Helping the poor - an example

Poverty Reduction!  Who is responsible?  How do we help? 

These issues gnaw at me at times.  I see the results of poverty on the peoples faces.  The withdrawn sometime sullen composure of  folks as I walk in my neighbourhood and in other areas of town.  Many people live each moment not sure how to plan for a future as what future does one have?  How can one dream big dreams when one is hungry or cold?  How can one dream of owning a home or a car when you worry where you will get the money to feed your children tonight?  Will the food bank have enough food to help you through another week?

I wonder and ponder these issues.  Today is Ridvan and I found this on the web page 239 days.  Read the following about the Master:    http://239days.com/2012/04/18/the-master/  

I also found the following quote and it inspired me.

Be sympathetic with all suffering, nurse the sick, offer a shelter to the exiled, help the poor and those in need, dress all wounds and share the happiness of each one.

   ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

 

After our Holy Day celebration I was walking with friends.  I had a rose with me.  As we were walking through the mall we met a man who was old and haggard in dress and appearance.  I started to approach him and he was very hesitant and at first tried to avoid me.  I stopped him and gave him the rose.  The reward?  His smile radiated his being.  He became alive and asked me why I gave him a rose.  I explained I was a Baha'i and we are celebrating our most Holy Day, Ridvan which means Paradise and that I wanted to share a bit of paradise with him.

How can we bring paradise to those in poverty?  What can we do to brighten their day?  Please share what you think you can do to bring some light to a gloomy day.

Happy Naw Ruz

"Haste thou to life before death cometh; haste thou to the spring season before autumn draweth in; and before illness striketh, haste thou to healing -- that thou mayest become a physician of the spirit who, with the breaths of the Holy Spirit, healeth all manner of sickness in this famed and glorious age."  (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 56)

 The first day of spring is a glorious time and to be our New Years is marvelous.  Here in Hamilton, Ontario Canada it was a beautiful day with warm sun and gentle breezes making the daffodils gently dance in temperatures around 23 C.  It was joyous day.  The only clouds on this day was that I am ill and could not attend our Holy Day celebration.

I found the above quote and was struck with the enormity of Abdu'l-Baha's instructions to us.  I was struck by how often we waste our time on trivia and then all of a sudden it is autumn or we are ill and unable to do what is the most important things in our lives.  Being sick does, however, have its benefits.  It allows us time while healing to contemplate what really is important in our lives.  Is purchasing a new this or that, or going doing this or that more important than serving this Beloved Cause?  Reflection assists one to refocus what our priorities must be.

Missing the Holy Day celebration was difficult but it has given me pause to think of what my priorities in service should be.  I must focus on love.  In my neighbourhood, love is a key to healing.  Seeing the nobility of each and everyone I encounter rather than knee jerking to some negatives.  This needs to be added to my daily journeys.

Happy Naw Ruz everyone.

Wanted to Share

I just posted my "RAP" so to speak about "How We Grew".  I participated in the Discovery Program at McMaster University.  This was a special program provided to 22 individuals who are from the lower social economic areas of Hamilton, ON.  We had our classes on Saturdays at the Main Branch of the Hamilton Public Library.  We read 4 books, Hamilton, a Peoples History by Bill Freeman; where the concrete desert blooms-a graphic novella by tings chak; Falling into Place by John Terpstra; and Road Work Ahead (poetry and images), an anthology.  We were very fortunate to have guest lecturers and our professor Daniel Coleman and his trusty sidekick Jeanette Eby and several mentoring McMaster University students to assist many of us first time "university students".  We each had a project to do and I chose to work on the history of my neighbourhood, McQuesten.  I really wanted to do a Rap but Lordy,  Lordy is that an art form and a half.  Never appreciated Rap until I started to research it.  So I created the Ode to McQuesten poem.

My project is a 6 panel display - 3 large and 3 small graphically showing the history of McQuesten neighbourhood.  Originally it was farmland then the airport and then today.  I interviewed many people and wrote brief comments from the interviews.

It was a great experience and am so grateful to have participated.

