:08:00.000+01:00

I love to buy and give presents, it really gives me satisfaction. If I would be richer I would be giving much more.

Today it was shoppingtime for my husband's coming birthday (don't worry, he never reads my blog). I surprised myself and the shopassistant that I bargained on two black undershirts. Ha! In Sweden! That must be one of the results of the opened door I wrote about some days ago. The package in which the shirts were lying, looked old and damaged as if it had been opened before. It costed 179 sek and I offered 150.

'What shall I do now?' said the shopassistant. 'Well, you either say yes or no!' was my answer. 'So you're bargaining?' 'Yeah' He packed the shirts (and a sweater I also bought) and charged me 150 for the shirts.

Ha ha ha. The opened door has caused more than this, but not everything is bloggable.

Sorry, Omid

2008-01-22T21:25:00.000+01:00

I have always disliked under-the-belt jokes. I think they are cheap. Can't you skip those please?

Omid Djalili on Swedish TV

2008-01-22T08:53:00.000+01:00

We were surprised to see our friend and co-Bahá'í Omid Djalili's show on Swedish TV. Even Omid himself didn't know his show would be broadcasted in Sweden. From being an ordinary person and familyfather he has become internationally famous. Already many years ago he said he wanted to work for worldpeace by using humor and he really succeeds in crushing one prejudice after the other during half an hour of generously giving the joy of roaring laugher. Omid writes a blog too.

Tonight at 20.30 we sit in front of the TV!

On the picture you see Omid on the right with my husband an son, taken by me 1½ years ago in Hluboká, Czechia.

World Religion Day

2008-01-20T09:30:00.000+01:00

Today it is the third Sunday of January, which means World Religion Day. Worldwide people of all religions come together or have a session in their home to say prayers and read from the Holy Writings (of all religions). The aim is to foster the establishment of interfaith understanding and harmony by emphasizing the common denominators underlying all religions.
My family will have a smaller get-together and read from Holy Scriptures of different religions.

Dragfyre made this photo last year in Ottawa on World Religion Day.

A door opens

2008-01-19T13:05:00.000+01:00

Every Bahá'í is supposed to read from the Writings every morning and evening. It doesn't mean that we have to sit for hours and study, reading just a line can be enough. The Holy Writings of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are like nourishment for the soul and taking in small bits regularly keeps the soul alive and satisfied.

The last few weeks I have been studying 'The Four Valleys' of Bahá'u'lláh. I take a line or so a day and ponder over it. To be honest, this book is difficult to understand for me. But last night I read the following line:

Love is a light that never dwelleth in a heart possesed by fear.

and suddenly a door of understanding opened. This open door leads me to a new room in my spiritual progress (I hope) which I am anxious to discover. Gods ways are mysterious.

The photo is by James Sagi Kirschenfeld

A sign of spring

2008-01-17T12:38:00.000+01:00

Our short autumn-holiday to Denmark worked as a good prevention against a winterdepression. We haven't had winter yet here in the south of Sweden, which feels strange. The days are dark without snow. Another supermedicine against depression was the sight of this today:

Isn't that sweet: the crocusses are coming up in our lawn!

Modern or oldfashioned?

2008-01-12T22:46:00.000+01:00

Can one be modern and oldfashioned at the same time? Yes. Bahá'ís are. The Bahá'í Faith is the most modern religion that exists, because it's the latest one. It is for instance the only religion of which the Writings say that men and women are equal. Bahá'u'lláh, the Messenger of God for our time, even goes so far as to say that when a family has not enough money for all children to study, it's the girls that may go first.
A big issue of today is globalisation. People are for or against it. The Bahá'í Faith was born on the 23rd of May 1844 in Persia and since that night the believers follow the principle: the world is but one country and mankind it's citizens. Imagine: coming from Iran 1844!
At the same time the 'modern' world, like western Europe, can find us very oldfashioned. Why? Because we marry before having sex. And we only marry persons of the opposite sex. Wow, how oldfashioned! But wow, how wonderful! Why do we do this? Because our Creator tells us, through His Messenger for today (and all His Messengers of the past for that matter), that that is the way to do it. It's a law. It's the best for us and for the whole society. Some things just never change. Through all eternity this is the best way for humanity to organize itself. Just like that through all eternity it will be best for the tree and for the whole forest to grow with its roots downwards and its branches upwards. A tree is created to grow like that.
I don't like long blogtexts, so I might have to come back to this. I have to explain more about why this chastity law is so wonderful.

