Clay --- EVERYTHING IS GOING SO WELL!!


Love! I feel love everywhere! especially within! Truly, my God is an awesome God!


Zarasun, Orion and I just got back from a Baha'i conference for young adults. It was very nice, but unusually personal and internal for me - I habitually have all kinds of ways I wish to share my new experience and insights with friends, my home community, etc. This time, I took in a lot for just myself.



We have our first meeting for "The Rose Night" on Wednesday! Kyndra offered home and will cook us dinner!!! There's some extraordinary energy already gathered, and it can only get better - God willing. We've already got over a dozen of people interested in performing - we'll find out a little more where everyone fits at the meeting.



I'm kind of emotionally overwhelmed at the moment. I reached a similar point exactly one year ago: I was completely overtaken by intense emotions for two weeks, at the end of which I came to a new level of spiritual maturity, where I learned how to better cope with more consistently living in the moment... I'm thinking something similar might happen! especially with my travels coming up! I'll be driving around visiting friends and going through pioneer training (to prepare Baha'is who wish to serve outside their homes) in the midwest for some 10 days.

Touch --- The Ridavan play went up two weeks ago now. It was a great success. We pulled together in the end, and got help from bonus people - including my brother (close friend) Soup, who was visiting from California. Everyone had a great time, challenged themselves, and delivered a nice show. I had several visitors from my office, which was just delightful! So great to have friends to support me! There were also several friends that visited from Cockeysville (Baltimore area) and Norfolk, VA! Behnam and Martin are very good friends, and it was fabulous for them to drive all that way to see our play in Richmond. Also Will was visiting from DC. The afterparty was just fantastic! I think it's the first time I see 35 youth (mostly Baha'is) gather here in Richmond! We had a splendid time, with prayers, games (mafia, board games, video games, air hockey, foosball), fellowship, music, etc. last people didn't leave until around 4am!!



Soup had a great time visiting, as much as I had him running with me all over the place. He gave me a toy monkey. We hadn't seen each other in almost two years!



I bought a Toshiba laptop, got it this weekend, but I have to send it back cause speakers no work. It will definitely make a huge change in my life to have this new resource at my fingertips. Among other things, it will help me in my new role as recording secretary for the Local Spiritual Assembly.



I just went to my first Interfaith Council function on Thursday. It's a wonderful group, and they are dedicated to uniting local efforts among religious groups.



Shawn and I are still in the very beginning phases of our project, but we've made good headway. No doubt it will be an enriching and exciting endeavor to put on this play together. I'm meeting with the artistic director of the Firehouse Theatre tomorrow, so if you're reading this, maybe you can send a prayer, so we can maybe secure it as the location for our performance (this would truly be ideal!)



I got a new Nalgene bottle! They recently came out with a new model - it's so beautiful, makes me very happy.



We had a great time, my parents and I, having dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant last night. I was surprised at how pleased she was with the card I got her (Robbie and I spent some 20 minutes looking though piles and piles of pathetic or aweful greeting cards at Hallmark - I hope to not have to do that again for a long time - although it was evidently rewarding in the end...)



Did I mention Bjork rocks my world?

Vacation --- There is a reason for the lack of posts!!: I took a vacation! a vacation from everything! It was forced, in response to a sense that I've been a little too much on overdrive. The solution? take advantage of the 9th and 12th Days of Ridvan falling on a Friday and Monday to have a lax four-day weekend. What's in such a weekend? one might ask... lots of nothing! The first slow day was difficult and disorienting. I was confused, irritable - cranky even! But by nighttime, I was in the groove: I stayed up until almost 7:30A, mostly watching TV, hanging out with Orion, and playing some video games. The weekend went on like this, with lots of delightful nothing.



Of course, being a danio, danio did have a few things scheduled, including observance of the Most Holy period of the year (Ridvan is when Baha'u'llah proclaimed His Station as a Manifestation of God, and His Mission), a meeting with Shawn to work on the play that she's writing ("The Rose Knight" = provisional title) and that I'm directing/producing, a meeting with our monthly group of (mostly Baha'i) artists. This latter group finally has a name! It's called HUMMUS (Human Units Modeling Makind United in Spirit)