The reason I want to go to sleep each night...

'That is to say, man must become evanescent in God. Must forget his own selfish conditions that he may thus arise to the station of sacrifice. It should be to such a degree that if he sleep, it should not be for pleasure, but to rest the body in order to do better, to speak better, to explain more beautifully, to serve the servants of God and to prove the truths. When he remains awake, he should seek to be attentive, serve the Cause of God and sacrifice his own stations for those of God. When he attains to this station, the confirmations of the Holy Spirit will surely reach him, and man with this power can withstand all who inhabit the earth.' - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

This for me, is such a powerful quotation.
It really puts things in perspective!
SLEEP!
I LOVE sleep!
I get as much of it as I can, and drag it out until the last possible second every morning.
But then, I go and read a quote like this.

I love how it implies that sleep shouldn't be for us.
I love that. I want to be able to roll out of bed each morning, grateful that my body is rested and my mind is alive, so that I can dedicate every inch of it to serving humanity and being the best person I could possibly be.
How amazing would it be to have that attitude.

I guess I'm not there yet. :p
But I don't think it's just about sleep.
It's about living your life completely selflessly.
For others and for God.
Just think, how amazing would that be to live like that. :)

How amazing would it be, to not care about anything else but each other.
To not want anything else besides nearness to God and to serve humanity.
To not be distracted by all these little things that don't really matter, and to all be working towards the same goal... a happier world.

Wouldn't that be beautiful?

And it starts here.
From the moment we wake up each morning,
to the reason we go to sleep. :)

Lessons learned this year: COURAGE

So something I've been thinking about a lot this past year, is courage.

It sounds a bit random at first.
We all want to be brave.
We all want the sorting hat to yell 'Griffindor!' as it touches our heads.
We all wish we were the ones to say 'Dauntless' on our choosing day.
We all want to believe we'd jump out of airplanes and dive to the bottom of the ocean, and that we wouldn't be afraid.
None of us want fear to hold us back.
None of us want to be weak, or afraid, or left behind.
And when the time comes, none of us want to look back to see a life that we haven't lived.

But what is living?
Is living jumping out of airplanes?

I never considered myself to be brave.
I'm the girl who always wishes she'd brought an extra minute with her to the doctors office, so she could be just a little bit more ready for the needle.
The one who evacuates buildings when she sees a spider and triple checks all the locks in the house before going to sleep.
I'm the girl who wishes she were built for airplanes.
But maybe I'm not,
And maybe I never will be.

Maybe it doesn't matter.

Because courage is not just about facing fears for the sake of the self.
True courage, at least from my point of view, comes from a place much deeper than that.
A place where those I love can live.
A place where my love for those around me drives me to be a better person.
The kind of person who pushes herself, makes good choices, stands up for what she believes in and when something is important, never ever walks away.
No matter how scary these things can be.
Because it's not just about me.

It's a wonderful thing to push your own boundaries for personal growth.
But to push our boundaries for each other, for humanity and so we can be the best people possible for the sake of the world that we live in.
That's brave.

Every time you make a difficult decision, the best way you know how...
Every time you reach out to someone, even though you yourself need reaching for...
Every time you speak your mind to a room full of strangers...
Every time you reach into your back pocket and give that extra minute you've been saving away...
Every time you let go of something that's been holding you back...
And or some people, simply taking those first few steps out their front door..
We turn to the world, and again we are brave.

This is love, 
And to love is an incredibly brave thing to do.

Blog Fail

So, as it turns out, I actually can't keep up the momentum when it comes to blog writing.

It's funny because at the beginning of my year of service, I felt like I had so much energy and so much to say! I'm pretty sure I wrote a few blogs about a pot plant in my living room...

But apparently, these things die down, and I have failed to keep the world as updated as I'd like.. which is a bit of a shame.

Here I am, in my last week of service here in Orkney, and it has been an interesting year to say the least. I feel as though I could have done alot more, if I'm being totally honest, and I wish I were leaving this beautiful place with a bit more of a distinguished footprint for future YOS/pioneers to build from.

