New Year Resolutions

As I consider the new year and the hope it brings, I cannot help but think about how challenging this past year has been. Global, along with personal and family challenges have made 2021 a year for the books. At new years I have traditionally made resolutions that affect me materially (career, finances, health), but this year I am drawn to address something different. With the global crises swirling around us this past year and more, a big challenge for me has been the temptation to differentiate myself from others who express differing views on things related to these global crises (e.g., climate change, COVID). I like to think that we can hold differing opinions about complex topics while not alienating ourselves from one another. I believe that whatever our views, we are still part of one human family. We may not agree with everyone’s views, but this should not stop us from seeing that we are unified in so many basic ways.

In a letter to the Baha’is of the world, The Universal House of Justice, the global governing body of the Baha’i Faith puts it this way: Humanity is gripped by a crisis of identity, as various peoples and groups struggle to define themselves, their place in the world, and how they should act. Without a vision of shared identity and common purpose, they fall into competing ideologies and power struggles. Seemingly countless permutations of “us” and “them” define group identities ever more narrowly and in contrast to one another.

Over time, this splintering into divergent interest groups has weakened the cohesion of society itself. Rival conceptions about the primacy of a particular people are peddled to the exclusion of the truth that humanity is on a common journey in which all are protagonists. (https://www.bahai.org/ library/authoritative-texts/theuniversal-house-of-justice/ messages/#20190118_001)

Upon reflection, I am sometimes alarmed by the degree to which my thoughts are ‘programmed’ or defined by deep patterns and beliefs which are now out of synch with what I have learned, experienced, and now know to be truth. I’ve decided that this is where my attention will be focused this coming year; I will aspire to change these patterns into ones that will enable me to contribute to the building of unity in my personal life and in our world.

Spiritual Upliftment

and Conversation

Join us in off ering prayers for the healing and uplift ment of the world, and conversati on on topics that support the establishment of unity and peace. We are three local Baha’i friends who meet on Zoom from 7:30 to 8:30 on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. All are invited and welcome, whatever your spiritual path.

Please call us for details and link: Tim/Laurice Mock, Lee Masters – (250) 748-2585 January Topics January 12: Transformati on – Personal January 26: Transformati on – Societal January 26: Transformati on – Societal