A "family" Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving, I didn't see my mom or dad or brother or sister, but I felt surrounded by family. Between friends from back home and Baha'i aunts and uncles and sisters and nieces, I felt so loved and got many hugs, it was absolutely wonderful.

"when any souls grow to be true believers, they will attain a spiritual relationship with one another, and show forth a tenderness which is not of this world. They will, all of them, become elated from a draught of divine love, and that union of theirs, that connection, will also abide forever."

I love this quote... it explains so well why I feel such a connection to some of these people, even though I only see them a few times a year, or every few years. It's the same connection with the people that I served with in Haifa, or anyone I have had the chance to serve with. During those times of intense spiritual growth, those bonds were formed with the people I was with, so I now have family across the globe. Even though I didn't have any turkey and I didn't go to my parents house, it was a lovely Thanksgiving filled with gratitude, joy, music, family, and prayer, and for that I am truly grateful :).

SNOW!!

It's snowing!!! I woke up this morning with snow on the car, but not on the ground. As I walked to class, a few flakes (maybe 3) fell. When I came out of class, it was actually snowing!!!!!!!!!!!! And I got to make 2 snowballs! It's kind of half tiny tiny hail and half snow, but it's still snowing! :) I'm a happy, happy girl, but I don't want to stay inside and do work. :)

your dreams stay big, your worries stay small...

...you never need to carry more than you need to hold. And while you're out there getting where you getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you and wants the same things too... this is my wish."

So my parents rock. My parents mailed me this CD because they wanted me to have this song from them. It's been a favorite to listen to this week, remembering all the people back at home that love me :). It's a nice feeling.
Last night, I attended Cornell's Interfaith Dinner entitled, "I Believe In... Dinner!" Yes, I do enjoy the title. It was a fascinating evening, full of conversation with Muslims, Orthodox Jews, Catholics, Methodists, Mormons, Reformed Jews, and more maybe at other tables. I think the thing that I came away with most is gratitude for the explanations of Abdu'l-Baha. It makes it so much easier to describe things like the Trinity, the station of the Messengers of God to God and to each other, and the idea of the soul and prayer and our purpose here on Earth. When I arrived home afterwards, I was thoroughly exhausted from trying to speak loud enough for the person to hear me (the set up of the room was not ideal), constantly thinking, understanding, etc., and just an overall large gathering experience. It was amazing, they had to turn people away because there wasn't enough room! Pretty cool. Then I sat down in my prayer corner to say prayers, and I felt an overwhelming joy that I got to pray. I didn't need anyone else, I didn't have to think of words to say, and I didn't have to wait for a certain day of the week. I can pray any time that I want to, and God will help me. It was such a wonderful feeling.
Today I had my first evening all to myself in a very long time. Not that that is a bad thing, I have enjoyed spending so much time with different people, but life had also gotten to be sort of a mess. So, tonight I cleaned up the mess. I finally got to do laundry, a thoroughly enjoyable experience as usual, cook food, clean the apartment, etc. And I had the oddest moment. I was in my bedroom making the bed with clean sheets, and I looked up and said, "My goodness, this makes too much blue in the room!" Yes, this is a startling thing for a Corinne to say, as I love the color blue. I remember back in 4th grade painting a picture, a vase of flowers, and I showed my teacher so proudly, and she said to me, "There's too much blue! Add more color." And thus the picture was ruined, because I was desperately trying to add more color for the teacher, but didn't know or care which colors I added or where. My love for blue began early (as did my love for math, even earlier). So, I was quite surprised when I realized there was just too much blue, too many different shades. I do love my apartment's mix of blues, greens, reds, and then the brown already there in the floors and wood stuff.
This week holds many wonderful things. A roadtrip to see one of my math girls, and then the DC Congress where old and new friends will gather and just be Baha'is together! Learn about our Faith, pray, sing, and enjoy the amazing program developed for us. And I get to register people :). By far the coolest thing ever. I get to organize things and I get to see all the people arriving and be a smiling happy person :). I cannot wait.