Regardless though the community here is built of amazingly beautiful people, and I am going to miss them to bits when I leave.. but I'm trying not to think about that. I guess change is always rough! Y'know? And as life goes on, we face changes and uppy/downy points which test us so that we can learn and grow (Uppie/Doonie - hehe! ;) ).

I really love Scotland. I love the people I've met, and it will be tough to say goodbye.
But one of the things I love about being a Bahai, is being part of an international community, inside of a even bigger international community! Your friends become your family and you carry your family in your heart wherever you go.

x

UPDATE! The long overdue kind.. :)

Okay, so I'm aware it's been a REALLY long time since I've updated this thing, but I'd like to have a go at resurrecting it again - so bear with me. :)


 
THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN HAPPENING:

Weekly devotionals!

Every Sunday morning I am blessed to be joined by friends from the community, who make their way to the Bahai center to sit with me as we read the writings of various religions together. :) I've been selecting the writings and trying to include writings from other faiths as much as possible, which has been interesting for me as it gives me a wonderful opportunity to read and learn more about the various themes I select each week. :) We have also been saying the long healing prayer each week, keeping in mind a number of people who have been added to our 'prayer list'. Hopefully they will feel our thoughts and prayers. x


Junior Youth!
Okay, so this one isn't actually 'happening'... but the hope is that it will! Eventually... hopefully soon! The main problem with this activity is that there are simply no JY hanging around. I hung posters around town to see if we'd get any interest, but no luck so far. I have recently contacted a local school about the possibility of introducing the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program as an activity students can engage in after school on a Friday. Fingers crossed on that one! If not, another plan may need to be plotted... any suggestions on how to spread the word are totally welcome! :)


Volunteering!
 Less more recently. I'm starting with Girl Guides after the winter break, which is something I'm looking forward to. :) I was assisting with the 'Boys Brigade' until my internship, which unfortunately took up alot of my time. I'm hoping to hear back from the soon as well. I'm really excited about the possibility of volunteering at the local 'Youth Cafe', which sounds like an AWESOME place to meet JY. The number I've been given isn't working though, so I'm hoping to go by soon and have a chat with the staff there. :) SOON as well! Because I'm running out of months! :o

Internship!
So, for those who didn't know, I recently completed a 4 week internship at a local school here in Orkney. It was truly wonderful. An amazing school, with wonderful students and inspiring teachers! I can only hope that I get to work at a school like that someday in the future. :)


Aaaaand there you have it! The wonderful things that have been keeping me busy. :) Though, maybe not busy enough. I'm really hoping to be able to get something started and established with JY before leaving Orkney... but lots of prayers! :)

Oceans of love to you all!
God bless! :)

Ingrid.

YOUTH CONFERENCE!!! WAAHH! :D

So, been a little late with this entry (sorry guys)! Been distracted by silly uni stuff... which is actually a little ironic considering what we were just talking about the weekend before last!

For those not in the know, there was recently a pretty big conference.. the 'London Youth Conference'... in Warwick! :) Imagine 1000 young people aged 15 - 30 from all over the UK/world coming together to make plans to CHANGE THE WORLD!

It was pretty epic. ;)

There was something wonderful about the spirit of the thing. I love how much fun and enthusiasm was floating about in the air, it was infectious! minus the pus!

So anyway, its hard to sum up what the conference was about in a nutshell, but some things really stuck out for me... for example, the importance of mutual support! and integrated thinking!

Let me take a very recent example from my life and whip it into a integrated thinky context for a second! So something which has been keeping me really busy for the last week or so is my university work, which, although I am on a year of service, still continues to haunt me *sigh*.

In some ways this is a good thing, because it gives me the opportunity to teach in a school here in Orkney, and get to know people from the community! A downside is that it's been keeping me busier then I would like... and all I really want to do is just head out and start serving the faith! :D

But this is where the shift in attitude comes in. At the conference we discussed fragmented ways of looking at life and how this can create barriers in our lives. For example, work, family, education, etc. may all stand in the way of service...
 BUT! But! My fellow adventurers...