Time flies

2008-01-12T13:26:00.001+01:00

This is my daughter. 14 Years ago I held her in my arms for the first time.

She has lived in 2 countries (Latvia and Sweden), speaks Swedish, Dutch and English. Is learning German. She plays recorder, guitar and starts playing piano. She has travelled to Czechia all by herself to attend 'Transformation for Peace'.

I am proud of her.

No New Year's Promise

2008-01-05T11:57:00.000+01:00

On many blogs can be read about the blogger's New Year's Promise for 2008. I wish them good luck.

Bahá'ís try to improve their character in another way. Every day we try to become a better person than the day before. It's very effective, because small steps are more managable than one huge jump. And with 365 small steps per year the result might be much larger than the result of one big New Year's Promise (which often is forgotten around the middle of January).

A good tip is to think over your day just before you go to sleep, imagine what you could do better the next day and (the most important): keep to this little promise.

New Year's recipes

2008-01-02T14:04:00.000+01:00

My friend Lovecat asked me for the oliebollen-recipe. As they are so easy to make and very delicious I gladly share it with everybody:

Dutch oliebollen ('oilballs')

Ad a little of 4½ dl (4 cups) milk to 4 dl (3½ cups) flour and stir it until there's no dry flour left. Smooth out all lumps. Ad 1 egg, a little salt and 20 g (5 tablespoons) soft butter or margarine (fluid works best) and a little more of the milk.

Warm up the rest of the milk till lukewarm. Add 20 g yeast (as for half a bread) and a very full tablespoon of sugar to the milk. Stir and add to the dough. Blend until smooth.

Cover and let it yeast in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Let lumps of the dough glide into hot frying oil with the help of two tablespoons. They are called 'balls', but usually become quite shapeless. Fry 5-7 minutes. Fish them out of the oil. Put them on some paper to let the oil drip off. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving. Eat them warm. This recipe will give about 16 oliebollen.

Now I'm busy anyway I'll also give the recipe for the

Russian new year sallad

Cut 2 large cooked carrots*, 2 boiled potatoes*, 2 boiled eggs and 4 pickled gherkins in small blocks. Add the peas of 1 can. Add some mayonnaise, salt and peppar and mix everything well.

* don't boil too long!

The oilballs are not really healthy. In the Netherlands we eat them only once a year, on the 31st of December. The Russian sallad is really tasty, simple, vegetarian and healthy. A good tip for when you are receiving guests.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T12:01:00.000+01:00

I wish all my newyear celebrating readers. Not everybody is celebrating New Year today however. Some of these are the Bahá'ís who celebrate their New Year on the 21st of March.

So what did we do yesterday, when 95 % of the people around us celebrated the last day of their year? It was nice weather, so we had a long walk. I baked some oliebollen, a Dutch tradition on the 31st of December. Delicious but fat. For dinner we had a Russian newyear's sallad, from a recipe I got from a collaegue who lives in Russia. Also delicious and much healthier. In the evening we played a boardgame 'Barricade' which took 2 hours, lighted some sparklers around 10.30 pm and after that we went to bed. The cat was allowed for one time's sake to be in our bedroom, as she was afraid of all the explosions that were heard all evening through.

Not technical enough

2007-12-30T16:34:00.000+01:00

Our computer is getting slower and slower and yesterday the fan died. So I can't work on it more than let's say 15 minutes, before the thing gets too warm. I had learned that problems with the fan can be caused by too much dust. So I took my tools and vacuumcleaner, unplugged the black box and tried to open it, which was very easy. There's just one screw to loosen when the whole side can be taken of. The children and I (I did this when my husband was not around) were amazed how empty it was inside. This is how it looked like:

I vacuumed it carefully without touching anything and closed the box again. I even vacuumed the fan on the backside. Now it's nice and clean, but it didn't help. The fan is still dead. The next step is calling an expert.
I guess it's time to close down the computer, to prevent burning trough.

The four fields of life

2007-12-24T22:11:00.000+01:00

I once read in a book about psychology (don't remember which one) that life consists of 4 'fields': work, marriage, relationships and beliefs. During one's lifetime one works on each of these fields.