Whenever I go on a trip, I think about all the homes I've had & I remember how little has changed about what comforts me.

Hugs

I love hugs. I cannot wait until I can get some really good hugs. In the next couple weeks, I will have opportunities, and for that I am thankful :).

"When she held out her arms, the world itself wrapped around me and held me tight."

Crazy natural phenomena

Today was a prime example of how crazy things can be here in Ithaca. For one, it was over 60 degrees today, in late November. Then, this afternoon we had the most bizarre wind and rain combination, with the rain basically coming sideways, and being very bouncy. I kid you not, it was bouncing off the sidewalks, it almost seemed like hail but it was way too warm.
Then tonight, around sunset, as I was walking to the bus stop, the most marvelous thing was in the sky. The majority of the sky was pitch black/gray from the rain, and then there was a strip of sky, looking about a meter wide to the eye, of golden blue sky, and below it another straight line of clouds below it. Turning to the right as we neared the end of tower road, the most amazing silhouette of the old campus buildings and purples and pinks and reds and golds of the sunset. It was breathtaking. I thought to myself, "All the rain and gross weather of today was totally worth this". The sky really did look like someone had just cut a strip out so that we could see the sunset.
Then tonight, I leave my apartment to drive my fellow grad student home, and it was quite foggy. I dropped her off, and on my drive back down the hill, I can literally see the straight line of fog about the little town at the bottom. I park my car and look up and the sky is full of stars!!! After a completely overcast day, when you think it's night because it's so dark, we have perfectly clear skies so I can see the stars! More stars than ever before!!
Complete craziness and beauty, it's amazing.
I got the sweetest card in the mail today, including pictures of my favorite little ones. I don't understand why seeing these children makes me so happy, but it does. I have them spread out here on my desk so I can just always look at them. The three year old took the most amazing black and white shot of mommy and little brother, it's incredible. Then, them in their Halloween costumes, in the pumpkin patch wearing the t-shirts I sent them (and in shorts, which I can't imagine at the end of October any more), and then the most amazing close up of the older one's face and wonderful smile!!!! I love them so much... I miss them! I can't imagine ever having to be this far away from your actual child, I now understand my mother's overprotectiveness and not allowing us to leave before college ;). If I'm this attached to them, I can't imagine how wonderful and bonded it will be when I actually have children.
I'm quite glad this week is almost over, and tonight ended in perfect Thursday evening events, including Wegmans, dinner, movie, and Godiva Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream bars. All you ladies out there, you must try these. They are delightful and worth every penny. And you know me, I've lost my taste for chocolate ice cream, but this is completely different.
I'm very much looking forward to the end of this semester, the end of the responsibilities, etc. I'm kind of glad to be going into a world of academia where this stress ends and gives you a break every now and then. Yes, the summers and holidays are when I get my work done, but all the other things will be out of the picture, and I'll be grateful for that. It's only a week until I get to be in DC! And then only one more week of classes! I can't wait.

these are the thoughts that go through my head...

Nobility by Alice Cary

True worth is in being, not seeming,-
In doing, each day that goes by,
Some little good- not in dreaming
Of great things to do by and by.
For whatever men say in their blindness,
And spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as kindness,
And nothing so royal as truth.

We get back our mete as we measure-
We cannot do wrong and feel right,
Nor can we give pain and gain pleasure,
For justice avenges each slight.
The air for the wing of the sparrow,
The bush for the robin and wren,
But always the path that is narrow
And straight, for the children of men.

'Tis not in the pages of story
The heart of its ills to beguile,
Though he who makes courtship to glory
Gives all that he hath for her smile.
For when from her heights he has won her,
Alas! it is only to prove
That nothing's so sacred as honor,
And nothing so loayl as love!

We cannot make bargains for blisses,
Nor catch them like fishes in nets;
And sometimes the thing our life misses
Helps more than the thing which it gets.
For good lieth not in pursuing,
Nor gaining of great nor of small,
But just in the doing, and doing,
As we would be done by, is all.



