Why I’ve Returned to the Baha’i Firesides

Tom asked me to share why I return to the firesides. I think to tell this story I have to begin with how I found my way here in the first place.

For a long time I’ve been interested in the Baha’i faith. This started mostly because two of my closest friends of 20+ years each are Baha’i.

If you care about someone it’s worthwhile to learn about their faith – after all faith helps define our interpretation of the world.

I’ve been blessed my whole life with making incredible friends who care about leading positive lives and feel a responsibility and joy when helping others. I feel very blessed for this. Many of my friendships extend decades and many awesome friendships I’ve made within the past few years feel a depth that makes these relationships not seem so new. I think there’s some type of underlying understanding that connects like minded people together, a collective consciousness.

One of the reasons I’ve returned to the Baha’i firesides has been the awesome feeling of connecting with other positive minded individuals who share the desire to help encourage others to live better. What I’ve also enjoyed is the encouragement to help understand the spiritual world around us. People ask more questions than claim to have answers. We’ve all started at the same beginning and share the same ending, it’s important for us to make the journey as rewarding as possible.

“To be a Baha’i simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood.” – Abdu’l-Baha

Bayan invited me to my first fireside and WOW what a greeting! I show up at Tom’s door and he welcomes me and gives me a hug! Turns out his college roommate who he’d not seen in years had a similar hairstyle. This follows with intriguing conversation, food and fun – what’s not to like? I’ve been able to attend 5 to date!

The next one Bayan wanted to attend but it was his daughter’s 9th birthday party. I had plans with my friend Hristo and brought him with, and he even baked up some homemade Bulgarian dishes to share. Very powerful lecture and discussion that extended well past that evening. The next one was about equality between men and women – a VERY powerful message from the Baha’i faith – I believe refered to as the two wings of a bird – what a beautiful way to look at the balance that men and women bring to this universe when we respect each other equally. The one about the arts encouraged my friend Anzour to sing in front of people he’d just met.

Bahá’u'lláh said to be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Several of Tom’s guests really take this to heart.

I wanted to share this post, which was part of my speech this past Saturday night. I’ll share more in separate posts about the topic of “collective consciousness”.