I have always liked this way of looking at life, as it gives a great balance. If the crops on one field don't grow so well, there are still three others that give gratitude and joy. And the fields also interact with each other. Success in one of the fields can shine it's light over the other ones.

This seeing life in 'fields' also helps not to overdo just one part of life, like work becoming the only thing or only sitting and praying without doing anything else in life.

The field of beliefs is for me the most special one. In my case I have chosen the Bahá'í Faith as my religion. Having the words of God for our time as a source cannot be compared to anything else. In this special field there's no sorrow nor failure as it is in the sphere of the soul. Having such a field is a great blessing as it continues to shine light and gives strength in the other fields. One thing is very important though: I have to work in this field regularly, daily, to keep it alive.

We had the flu

2007-12-22T10:04:00.000+01:00

The last week or so we all have been having the flu. It started with our son, then me, then my husband and the last to be struck was our daughter. Now I start to feel better again there's a whole heap of work lying and waiting: laundry, an empty fridge, dust in all corners, etcetera. Nice!

Against a loose stomach we have a wonderful remedy: white clay (Bolus alba or kaolin). White clay is used to make porcelain, but can in some countries (like the Netherlands or Belgium) be bought as a medicinal powder. I bought half a kilo for about 20 years ago and over these years we have only used half of it (incl. sharing with others). One teaspoon of the claypowder in your tea usually solves the loosiness directly. It can also be used on dirty wounds, which was done by the oldtime gypsies. They found the white clay by following the bloodtrack of wounded foxes. A wounded fox seems to be instinctively attracted by the white clay.

Here you can buy a liquid form, but I prefer the pure powder which stays well for ever. Don't use more than 3 teaspoons per day and only for a short period. Overdose can cause clogging of the clay inside your system. But using it sparingly is completely innocent.

Sorry!

2007-12-21T11:14:00.000+01:00

Since about 1½ year I've been blogging and learned this by just doing it. Lately I get mails and phonecalls of people who want me to help them to set up their blogs. My answer is: "No, sorry." I don't have time for that. The only advice I can give I will give here and now: google free blogs and you'll get almost a milliard hits of free blog hosts. Open a blog on one of them, they usually have FAQ-pages (Frequently Answered Questions) and a mailaddress for help. Just do it.

And by the way -I must say this-, asking a mother of a family with an incurable patient, could be a bit insensitive. The patient sleeps at 9 in the evening. So. And again: sorry.

Seven wishes

2007-12-15T18:29:00.000+01:00

Ulrika challenged me to list seven wishes and challenge 7 other bloggers to do this.

Thanks, Ulrika, that's rather fun, so I take the challenge. The main wishes of my life have already been fulfilled, I'm glad to say: I have a nice husband, two wonderful children, live in an old house in a pleasant country, I have a free job that I love and most of all, I have found a religion that i really believe in and can give all my heart and soul to. But there must be always more to wish so I list a little mix of my remaining desires:

live at least until my 60th birthday i.e. until my children are adult (preferably longer);
become more patient;
have my weight down to 72 kg;
dare to drive on motorroads (I learned to drive in Latvia, where the only motorroad is about 3 km long, and where I never drove faster than 70 km/h);
become more understanding;
have a cleaner house;
and last but not least (how materiallistic!) have more money.

Then I give the challenge on to: Lovecat, Borna, Alexander, Wendi, Anne, Sabrina and Dragfyre.

Maz Jobrani

2007-12-11T12:46:00.000+01:00

Maz Jobrani is an Iranian stand-up comedian, here joking about prejudices. Enjoy!

Why an example?

2007-12-09T18:36:00.000+01:00

My former post was about 'Abdu'l-Bahá being my Master, that is my example. In our modern world it happens that people think it is 'weak' or 'silly' to have an example, especcially in religious context, for one's actions in life.

I believe, however, that everybody has examples in her or his life to live after: a teacher, a parent, a friend, a person who is financially succesfull, name it. Who lives without examples?

Abraham and Mozes are the examples for the Jews, Christ is the exampel for the Christians and Muhammed for the Muslims. The Manifestation (Profet, Promised One) for our time is Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892). As He spent most of His life in prisonship , the Bahá'ís could not see much of Him. That's why He appointed His son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, as the perfect example for the Bahá'ís to live after.

