fasting, day fourteen
I want to reflect for a moment or several hundred on the bounty of friendship.
I am so moved by the people in my life--my friends who are family, my family who are dear friends. People who email me out of the blue and say, "Hi! How are you? I've been thinking of you!" People who immediately respond to a request for assistance or support. People who can pick up a conversation and convey a warm connection no matter how long it has been since we last talked. People who just get me. People who are friends with me in spite of my shortcomings. People who are so filled with love, understanding and compassion.
I feel amazement at the people in my life on a daily basis. I don't know why it is I have received this blessing; I do know that I am eternally, deeply, profoundly grateful and humbled.

For today, I have been pondering this quote:
These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou didst enjoin Thy servants to observe the fast. With it Thou didst adorn the preamble of the Book of Thy Laws revealed unto Thy creatures, and didst deck forth the Repositories of Thy commandments in the sight of all who are in Thy heaven and all who are on Thy earth. Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose knowledge embraceth all created things. Thou hast, also, assigned unto every soul a portion of this virtue in accordance with the Tablet of Thy decree and the Scriptures of Thine irrevocable judgment. Every leaf of these Books and Scriptures Thou hast, moreover, allotted to each one of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. (Baha'u'llah, Baha'i Prayers [US, 1991 Ed], p247)


