So, it’s that time of year again. The Baha’i Fast. Nineteen days of not eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. No mid-morning caffeine boost to keep the energy levels up. No water to slake the dry throat mid-afternoon. No cake or cookies to snack on through the day.
It’s wonderful! I love this period in the Baha’i calendar. Erica and I get up before sunrise to have our breakfast – a more substantial breakfast than we would usually eat, it has to be said – and then we return to bed (Is this heresy? Shouldn’t we be putting on our hair shirts and dashing out into the cold morning air?) to recite the longest of the prayers for the Fast, verse and verse about. We’ve done this for as long as I can remember (so that’s last week, then? Quiet, quiet, my soul, stop worrying about early-onset dementia), except when circumstances have kept us apart during the Fast. It’s special. It feels really good. It focuses us on what life is really about, on God, on love, on a life of service. And it brings us closer to each other.
Often the Fast coincides with a blast of cold weather, but today the sun is shining. Global warming has brought an early spring, the blossom has been emerging for the last couple of weeks. Not quite this far yet, but close.
Spring in Hertfordshire
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{ 6 comments }
hahaha Barney. quiet your soul, you’re doing fine. thanks for the comments on this wondrous, powerful time full of blessings and bounties. oh and in Ottawa we were greeted to a sleet-storm at sunrise
Hey, Dan, great to hear from you. It’s clouded over here now, not so nice as it was this morning. Bad weather threatened for Sunday, but we’ll see.
Have a wonderful fast!
Barney, what a tremendous joy to find your blog on this first day of the Fast.
Your focus “on God, on love, on a life of service” during this period gives voice to my own feelings, albeit in a far more insightful and glorious way.
Here in Viriginia, USA, we have been blessed with a day bright and shining, after a long night of thunderous rain.
Thank you for bringing even more light to this wonderful day.
Portia, thanks for your lovely comments.
Our first fasting day is drawing to a close and, sadly, it has become really quite cold outside. We have our (delayed) Feast of Ala in our home tonight. I may need to light our woodburning stove to keep people warm.
Enjoy the rest of the Fast.
Am I the only one, then, who counts down the hours and the days until the Fast ends?
Isn’t it supposed to be irritating, to remind us to conquer our worldly desires?
Hope your fast is going well!
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