As I believe that Bahá'u'lláh has come from God to tell us how we should live in this time, I gladly accept His advice to take 'Abdu'l-Bahá as my example. Why take an imperfect example when there is a perfect one to get?

Photo: made in the Pilgrimhouse in Haifa, Israel

My Master

2007-12-05T19:47:00.000+01:00

Bahá'u'lláh, the Manifestation of God for our time, appointed his son as the perfect example for His followers, the Bahá'ís, and gave him the title 'The Master'. But the Master called himself 'Abdul'Bahá, which means 'Servant of God'. 'Adu'l-Bahá (1844-1921) is my Master. Here you can see a photo collage of him and enjoy some beautiful Persian music honoring him. Enjoy!

Yummy Brussels Sprouts

2007-12-01T15:17:00.000+01:00

Last week I got a letter with a vegetable cookingbook as a gift from my friend Corry in the Netherlands. I prepared the brussels sprouts according to the book and even the children liked it.

500 g Brussels Sprouts
100 Pecan Nuts
2 tablespoons Margarine (fluid)

Clean the sprouts and cook them for 10 minutes. Let them dry a bit.
Roast the pecan nuts in a hot pan. Take them out.
Heat the margarine and add the sprouts. Bake & stir for 3-4 minutes.
Add the pecan nuts just before serving.

No pink ribbon

2007-11-28T12:41:00.000+01:00

I don't wear a pink ribbon, but I still want to make the world a better place. I'm not for concentrating on one single problem, as we have so many other ones. I would be full with ribbons.

Our world can be compared to a sinking ship, full with holes. Concentrating to one or some holes doesn't keep the ship from sinking, as the water comes in from everywhere else. The ship has just become too old and beyond repair. Sounds bad? Don't worry. The Bahá'ís are very busy building a new ship without any holes where everybody is welcome. The Bahá'í principles are a sound foundation to a new and strong worldorder. Welcome you too!

Earwigs

2007-11-27T21:32:00.000+01:00

Our son (who has been bullied) has been back to school for two days now and it goes fine. He is his old happy, singing and jumping self again. I find him brave.

I compare dark habits that are done in secret with earwigs, such insects that flee the light. I mean habits like bullying, sexual assaults and the like. Of you let these creeps be, they don't dissappear by themselves, but just become more and more. The best remedy is to put the flood-lights on them. They run away and don't come back as long as the light is on.
When such things occur in my life I bluntly speak about it, directly to the people concerned. Not to others. It's very difficult to do, I think, and might momentarily cause more trouble, mostly caused by denial. But in the end it works.

Thanks to 4hero for the picture.

Persecutions... again?

2007-11-26T22:47:00.000+01:00

I heard some worrying rumours regarding the imprisonment of three Baha'i youths in Shiraz. They were sentenced to four years of imprisonment. Their only crime would be: initiating and participating in socio-economic projects that serve their co-citizens. Their names: Haleh Rouhi, Raha Sabet and Sasan Taghva.

The nicest job in the world

2007-11-26T21:46:00.000+01:00

When I was small I wanted to become a midwife. I'm educated as a gardener, and as a secretary. But now I work as a translator. Funny how life can be. I never was a language-person at school, but liked to communicate with people from the countries I have been to a lot or lived in, preferably in their own languages. The largest challenge was Latvian, one of the oldest Indo-European languages.
Now I'm almost ready with the translation of a book and I do a lot of translationwork for a travelagency. It's fun to translate a website, especially when I see my work on the Internet, and I do their Dutch blog too. It's perfect to sit at home and work in peace, while I'm always there for our children when they come home from school. Sometimes I love my work so much, that I prefer it to anything else!

Whom did I marry?

2007-11-24T21:26:00.001+01:00

Even though I have been married for more than 15 years, I still wonder who my husband is. It's so funny, we got married hardly knowing each other. He lived in the north of Sweden. I lived in the Netherlands. We met once in Czechoslovakia, once again in Israel, where we got to like each other. He visited me twice in the Netherlands. I visited him once in Sweden. All together we'd seen each other no more than 30 days. One month!
Than he moved to me with nine boxes with his stuff. By train. We married the next day. Than we started to prepare our move to Latvia. Where we got a baby and and another. There was never time to get to know each other.
Yesterday night we were lying in bed and I felt the same like in the beginning of our marriage: here I lie with an unknown man. Well, I do like him and we have a lot of fun.