How We Grew - Ode to McQuesten Neighbourhood

First we had the neutrals

The original aboriginals

Along came the white man

Followed by the black man

Last stop on the underground line

We became everyone’s lifeline

 

For the Empire loyalists

They were the bravest

Look here at Mary Gage

Her children were teenage

They hued the trees

Man, woman and kiddies

Their strong arms

Built great farms

 

Now came the railroad

This created a new mode

For entrepreneurs like Auld

He built a Shop Yard

Out of a farmyard

 

In our fair city of Hamilton

They immediately took action

In the year 1928

They had reason to zonate

Elliot built an Airport

But Hamilton wouldn’t support

So they took 200 acres of land

Which had been fertile cropland

An airport they built

The land like a quilt

With a large hangar to serve the planes

They showed no restrains

 

As opening day approached

All looked for the skycoach

Goodyear came with their blimps

Everyone strained for a glimpse

Those Nazi Bastards

Started a war

Our men went off to scar

Hitler’s cigar and gizzard

Our service men returned

The Governments were concerned

A Housing Scheme was planned

On old City Airport land

 

In 1948 a new survey

Just East of the raceway

Called Parkdale Heights

Lessoned the vets plights

When five families

Received their keys

The need was still great

The City moved to abate

It was time to correct

So we built a new project

Construction was crazy

It was our bread and gravy

Mr Woodward living on Glennie

He won a TV

His imagination had a spark

And named it Roxborough Park

Construction didn’t dawdle

The area became a Model

For all of Canada to see

That’s not too shabby

Thomas McQuesten

Was a politician

As he was quite famed

A neighbourhood was named

 

Out of all the construction

Neighbours took action

Out of this we raised

A community anew

And that is how we grew.

 

First we had the neutrals

The original aboriginals

Along came the white man

Followed by the black man

Last stop on the underground line

We became everyone’s lifeline

Ayyam-i-Ha

Ayyam-i-Ha

What does it mean?  I have pondered these days and have wondered what does it really mean?  Baha’u’llah tells us “The Ayyam-i-Ha are devoted to spiritual preparation for the fast, hospitality, feasting, charity and gift giving.” 

What has been my focus as an individual and what has our focus been as a community?  As I am unable to Fast because of health reasons and age I am preparing to memorize two prayers during this period.  One prayer will be on rendering service to My Beloved and the other is on forgiveness. 

Gift-giving is one thing I can do on a small scale as I do not have the means or the interest in participating in the mass consumerism which is so prevalent in our Western World.

I have been looking at the word “Charity” with interest.  Does it mean to give a gift or donation to a charity, pat myself on the back and say “my what a good Baha’i I am” or is there more substance to what is to be done. 

I found in ‘Ocean’ interesting information about “Charity” etc from the Compilation, NSA, USA – Developing Distinctive Baha’i Communities. 

To Charity  “marriages, Ayyam-i-Ha, wedding anniversaries, Bahá'í declarations, pioneering moves, firesides given, hospitality, services rendered, Naw-Ruz and the 12 days of Ridvan are among the occasions on which such gifts might be offered.”

Food Baskets

/// Many churches distribute food baskets to the needy during their holiday season. The Bahá'ís can help with such projects and can observe Ayyam-i-Ha or various Bahá'í Holy Days in a similar manner.

Food Pantries

/// An Assembly with a Bahá'í Center or other space available can maintain an ongoing food pantry. Food is available through community food drives, the Federal Commodities program, and local merchants.

Congregate Meals

/// If space and cooking facilities are available, the Assembly can serve hot meals on a regular basis to the needy or a meal in observance of a Bahá'í Holy Day.

I find these most intriguing comments and are food for thought for our community to really look at what we could do as a community.  Instead of us having a big “Pot-Luck” for our fellow believers why can’t we have the “Pot-Luck” at one of the shelters where we as a community work to “serve” those in much greater need.

As we move forward in developing our own distinctive Baha’i Community we must address the elimination of poverty.

I will be sharing from time to time my own ideas and those from the Baha’i International Community (BIC) about poverty issues.

Am I an expert on poverty?  You bet I am!  My children and I have been homeless a couple of times and I have been homeless on my own.  Am I living below the poverty line?  You bet I am!  Do I have all the answers?  Nope!  But I have an insatiable interest in what the Baha’i Faith and the various Baha’i organizations have to say about poverty elimination and how I, as an individual, can help to alleviate this blight from our midst.

I look forward to contributing more on this subject.

Starting afresh

Ruminations can drive you nuts!  How could I have been so stupid?  Why did I allow myself to get into such a mess?  Why, How, where????

These seem to haunt me at times.  I long to find respite from these thoughts and it seems the older I get I mull over things that have no validity.  I guess if I had taken myself to account each and every day I could have saved the beatings I give myself now.

I find everyday I start afresh and find new interests and new sights and sounds that distract me from the gnawing.  But night comes again and I awake from dreams that reignite the ruminations.  Thank God for my prayers for forgiveness for me and to those contributed to the pain.

Didn't really mean to start out with such a negative diatribe. 

Today was in fact a great day with lots of people and interchange.  But sometime I know I have to explore those rages buried deep within me as they hurt no one but me and I would like to cleanse myself of these before I wing my flight to the Abha Kingdom.