Girl on a Pony Day

 

AUGUST 2ND IS GIRL ON A PONY DAY.

Gila Bend Arizona

 

Gila Bend,  Arizona 

Wim Wenders

One Heavenly Source

 

California Bay Tree

 

Umbellularia californica , or California Bay

(California Native Plant Society)

Súrih of Sorrows

 

“Would that the universe had never been called into existence! Would that the world had never been brought into being! 

Would that no Prophet had ever been raised up, no Messenger sent forth, and no Cause established amongst men! 

Would that the Name of God had never been manifested betwixt earth and heaven, and that no Books, Tablets, or Scriptures had ever been revealed! 

Would that the Ancient Beauty had never been made to dwell among these workers of iniquity, nor to suffer at the hands of those who openly disbelieved in God and who committed against Him that which none on earth had ever dared commit! 

By the one true God! Wert thou, O ‘Alí, to examine My limbs and members, My heart and vitals, thou wouldst discover the traces of those same bullets that struck that Temple of God. 

Alas, alas! Thus was the Revealer of verses prevented from revealing them, and this Ocean from surging, and this Tree from bearing fruit, and this Cloud from pouring down its rain, and this Sun from giving its light, and this Heaven from ascending on high. 

Yet, so hath it been irrevocably decreed in this Day.”

~ Baha'u'llah,

 (Súrih of Sorrows)

July 5th Cleanup

They're probably picking up litter today, eleven years later.

Beach Cottage

 

Beach Cottage

The Alhambra

 

The Alhambra,, Grenada, Spain.  (Gianni LaRosa)

TOP OF THE STAIRS

 

TOP OF THE STAIRS

It was a new place in a new town, and we were 13.  We lived with our father in an apartment in a house at the top of a public stairway. 

We'd watch the Coho ferry arrive and depart for Victoria, British Columbia, sometimes while fishing from a pier.  It was a new chapter, but a short one.

Eight months after arriving in Port Angeles we were on a Greyhound bus to Burbank to live with our mother. The summer after that, we were back in Port Angeles in an apartment over Mel's Street Shop, which was the social center of town. We'd open the windows and watch the people below come and go all day. Good times! 

This drawing is from a photograph I took from the top of the stairs in 1961. Mel's Street Shop is the white building, second from left.

Looking across the Straight of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia, from the top of the stairs. 

River

 

Master! How Do You Like these Rooms?

 

Baha'i Magazine "Star of the West" Vol. 19, No. 5

Insatiable

 

". . . many were ready to sacrifice their honor as human beings – and the blood of innocents – by disguising their struggle for wealth as a quest for liberty for the common man.”

Harlow Giles Unger,  American Tempest

Needlepoint

 

Stitch detail

 

     PORCH 

HELEN MERRILL featuring STAN GETZ: "If you go away"

Almost Finito

 

Man Walking

 

Renunciation

 

Corrine Randall

Édith Piaf - Ne me quitte pas

Aztec Stone Joinery

 

AZTEC STONE JOINERY

Liberty

 

"Consider the pettiness of men’s minds. They ask for that which injureth them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them. They are, indeed, of those that are far astray. We find some men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance.

Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner, the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal.  That which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will protect him from his own ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker." Baha'u'llah

Clare Daly MEP

 

The Martyrdom of Tahirih

 

"Tahirih was captured in 1852, along with other Babis and was imprisoned in Tehran under house arrest. Still she taught this new religion, which included the principle of the equality of men and women. Many of the women of Tehran came to learn from Tahirih, and the Cause of the Bab continued to spread. The end of her teaching came in the same year ,when she was sentenced to death by the Shah. Her reply to this sentence was, 'You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.'

Dressed in white silk, she had prepared for her death with fasting and prayers. She was strangled with a silk handkerchief and then thrown into a well, later filled with stones and dirt."

