taking shade

a little story, been on my mind for some time now.

so, last sunday, a small group of us headed to a northern shanghai park (hour plus out of the city) for a birthday picnic.
now a park in china, isnt just like any old park. this park had a rollar-coaster, a flying fox/rope type contraption that swings you over a lake strapped in like a butterfly, acres of green grass to SIT ON (a rarity in china, most parks you can look at the grass but not touch), roses to smell, horses to ride, brides to watch their wedding pictures being taken, bamboo forests to explore, and views on the huangpu river to see...

a beautiful warm shanghai summer day. we sat and ate a gorgeous lunch of mediterrean bread (non sweet bread in china!! OH MY!) olives, dumplings, and filipino spiced kebabs, sitting on a blanket, watching parents play with their kids, flying kites and kicking soccer balls. bliss. it has been years since i have had a picnic in the park. and i miss it. something so utterly relaxing about it. and just to touch grass again...ohhhh after life in haifa and a year in china its a shock to actually find a massive patch to rest on...hmmm childhood memories of lazy weekends by the waiwhetu stream, or running in the bush tracks behind my old house...yum.

the five of us casually strolled around the park, taking it all in, hiring peddle boats and laughing as we exhaust ourselves, and crash into fellow riders...my steering skills were never great!
and as we got off the boats my friend's phone rang.
he picked it up.
it was his family, calling from Iran to wish his wife a happy birthday. you could hear the excitement in his voice, he passed the phone onto his wife, then something happend, a quietness in her voice, a silence, she walked away from the group as tears rolled down her eyes while talking.
Her mother-in law was now on the phone, calling from Evin prison, where she has been held for over a year because of her Baha'i beliefs. The prison allow her to make the occasional phone call. She had called her family in Iran, who were now holding up the phone to another phone (the line that called my friend in Shanghai).
just imagining this.
they had not spoken for a while and were waiting to hear news about her. and now on my friend's birthday she rings from prison barracks in Iran.

What an incredible contrast.
A reality check. As I stand here, free and content with my friends in a park in China.


Her spirits were high, they told me after the phone coversations had ended, but still no word on a trial or any hint of a release. The whole situation is entire breach of human rights.

For those of you reading this and know little about the terrible situation facing Bahai's in Iran refer to this website:
http://news.bahai.org/human-rights/iran/iran-update/

Then I thought more about it, her son, being here in China, and the bounties we have, the service oppurtunities, and her connection to it all, crisis and victory, light and darkness...imagining her praying for her son in her prison cell and now being on the other side, seeing the light and radiance that both he and his wife eminate.

a friend reminded me of this quote of Baha'u'llah that i would like to conclude with...

"Should they cast Him into a fire kindled on the continent, He will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and proclaim: "He is the Lord of all that are in heaven and all that are on earth!" And if they cast Him into a darksome pit, they will find Him seated on earth's loftiest heights calling aloud to all mankind: "Lo, the Desire of the World is come in His majesty, His sovereignty, His transcendent dominion!" And if He be buried beneath the depths of the earth, His Spirit soaring to the apex of heaven shall peal the summons: "Behold ye the coming of the Glory; witness ye the Kingdom of God, the Most Holy, the Gracious, the All-Powerful!" And if they shed His blood, every drop thereof shall cry out and invoke God in this Name through which the fragrance of His raiment hath been diffused in all directions."

(Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts)