Terrace --- How many times can someone have the time of his life?!?



Love is all around! Having the day off for Naw Ruz was beautiful! I just love having a chance to chant the Long Healing Prayer - it's the prayer that makes me feel the closest to God!



LSA on Wed was really awesome - it's incredible how much I feel the institution is growing! We got lots of challenges on our hands, for sure, especially for this new "Richmond Year for the Protection of Children", so I hope we will keep progressing at least as quickly as we have been. Choir was also very nice.



Thu Robbie and I were playing ping pong right next to another pair of cool cats, so we offered to swap and play each other. It turns out we're all around the same level of play, so it was extremely gratifying for all of us!





We had another play practice for "In His Presence" at the Connor home. We ate a delicious dinner together and moved on to a series of theatrical excercises I prepared, which they all seem to love to pieces! We're now sufficiently in tune to one another to move on to the very important step of lining up all the scene work and really putting this show together - only four more weeks!!! Prayers would be most appreciated. Just this morning I saw Niki's Easter musical about the life of Christ (Niki's my co-worker). It was so beautiful, powerful, and harmonious that I was crying pretty much the whole way through. It's so extraordinary to get the opportunity to connect to Christ my Lord in a new way! Niki is a wonderful singer! I'll have to make sure to incorporate some of the elements of spiritual integrity and collaborative energy that "The Borrowed Tomb" had!





I went to a special gathering of French-speaking people, organized by the Richmond French Club! Sherry and I were there together. It was such a very nice group of people! There was a great variety of experiences in the language, but one thing that really stood out for me was the open-mindedness of these people. Hanging out with a bunch of people who have traveled outside the country for extensive periods, and are actively engaged in learning about different cultures brought out again the contrast between the closed-mindedness and isolationist/compartmentalizing philosophy of this country and the outward-looking orientation that this age of humanity requires... watchou gonna do?



I've had still more dreams about Martinique and pioneering. I spoke with Ariana at the National Office of Pioneering, who helped me out with some steps of the process. I met with the LSA, too, to discuss my plans and get them to send a recommendation to the national office. I'm still praying for guidance and open to new opportunities, but my current status is "planning to pioneer to Martinique in the Fall". I'd like to produce/direct Shawn's play before I head out.





Well, we've done it again, with my friends in Baltimore... I am so extremely enamored of these beautiful souls. I honestly think about them all of the time! And every visit only strengthens my love for them... Nina's best friends, Caity, who is to a large extent the reason I got so close to the lot of them, was visiting town from New Jersey, so I took the opportunity to join them all. I got there mid-day Sat, and we had a scruptuous Indian lunch together, with fantastic chats on many spiritual matters. We visited an unusually snazzy vintage store, then I spent the bulk of the afternoon serving as Nina's personal assistant at the screen-printing lab. It was incredible! I learned every step of the process! Nina is an inspired and dedicated hard-worker!



Our evening program was probably as good as it could have been! For starters, we got together at Jacobs to make a big ol' dinner together, and sharing a most convivial fellowship. The gathering was composed of Jacob, Nina, Caity, Nikki, Ruth, Adarsh, Omid and myself - and Sally joined us later. It was a very intimate and comfortable group, which was exactly what we needed for what we were to do:



Poetry: after beautiful Arabic chanting offered by Caity, I performed "Home", which I am entering at the Just Poetry Slam tomorrow, then Caity shared a couple of her own pieces.



Energy: Nikki lead us in a session of energy-focus, where were learned to concentrate on our 7 chakras, and breathe in the energy of the universe (or, rather, be aware that we already do). This energy was first used to create a ball of energy between our hands, then we stood in a circle and passed the energy around. We were also all sharing how it felt to experience this energy, and learned from each other. It was fascinating tuning into the energy signature of each person!



Deepening: I had an idea on how we might all consult on how we can go about connecting ourselves to God by relating our personal experiences to "The Seven Valleys" - Baha'u'llah's exposé on the various steps along the journey of the soul, as it advances toward the Beloved.



At this point we had a session of singing many beautiful prayers.



The Nikki & danio Show! Nikki and I used our super power to perform a celebration of sponteneity.