Joy in Understanding

It was a dark and stormy day.....on Tuesday when a big bus filled with school girls, 8-9 years old, came to the Baha'i Temple to learn. In Australia, it's part of the school's curriculum to teach religion in school- so apart from individual religious groups teaching classes at schools, the children get a consistent education about faith's and beliefs from their teacher. The 60 school girls that came where currently doing a unit that was basically comparative religion- they were going around learning about what each faith believes and rituals...etc. So by the time they came to the House of Worship, they had already gone to a synagog and a church and a Mosque. My roommate Nadia and I did a short intro of who we are and what we're doing in Australia, showed them a quick film about the Faith, and then went over major beliefs and practices of the Faith- like the importance of prayer, who we believe in, principles we follow like the equality of men and women and the education of children (which are pretty much universal beliefs even though they're not carried out in some places), and some other interesting tidbits that they would enjoy. Nadia talked mainly talked about the Faith while I talked about the Temple specifically, like when it was built (1961), how many sides it has (9, because it symbolizes the unification of humankind), what's at the top of the dome (the Greatest Name in Arabic, which means 'The Glories of All Glories'- a message to God of sorts), and which other Temples exist around the world- that was a fun part. I talked a little about the one in the US, how Nadia is going to Samoa soon and will go visit the one there, and that we have two boys from Germany serving here and that their Temple is really close to home (there is also one in Uganda, India, Panama, and one in Chile eventually), I think they really enjoyed that, made it more global than just Australia.

We then took the girls, through the rain, to the Temple, and we gave them 8 prayers to say aloud, by volunteers, in the Temple, which is usually not allowed unless there is a Service. The teachers loved that. They said it calmed the girls down completely and that they could really feel that it was a place for prayer and meditation. The teachers were just soaking it in, and the amount of joy they were showing almost moved me to tears- it's so great to have visitors who see what the Temple is for and who have a really open mind to learning. The world education system needs to get the memo from Australia, religion and spirituality needs to be part of the school system because it's such an integral part of who we are as human beings and how we operate. You can say that you don't believe in God, that's fine, it's not a requirement to be spiritual or meditative. The belief in God comes later with time We are spiritual beings, put on this earth to learn and to love God, baby steps is what it takes, and people need to realize it's not a bad thing to have that in your child's life. It's not preaching if it's done with integrity and humility and is all encompassing.

I'm finally feeling like I'm stable, that life is a little bit more normal, and I've been getting a good balance of hard, challenging work (guiding at the Temple, Membership office, filing...) and mellow working days (receptionist, bookstore...). So far so good :)