The Pure One

Nat king cole, Nature Boy

Golden Gate Bridge from Land's End

 

Golden Gate Bridge from Land's End

Paul Farradas

Carmel River Lagoon

 

Sunrise at Carmel River lagoon.

Lori D'Ambrosio

Лебедь

 

Music: "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens. 

Dance:  Maya Plisetskaya 

(1974)

Circumambulation

 

Circumambulating the Shrine of the Báb 

Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel  

Photo: BWNS

Spitshine

 

My dear retired dentist, Dr. Tess, once remarked that my Dr. Martens needed to be shined. I pondered her words as she worked and I lay prone under her lamp.

I spent hours achieving my first ever low-grade spit shine this morning, and I thought of Tess, and how I missed her practice and her office on the Sound.

Christmas Light

 

The photo doesn't do justice to this evening's silvery light after the first dusting of snow.  It's beautiful.

 

O Holy Night

A Sea of Light

 

O Lord, glorify his station, shelter him under the pavilion of Thy supreme mercy, cause him to enter Thy glorious paradise, and perpetuate his existence in Thine exalted rose garden, that he may plunge into the sea of light in the world of mysteries. 

-Abdu'l-Baha

Sandstone

 

Sandstone, Point Lobos

The First Duty

 

The Three Magi, Byzantine mosaic 

c.  565, Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy

"The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous deed. It behooveth everyone who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other. Thus hath it been decreed by Him Who is the Source of Divine inspiration."

Bahá’u’lláh  (The Kitáb-i-Aqdas)

A Broken-Winged Bird

 

Caroline Bertrand:

"Here is my painting, inspired by Abdu'l-Baha’s prayer"

OGod! O God! This is a broken-winged bird and his flight is very slow—assist him so that he may fly toward the apex of prosperity and salvation, wing his way with the utmost joy and happiness throughout the illimitable space, raise his melody in Thy Supreme Name in all the regions, exhilarate the ears with this call, and brighten the eyes by beholding the signs of guidance.

O Lord! I am single, alone and lowly. For me there is no support save Thee, no helper except Thee and no sustainer beside Thee. Confirm me in Thy service, assist me with the cohorts of Thy angels, make me victorious in the promotion of Thy Word and suffer me to speak out Thy wisdom amongst Thy creatures. Verily, Thou art the helper of the weak and the defender of the little ones, and verily Thou art the Powerful, the Mighty and the Unconstrained.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Myong

 

I read that Myong, who could no longer bear the unexpected death of her husband a few years before, ended her life in the Narrows in December of 2020.  

May God grant their eternal union in the sanctified world of light.

Garrapata

 

GARRAPATA

Austin Keegan

Lyrics

 

Down the Coast, Heavy Surf

 

DOWN THE COAST, HEAVY SURF

BILL COOKE

 

Mike Bridges' image from Pier 39, San Francisco:

Salesforce Tower, 

Coit Tower, 

Transamerica Pyramid, 

555 California..

The Aspiration of a 10 Year Old

 

On 17th Street near Mission, San Francisco

When my twin bro and I were 10 year old kids living in SF, I wanted to have a shop like these guys--I was thinking washing machine and refrigerator repair and sales.  Maybe water heaters.

The Gravesite of Thornton Chase

 

 Thornton Chase (1847-1912) is recognized as the first American Baha'i.  He was given the Persian name Sabet, or Steadfast, by Abdu'l-Baha,  whom Mr. Chase had visited in Akka, Palestine, in 1907, where Abdu'l-Baha was a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. 

Apparently there were several others who had professed their belief in the Station of Baha'u'llah prior to Thornton.  They, however, fell away, while Mr. Chase remained steadfast in the Faith. 

His grave is located in the Inglewood Park Cemetery,  Los Angeles, California. 

Pond, Golden Gate Park

 

Pond 

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Gloria Judd

Labor Day

"Every person must have an occupation, a trade or a craft, so that he may carry other people's burdens, and not himself be a burden to others." ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Ford Econoline

 

Ford Econoline