You were, then you were not.

Source

A place once called home

This video evokes so many emotions that I forgot even existed in my memory bank of an enigmatic place that I amazingly once called home.. 



This Isreal from Matthew Brown on Vimeo.

The photo below is taken from the Baha'i Terrace Gardens facing the Shrine of the Báb, set atop Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. The Holy Land for the followers of Bahá'u'lláh (adherents to the Baha'i Faith) and also the Administrative Centre for this faith. I had the honour of living and serving in this Most Holy Spot for 12 months in 2007/08, but no matter how much time passes, it continues to, and always will be home home.

Photo courtesy of S.Rouhani

Lost in yOUR world

If I were the aviation authority I could ban your excess baggage, 

Make you suck it up and leave behind all that extra carnage.

Severe all remaining ties, forcing you to disconnect,

Recollect, re-compress, reload then reconnect,

Detach you from the past that left you all delusional,

Left you believing that love only be illusional.

Lost your self, your soul, your sanity,

Sold debt, soul wept, sole self, so inept,

"Excuse my anger, I'm not always like this", 

From outrage to nonchalance,

Turn my anger into apathy,

But wait, no, I can’t morph your identity,

Can’t make you leave behind your attaché, 

And now I see in front of me my whole future,

How to make each morn even more the richer,

Everyone’s a hero trying to save the old world,

But world unity starts with your own word,

Not saying you didn’t hurt me, you made me sick,

Flick of a stick and you were gone; crack and whip,

And I sink, and then think how much I hated this,

I reminisced, so please excuse this,

But life is rare and the world is beautiful,

No one said it was easy, we are all soul-full,

And we each have a body like Lewis told you,

We got one shot no chance to renew,

So I’ll forgive and forget what we did and said,

With love and kindness, I tread with my legs,

As I head on out, I hold you in respect.

N.Homsey & S.Rouhani

26/10/2011

Pure thoughts, pure words, and pure deeds.

"To enjoy the benefits of providence is wisdom; to enable others to enjoy them is virtue. He who is indifferent to the welfare of others does not deserve to be called human. The best way to worship God is to ease the distress of the times and to improve the condition of humanity. This is true religion; to cleanse oneself with pure thoughts, pure words, and pure deeds." 

- Zoroastrian Scripture

A love for all things Ludovico.

"Life, however, had other plans - when fate is very generous with us, there is always a well into which all our dreams can tumble."

Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

It's only page 14 and I'm already entranced.

Rainer Maria Rilke

"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks... The work for which all other work is but preparation."

(Songs To Raise Your Dead Spirits)

A friend told me about the Blue Scholars about 4 years ago, I played their LP 'Bayani' to death but never thought to follow up on whether they released any further music...until now. In a moment of rediscovered I went on a search for anything they might have released since. Much to my excitement, I found that they released a brand new album in June (Cinemetropolis)- I immediately went to itunes and purchased the album!


Also, I found that DJ Sabzi (one half of the Blue Scholars) has recently collaborated with with Kelsey Bulkin to create 'M∆DE IN HEIGHTS'. They released an EP at the end of last year, Winter Pigeons, and just last month they released an 11-track album, both of which are currently being overplayed in my ears, throughout the house, while driving in my car, while walking the dog, while grocery shopping. It was exactly what was missing from my music playlist and I only wish they had more songs!


This is on the very top of my recommendations list, and just to give you a sample of their stuff here is a link to (one of) my favourite song(s):

Repeat and reload

I waste my time on you and you,
for what but wasting time from You,
blurring the line between waste and want,
slurring my thought of what I want,
for me,
my thoughts, my dreams,
where I want to be.

Stagnated, stipulated, 
sluggishly insinuated,
slushy, slurpy, 
from 7 til 11,
(but really until 3),
then sleep becomes me.

Dilated, debilitated, directly disorientated,
linear projections swerving to diagonal distractions,
treading along the path now faded,
faded and wasted, lying in wait,
plod along, redirect, reconnect,
the time has come to stipulate.

Procrastinated from purpose, 
unyielding and unnerving,
fighting to regain composure,
uncertainties overwhelm,
off the track, double back,
totally out of whack.

Crack my head on pathways closed,
pathways so old, no path to follow,
dusted, covered, crushing my bread crumbs,
no Hansel to my Gretal,
no gingerbread foes.

No route, no map,
gps can't load,
inhale, exhale,
repeat and reload...

Have patience, wait but do not sit idle

"The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away. Again the Sun of Reality will dawn from the horizon of the hearts. Have patience, wait but do not sit idle; work while you are waiting; smile when you are wearied with monotony; be firm while everything around you is being shaken; be joyous while the ugly face of despair grins at you; speak aloud while the malevolent forces of the nether world try to crush your mind; be valiant and courageous while men all around you are cringing with fear and cowardice. Do not yield to the overwhelming power of tyranny and despotism. Serve the cause of democracy and freedom. Continue your journey to the end. The bright day is coming. The nucleus of the new race is forming. The harbinger of the new ideals of international justice is appearing. The trees of hope will become verdant; the copper of scorn and derision will be transmuted into the gold of honor and praise; the arid desert of ignorance will be transformed into the luxuriant garden of knowledge; the threatening clouds shall be dispelled and the stars of faith and charity will again twinkle in the clear heaven of consciousness."

- 'Abdu’l-Bahá' (Bahá'í Scriptures -- Selection from the Utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá edited by Horace Holley, Page 551)

(For full text, click on either of the links just below:Baha'i Scriptures: chapter 9  and a Complilation for Tests and Difficulties)

You got me for nothing.

I suppose lawyers can also be profound..

In the process of completing an assignment for my 'International Environmental Law' subject, I have been required to do an immense amount of reading and research, primarily from my set-text. Amongst many a profound statements and ideas, this excerpt stood out:

"Our consciousness extends throughout the world passing freely across political frontiers. Our sympathy extends to the whole of humanity. Our moral and social responsibility extends to the whole of humanity and to the whole of the physical world which we transform by our actions. But our social ideals and our social possibilities are trapped and stifled within the mental structures which divide and disable the human world, structures which human consciousness has made and which human consciousness can remake.

The necessary revolution will free human consciousness from its self-subjection, from its self-disabling, from its self-destroying, allowing our ideas and our ideals, as well as our willing and our acting, to include the whole world, the physical world and the human world. The necessary revolution will leave us free to make and remake a human society which does not abolish our national societies but embraces and completes them.

The necessary revolution is a world revolution. The world revolution is a revolution not on the streets but in our minds."

 David Hunter et al., International Environmental Law and Policy (4^th Edition, 2011) p 280

My head is a convenient store

Way to go making me miss Copenhagen Yoav, cheers mate.

My mind fights on in a battle against self,

For years trying to sever the ties and disconnect, 

In a moment left to wandering thoughts, 

You reemerge and destroy my progress,

The moments we shared so vivid and alive,

Taking me back when all seemed fine,

Forget my time and place and space,

Your life is again in sync with mine.

The frozen moments lost in time,

The smiles, the silence, the unspoken signs,

The motives, the motions, the millions of miles,

The dreaming, the delirium, the daily demise,

The feelings, the flaws, the faltering fears.

Tarnished, ungreased, I'm like a rusted gear.

[Special thanks to Saba for assistance with the last line.]

Charlie breaks the silence.

Taken from Charlie Chaplin's film, The Great Dictator (1940). It was released just prior to the US entry into WWII. It was a huge act of defiance against Nazism and an act of courage given the political climate at the time.


Absolutely inspiring. (It gives me goosebumps)



Next step: to watch the film.

‎"The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds,  through commendable and seemly conduct". - Bahá'u'lláh