I especially like this last stanza. You can't bargain for happiness, or catch it with some sort of net. What matters is we're doing something good.
Last night in study circle, we were talking about the importance of good deeds. "Guidance hath ever been given by words and now it is given by deeds." "The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct." "Holy words and pure and goodly deeds ascend unto the heaven of celestial glory." The important thing is that you're doing something, and doing good somethings. We are put on Earth to do good deeds, for God has created us to bear fruit.
O My Servants! Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must give forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and others may profit therefrom. Thus it is incumbent on every one to engage in crafts and professions, for therein lies the secret of wealth, O men of understanding! For results depend upon means, and the grace of God shall be all-sufficient unto you. Trees that yield no fruit have been and will ever be for the fire.
So, our education, our friends, and our family should help us to achieve this goal, of producing good fruit. It's interesting how friendships come and go. They all have a time, a purpose. We don't often know what that purpose is or when the time will run out, but it's there for a reason.
"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bring something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them, and we help them in return... Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun, like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood..."

Books and thoughts and random little words

Books I'm loving right now: Diary of Juliet Thompson, Divine Art of Living, Advent of Divine Justice, all from different recommendations or quotes that have popped in my head. These are three very different but very wonderful accounts. The diary is of the namesake of my wonderful sister, and I read it during my year of service and absolutely loved it. I think one reason I loved it so much while I was there is because half of it happened right where I was, doing many of the same things I was doing (I would read it on the sherut on the way to the Shrine of Baha'u'llah, and read of her travelling from Haifa to Akka to visit the Shrine with Abdu'l-Baha, and it would be such a wonderful thing to imagine them travelling 95 years before me to that same spot). But also, it's because it's honest. This amazing woman struggled. She struggled with love and service and wanting to constantly be better, wanting to please Abdu'l-Baha, wanting to use her talents and learning how to use them. Now these are distant memories, but this is what I got out of the book. We hear about these amazing Baha'is that lived in America at the beginning of the twentieth century, but we hear the watered down version, rather than their own personal accounts. And this book gives you just that. It's wonderful.
The other two books are power books. Books that when you just need a little something can give it to you immediately. Books that when you're looking for something, you can usually find it. And they're small and portable, but contain so much. Books to always come back to and remind yourselves of things. There's a paragraph to the Baha'i youth of America in Advent that I absolutely love.
Last night I was trying to remember the qualities of the members of the Baha'i Spiritual Assemblies. It's a quote that's listed on all the Columbia by-election or election notices so that we can keep it fresh in our minds while voting. Tonight, I will be voting for the first time in Ithaca, since we have two members that are leaving. I love that these are the qualities that are sought in Baha'i administrators:
If we but turn our gaze to the high qualifications of the members of Bahá'í Assemblies ... we are filled with feelings of unworthiness and dismay, and would feel truly disheartened but for the comforting thought that if we rise to play nobly our part every deficiency in our lives will be more than compensated by the all-conquering spirit of His grace and power. Hence it is incumbent upon the chosen delegates to consider without the least trace of passion and prejudice, and irrespective of any material consideration, the names of only those who can best combine the necessary qualities of unquestioned loyalty, of selfless devotion, of a well-trained mind, of recognized ability and mature experience.... (From a letter dated 3 June 1925 written by Shoghi Effendi)
Every time I read the Baha'i Writings, I think, wow I have so far to go. But then every time I pray, I feel reassured that I'll make it if I keep striving. I love the honesty I feel in prayer. It's been a really awesome experience praying since I moved to Ithaca. There's a different feeling to prayer for me now. And I thank God for that.
Today is one of the CU math girl's birthdays, and it will be celebrated with color and ice cream today and dinner tomorrow. I do love birthdays. Maybe we'll even make it a birthweek. Since all celebration cannot be put into one day.
This week in topology we have been reviewing group theory, since we're doing topological group theory. And I just want to leave a tribute to my math girls and chalkboarding it.
"The subgroups of a cyclic group are cyclic."
"Better chalkboard it."
"So phi is a ho-mom."
"I've got colors coming out of my ears."
and...... "Diophantine!"