Should I be able to look at the work and study I do as a step towards my service to mankind... things start to change.

You know? It's like... we view all these various elements of life as separate things, when they don't have to be! In fact they can all work together, in unity, to come together as a well rounded way of living. :)

That's what I got anyway. :p

So in conclusion, amazing conference... and already feeling very relevant to life and service. :)


Here is a quote that has always come to mind for me when I think of service. It's from Baha'u'llah:

"Blessed is he who in the prime of his youth and the heyday of his life will arise to serve the Cause of the Lord of the beginning and of the end, and adorn his heart with His love. The manifestation of such a grace is greater than the creation of the heavens and of the earth. Blessed are the steadfast and well is it with those who are firm."

Ruhi 3 and Funky Plumbing!

I tutored a book 3 last week! :)

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. Things this week have been craaazy!
But I'll do my best to get you up to speed. :)

So last week was wonderful. I had the lovely opportunity of tutoring Ruth and Joe in Ruhi book 3, which is about 'Children's Classes Grade 1: Principles of Bahai Education,' and it was awesome. :) We finished it in three intensive sessions - minus the practical component which I'm hoping we'll be able to get into sometime in the next few weeks.

It's interesting. As a education student in my final semester, I have always been very passionate about this topic. However, I started to realize, going through these spiritual and highly relevant concepts in our little group, how important it is to reflect on these ideas regularly.

So here's the thing. As a teacher, I have always believed in the potentials and incredible capabilities of young people, and understood how incredibly important it is to nurture these gems as best as we can. However, looking back I'm starting to realize, that over the years with the whole process of going through the motions of teaching, writing assignments and awkwardly trial-and-erroring out my own style of educating... these ideas had almost grown stale in my mind. Not because I don't believe in them anymore, but because it's just not something I think about everyday.

But it should be!

At least I think so.
So now I have a vision.
If I ever have the chance to be a teacher, I hope that every day I can wake up every morning and remind myself of the incredibly significant role I am about to step into.
I hope I can grasp the importance of every word I am going to give and every idea I am going to share with my students.
I hope I can develop a constant awareness of the lives I'm about to influence, and as a result do the best job possible.

I think these are things I have always feared would eventually fade away... as though I would lose momentum of some kind and my passion would fade down into a 'job' or 'career' I go to for paying bills. But after doing Ruhi last week, I'm starting to feel that energy seeping back! Energy I didn't even realize may be slipping away.

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that the writings are amazing. They hold such wisdom and power! I feel so refreshed and excited after dedicating that time to their reflection. :) I think revisiting these things is important. At least for me, personally, I've found that they face me in the right direction and help remind me of those things that are really important in life. :)

Anyway, enough of that.
RUHI WAS GOOD!

Also, my water cut out for four days of so. Which was a little awkward... but fortunately I was rescued by the beautiful Miller family, who welcomed me into their home as it was getting repaired. :)
They are seriously wonderful! *Sends love!*

Anyway, I think that is all at this stage. I have an appointment tomorrow to arrange my volunteering opportunities! (YAY!) So hopefully there will be lots to write about in the following weeks. :)

LOVE!

Also, here is a quote to leave you with...

"Whoso ariseth among you to teach the Cause of his Lord, let him, before all else, teach his own self, that his speech may attract the hearts of them that hear him." - Baha'u'llah

Summer School / Ruhi Intensive :D

HUZZAH!

So I'm sorry, darling readers, for falling behind recently on my blog updates. It has been quite a busy number of weeks. Joe and I travelled down to the Scottish Bahai Summer School in Perth, before heading over to Fyvie where we went through a Ruhi 5 intensive that lasted for a week. It was pretty incredible all around, and we decided to record our journey as a vlog! :D

Now, keep in mind, I have never vlogged before... and the editing I may mention at odd points never ACTUALLY happened... but we think that just makes it more special. :D
I hope you enjoy it! :D