Of Beauty

I live in a place of beauty.

I write sorrowful posts descrying the collapse of the world, but I never speak of the beauty I experience every single day.

I live in a place of beauty.

Physical beauty is obvious. Terraced gardens, Greco-Roman architecture, perfect cleanliness. But this is not the beauty I speak of.

I speak of the beauty of humility. Of nine elected leaders who are the most revered figures in the Baha'i world, and are, in my personal experience, and I speak only for myself, also among the nine most humble and down-to-earth human beings I have ever met. Regal in their posture and the dignity they command. But humble in their demeanor, kind in their interactions, loving in their care for the staff at the Baha'i World Centre, extraordinarily loving in their hospitality towards and concern for the pilgrims, and tirelessly working for the whole world. Labouring lovingly and rather intensely for the well-being of all.

I live in a place of beauty.

Where people of various backgrounds, some which traditionally war with one another, here embrace. Learn together. Serve together. Laugh together. Cry together. Worship together. Love together.  It's no small thing, you know.  People coming together from cultures which are so vastly different in many respects, working side by side.  It's the perfect recipe for conflict, for hurt feelings, for the butting of heads.  And it's not like we're floating angels living in a state of zen, or nirvana.  We're human beings.  We get frustrated.  We disagree.  But there's such a high standard that we all strive to live up to; that things are dealt with in a way I've never experienced before.  It's as if in a place so sacred, there isn't room for petty human fault finding. There isn't room for disunity.  If you disagree, you work it out.  Via consultation, not screaming, or backstabbing, not through deceitful and self-serving manipulation.  That simply does not exist here.

Living here has really offered me the hope that the teachings of Baha'u'llah--teachings of love and unity, of peace and prosperity for humanity-- are absolutely achievable.  That the teachings of ALL the major world religions, which promise of a future age of peace and harmony on earth, are imminent.   Here, we take steps.  A laboratory for what's possible in the world at large.

I know it is.

I live in a place of beauty.  In the middle of conflict-ridden, war-torn Israel, I live in a place of hope.

I know that it's possible everywhere.  I just know it.

This world, not yet, but in potential, is a place of beauty.

We all live in a place of beauty.  We just have to help it become manifest.