If  the Earth was the size of a tennis ball, then the Sun would be an orb 22' in diameter about 1/2 mile away.

The Moon would be bigger than a red globe grape almost six feet away.

Jupiter would be roughly the size of a beach ball, about 2 miles away.

The relative sizes of objects in the solar system and the vast distances between them is something I can't comprehend without making them relative to something I can.

       “(T)he honour and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world's multitudes should become a source of social good.  Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight.”

― `Abdu'l-Baha 

Entrepreneurial spirit

Baha'i Year B.E. 170

Today is the beginning of a new Bahá'i year (B.E. 170), and Naw Rúz, (pronounced no rooz), or New Day, is celebrated by Bahá'is around the world.









"Do you know in what day you are living? Do you realize in what dispensation you are alive ? Have you not read in the holy scriptures that the consummation of the ages there shall appear a day which is the sun of all the past days?"

--'Abdu'l-Bahá


                                                                      ♦
Another Video, where Bahá'is from South America send their Nooruz greetings to their persecuted Iranian brethren.





One more!

Naw Ruz English version from Nadine Reyhani on Vimeo.

                                                                         ♦



The Baha’i year consists of 19 months of 19 days each (361 days), with the addition of “Intercalary Days” (four in ordinary and five in leap years) between the eighteenth and nineteenth months to adjust the calendar to the solar year. The months are named after the attributes of God.

The Baha’i New Year coincides with the March equinox (March 21). The Baha’i Era commenced with the year of the Bab’s declaration (1844 A.D.). Each Baha’i community holds a Nineteen Day Feast on the first day of each Baha’i month. The Feast has spiritual, administrative and social functions and is the principal gathering of Baha’is of a particular locality. Because the Baha’i day lasts from sunset to sunset, the Nineteen Day Feast is generally held in the evening on the day before the first day of the Baha’i month according to the Gregorian calendar.


Here's a graphic.

From here.

I had a new visitor to my garden today: A Varied Thrush.  After drinking and bathing in the bird bath, he spent awhile scratching around in the wet leaves and duff for whatever Varied Thrushes scratch around for.

Be sure to click on this image and view the beautiful details of this bird!  Maybe I need a life, but when I saw him I gasped, and then I grabbed my binoculars and tried to etch his image into my memory. Looking at my "Local Birds of the Monterey Bay Area" guide, I first thought he was a Western Meadowlark, and then a Northern Oriole--that pretty much indicates my powers of observation and what a skilled bird watcher I am....doh!

(Photo and info here. Song, too!)

Marketing genius in three words:  Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Any guesses?

Here's one in Tacoma

A Girl From Killarney passed this way...

You're B.E.??

I've been drawing structural plans for the same engineering office in the Monterey Bay area for many years. One day, a steel fabricator came into the office with a question about a particular project, and when I told him I was the one who drew the plans and pointed to my initials in the "Drawn By" box, he exclaimed "You're B.E.? I've been building your projects for years".

That was about twenty years ago.  I wonder if he's still building the structures I'm drawing?

My cat Tuffy, a.k.a. Tug, knows how to strike a pose.

He's finally discovered that he can jump to the top of the armoire.  I believe it is a response to watching through the bedroom window the birds and squirrels that are flourishing  in the backyard this year.

Kitty angst

The U.S. Treasury

On this day in 1862 the United States Treasury issued paper money, or "Greenbacks"  ($1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 and $1000) for the first time, replacing State bank notes and 'Demand Notes', which were issued during the Civil War.

I don't know whether there was a national debt at that time, but I would imagine it was nowhere near what it is today.

Baha'i Archives, Mt. Carmel, Israel

CHIEF PETTY OFFICER JOSHUA EWING

 Chief Petty Officer Ewing is stationed at the Aviation Technical Training Center in Elizabeth City, N.C., and is in charge of the final phase of instruction given to Aviation Maintenance Technicians (AMT) "A" school students. Ewing has a degree in Professional Aeronautics and a Masters in Aeronautical Science with an emphasis in aviation safety.

Q: What is one thing about the Coast Guard that you think more people should know about?

A: Coast Guard aviation does more with less. With the aviation enlisted rate consolidation down to three specific jobs in the late 1990's, aircraft maintainers now resemble civilian related aviation jobs more so than other branches of today's military. Also, aviation personnel are required to maintain a flight crew status. We are fixers and flyers, not just one or the other. One minute you could be maintaining an aircraft, the next minute you could be flying to save a life. 

From HERE

SKELETON, HERCULANEUM

Free thyself from the fetters of this world, and loose thy soul from the prison of self. Seize thy chance, for it will come to thee no more.    --Bahá’u’lláh

A song in Persian, with scenes associated with the life of Bahá'u'lláh, including the Siyah-Chal (Black Pit) prison in Tehran, Iran, the prison at Akka, Israel, the Mansion at Bahji, and the Garden of Ridvan.




I'm afraid I do not know the words, but the sentiment needs no translation.

SAM EWING VOICE-OVER

To Live the Life

To live the life

To be no cause of grief to any one.

To love each other very much.

To be kind to all people and to love them with a pure spirit.

Should opposition or injury happen to us, we must bear it, and be as kind as ever we can be, and, through all, we must love the people. Should calamity exist in the greatest degree, we must rejoice, for these things are the gifts and favors of God.

To be silent concerning the faults of others, to pray for them and help them - through kindness - to correct their faults.