Closer to the light

2007-11-23T22:24:00.000+01:00

This morning I felt sick and thought I would never come through this day. How wrong I was. I still didn't want my son to go to school, without having some sign from the school that he would be safe. I had a real cry, which doesn't happen very often. Bullying is a very dark phenomena. It's a dark thing to do and when you're the victim (or the victim's parent), you just want to hide and not to be seen. Dark things can only be cured by turning on the light. So I talked about it with the people involved. It was hard (for everybody). And I made clear that I didn't dare to let my son come to school before the negative spiral was turned. My husband and I had a talk with the headmaster and the teacher today. They have assured us they have taken the measures to influence the whole class to understand, what has happened. They'll put a school-psychologist to work on the class. We felt that they really take the matter very serious and we felt a lot lighter afterwards.
Our son has been to his theatergroup this afternoon and felt quite happy. He wants to go to school on monday.

Another thing of today is that another column about the Bahá'í Faith by me was published in the local newspaper. It's always a little nervous and I get the idea that everyone is looking at me.

Hard day

2007-11-22T15:26:00.001+01:00

Kept my son from school today after he has been bullied again a lot yesterday. Tomorrow we'll talk with the headmaster.

Feast between two books

2007-11-18T21:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I and the children took the train to the small village of Torup, where we were invited to a dinner with different friends. It was kind of a feast between the two Ruhi courses, book 1 and book 2. We enjoyed the delicious food (marinaded chicken, fried potatoes, salad, quark, coffee, applecake), prepared by my friend Susanne. We also took a walk in the misty forest. When the children were playing upstairs, we could have some deeper conversations about that the different religions use different expressions for their founders, like Son of God, Profet or Manifestation of God. These are different words for the same status.

Problems at school

2007-11-16T22:52:00.001+01:00

My son loves learning and going to school. But lately he didn't want to go to school in the mornings and came home sad or angry. Another child in the class is teasing him daily in an humiliating way and gets others to help. It's a great test for him, because these attacks always happen in the time gaps when no teacher is around. I've been talking to the teachers and to the mother of the other child. At this moment the teasing child denies everything and my son cannot give any prooves. Next week the teachers will set a meeting for both children, the parents and themselves and with the aid of prayers, I hope this will have a positive outcome.

I used to be teased a lot as a child myself. My goodness! For instance once my little brother for some reason had irritated some girls in my class. We were twelve and he was seven and only had been laughing or so. These girls organized a whole lot of others against me, who waited around every streetcorner on the way home and attacked me both with words and physically. When I came home once with both my legs bruiced and full of bluemarks, my mother came to school in the morning to talk to the teacher. In the first lesson the teacher took it all out on me in front of the whole class. She had the opinion that grown ups should not have to interfere in the affairs of children. On the way home from school, when I (with my siblings whom I had to follow home) passed the house of one of the teasing girls. The frontdoor opened and her mother shouted after me, that I was a cowardly dog. On the same day another child had been biking over my little brother, on the schoolyard (after school) and I had to help him after this, on my allmost most terrible day of my life.

No free Hotmail or Yahoo for Iran

2007-11-13T07:03:00.000+01:00

I love Iranians. I have many Iranian friends and everybody can learn of their warmth and politeness. I felt sad to hear that -for political reasons- the people of Iran are blocked from having a free Hotmail or Yahoo emailaccount. This type of politics is not making the world a better place to live. Read more here.

Bahá'u'lláh's Birthday

2007-11-12T12:14:00.000+01:00

Today the Bahá'ís celebrate the Birthday of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'láh is the latest (but not the last) messenger of God, just like for instance Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, Khrisha or Buddha. God gives new teaching to mankind, according to the stage of development we happen to be in.

In our age, we have to learn something new. We already know that we have to love others, even our enemy, that we have to give to the poor, etcetera. Some new principles that have never been given to humankind by any former religions are: equality of men and women; the world is just one country and mankind it's citizens; an auxiliary language for all people on this earth.

Today is a Holy Day for the Bahá'ís, a bit like Christmas for the Christians. The Bahá'ís don't work or go to school and have celebrations in homes and in bigger halls, all over the world which are open to everybody.

Photo: Garden of Ridvan near Akká (Acco, Acre) in Israel, a place loved by Bahá'u'lláh.