Same conversations, different accents...

I am back. Finally.

It has been more than three months since I have had the wherewithal to muster the will to blog. In this time, we have packed up the house in Florida, spent a month in Kansas/Iowa, and moved with two kids, two dogs and twelve bags to Poland. We have been here eight weeks now and are adjusting reasonably well. (Despite the fact that our things are all being stored somewhere in Miami waiting to be shipped pending the approval of my husband's work visa.)

Truly, the details of our material existence here are nothing compared to how interesting and exciting are the spiritual aspects of being in Poland. What I find most amazing is how the conversations here are really the same conversations we were having back in Florida and were really the same conversations we were having in Kansas... The House of Justice has focused the Baha'i world so effectively around the aims of the Plans and the processes of the Institutes, that really the only thing that is appreciably different is the accents of the individuals having the conversations.

I realize that this is a gross over-simplification but it is true. Our concerns, our trials and our victories are common regardless of our locality... Baha'is everywhere worry about being effective, the Counselors everywhere encourage and set the bar very high, the friends everywhere work to fill out the Cluster Growth Profile (keeping track of the numbers), and everyone wonders if they are praying enough, teaching enough, and doing the bidding of the House of Justice.

Today, as we reflected on the successes and outcomes of the weekend's expansion phase, I had to smile to myself, laugh a little and wonder at the marvel that is the Baha'i world. It really is a small planet and Baha'u'llah has given each of us, no matter where we reside, the tools to conquer the hearts of those that reside thereon.