To look always at the good and not at the bad.

If a man has ten good qualities and one bad one, we must look at the ten and forget the one. And if a man has ten bad qualities and one good one, we must look at the one and forget the ten.

To never allow ourselves to speak one unkind word about another, even though that other be our enemy.

To rebuke those who speak to us of the faults of others.

All of our deeds must be done in kindness.

To cut our hearts from ourselves and from the world.

To be humble.

To be servants of each other, and to know that we are less than any one else.

To be as one soul in many bodies, for the more we love each other the nearer we will be to God; but that our love, our unity, our obedience must not be by confession, but of reality.

To act with cautiousness and wisdom.

To be truthful.

To be hospitable.

To be reverent.

To be a cause of healing for every sick one; a pleasant water for every thirsty one; a heavenly table for every hungry one; a guide for every seeker; rain for cultivation; a star to every horizon; a light for every lamp; a herald to every yearning one for the Kingdom of God.

-- ‘Abdul-Bahá

METEORITE OVER THE URALS

The view @ 1:02 in the video was frightening.





I had a dream in 1968 where I was standing on the southeast corner of Ocean Avenue and San Carlos in Carmel, and I looked up to see something similar coming at me---and then there was a nuclear burst.  As I was dreaming that I had just died, I slowly opened my eyes.

WASHINGTON FOR BEGINNERS

A couple I know named their second daughter Salish.  That is the most beautiful name for a child of the Northwest as I've ever heard.

Dugout Canoe

Coast Salish Scarf

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

Somebody did a great job putting this together. Makes me want to get back on a train.

VIRGINIA WITH DOGS IN THE RAIN

O thou who art turning thy face towards God! Close thine eyes to all things else, and open them to the realm of the All-Glorious. Ask whatsoever thou wishest of Him alone; seek whatsoever thou seekest from Him alone. With a look He granteth a hundred thousand hopes, with a glance He healeth a hundred thousand incurable ills, with a nod He layeth balm on every wound, with a glimpse He freeth the hearts from the shackles of grief. He doeth as He doeth, and what recourse have we? He carrieth out His Will, He ordaineth what He pleaseth. Then better for thee to bow down thy head in submission, and put thy trust in the All-Merciful Lord.  
                              --Abdu'l-Baha    

BAHA'I GARDENS, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel







In early spring, two years after my pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Báb, I got a call at three o’clock in the morning  from Fariborz Sahba, the project manager and architect engaged in the design of the terraces that scale Mt. Carmel today.  He asked me if I was interested in applying for employment at the Baha’i World Center as a landscape designer of the terraces. A few days later I flew to West Palm Beach, Florida,  and interviewed for the position.  I only wanted the job if qualified, however, and prayed that the right thing would happen.

At the time, the project on Mt. Carmel was in the conceptual stage.  Here is a model, which was on display in the Mansion at Bahji, if I recall correctly.

As it turned out, when I was attending the Commemoration of the Ascension of Baha'u'llah on the 29th of May at the Bosch Baha'i School in the Santa Cruz mountains, I mentioned to an acquaintance--who, unbeknownst to me was a landscape architect in Monterey--about my conversation and interview and the opportunity to participate in the design of the terraces. 

Needless to say, I didn't get the job, but six months later, while attending the Baha'i World Congress in New York city, who do I run into in the cavernous Jacob Javits Convention Center but my friend Dennis.  He told me that after our conversation during the early hours in Santa Cruz, he called Mr. Sahba, and was granted an interview in Haifa.  Not only did he get the job, but his wife and children went with him, and he was only in the U.S. for the Congress.  He told me that he was hoping he'd run into me among the 10,000 evening attendees so that he could thank me, which made me incredibly happy.

♦

One feature I was happy to see was the bridge across Hatzionut Avenue, just above the Shrine of the Báb.  At the time of my pilgrimage, pilgrims had to dash across the avenue to visit the archive building, the Seat of the UHJ, and the monuments along a "far-flung arc".  Besides the danger, the noise from the traffic could be heard at the Shrine.

This is the bridge across Hatzionut today.  

Looking toward Akka from above the Shrine in 1990.

Today

This made me laugh out loud...

Particularly after having just read the story of Shin Dong-Hyuk in  ESCAPE FROM CAMP 14

STONY


I tried to adopt this cat not long ago.  Somebody got to him first, though. Can you see why?

WWII by teen gamers...

LAWN DARTS


It's been confirmed that this was the worst idea for a toy in recorded history.

SHARKS--SO MISUNDERSTOOD!

SHARKS--SO MISUNDERSTOOD!

TOUR OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION



This is a long video, but so interesting!  My favorite part is the view from the cupola of the docked Soyuz spacecraft @ 12:48.

I don't understand the hair.  Wouldn't you want it short, if for no other reason than to be one less source of debris?

COOPER'S HAWK




I saw this hawk outside my window today. He was looking for prey at the bird feeder.

A THOUSAND CLOWNS

This clip ends abruptly, but it gives a good indication of the excellent writing and casting of a 1965 movie about an iconoclast in New York City.  Here, Murray is trying to convince two social workers that his ward, nephew Nick, should not be taken from him.

BAHJI, ISRAEL



A remarkable image of the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and gardens at Bahji, Israel.

More pictures from various sources.

Around 1900

1969

I sketched this on pilgrimage in 1990.