I'm in Athens. Time on the internet is not exactly time well-spent here, so I'll share using the ever useful, shortened, im-way-too-important-to-have-the-time-to-use-paraghraphs solution, bullet points.
I was at a meeting this evening, and the topic of some service I'm doing in the Baha'i community came up. I am serving both on the nine member body that was meeting tonight and as a sort of facilitator of service opportunities in Minneapolis. The issue was that I'm the only person serving in this second role, whereas a few months ago there were three or four people serving as a committee. Concerns were shared about me being overwhelmed, and shortly after more concerns were shared about what can go wrong if I get hit by a bus. This went on for some time - a very serious discussion about the possibility that I may die. I was trying really hard not to laugh. I managed.
note posted on a fridge in a private Christian liberal arts college dormitory
Today at the children's class I mentioned earlier, I was talking with one of the younger kids about the picture he was coloring in. He said that the people in the picture were being friends and sharing, and he shares too. He said "I make robots for them. Eeeeasily. And nice ones too".
My hero!
"I'm going swimming. If I drown, you can tell everyone at my funeral that I left this world doing what I fear most. Drowning."
The conversation led to what he does to help his parents and siblings, and he said "I hug them, and I give them flowers...and trophies!"
I noticed that these kids talk about God a whole lot. Some are Muslim, some Christian - most of them think about God every day (or at least hear about God from their parents). As we talked about a story of Abdu'l-Baha, one boy - the one in the picture, on the right asked me who I think God is. This was actually a difficult question. I've never tried to explain my belief in God to a child before. I thought back to a beautiful discussion in one of the books of the "Ruhi" curriculum, a sequence of courses that are part of an international training institute, designed for people of every background and religion. The discussion that came to mind was a hypothetical one laid out in Book 6 between a young girl named Anna and her friend Emilia, where Anna explains to her friend many important concepts within the Baha'i Faith, including God. The tough part was making this accessible to a child who has only learned English in the past several months and has his own ideas of who God is. Still, I'm glad I opened my mouth and said something rather than backing out and avoiding his important question.
I really love all of them so much. The one on the left has a sweetness about him, I can't put my finger on it, but he just melts my heart. Today at the end of the class, which we do every Saturday and plan to keep doing, he said "Hey! Maybe we can do this again next week!"
I saw both of my little sisters this past summer, which is rare because one lives in Greece and the other in British Columbia. A little brother or sister was number one on my wish list growing up, especially during ages 4-10, which were lonely times as a result of my parents divorce. When I turned 14, my sister Ivvy was born. I was able to help take care of her and together my stepmother and I were like her two parents. I was never even close to being at risk of getting pregnant, but taking care of a baby at that age struck me as 1) an effective form of birth control for teenage girls and 2) a small glimpse into parenthood and the blessings that come with it.
Back to last summer: we went to visit a family friend, who gave each of
the girls an identical doll. Both of them named their doll Molly.
"How's your Molly? My Molly is taking a nap," Chantale would say. "My
Molly and your Molly should eat eggs when they wake up," Ivvy would
say, in her thick
Greek accent. As I watched them play with their
Mollys, I suddenly felt a wave of relief and joy wash over me. They have what I wished for all those
years, and I felt comforted by this. One of them has also seen
a divorce, but she has an older sister who will
always support her, and a younger sister who will always look up to
her. It looks like I got what I wished for!
