Day 10
My morning started with an inspiring visit with a sweet soul in my area. She has lived abroad in areas that needed support. Now she is home and all she wants is to “be of use” to society. What a humble and pure hearted desire! She is gifted with the ability to talk easily with many and, while walking her dog, she strikes up conversations with the elderly people on her block. I’m sure they greatly value her warmth and friendliness.
She wants to facilitate a neighbourhood gathering in a nearby park. We worked on the poster together. Unfortunately, I will be leaving for BC in the next day or two and I’m not able to offer any more help with the event. I can’t wait to hear all about it when I return!
After our visit, I packed up my dog and our daypack, then drove to Red Deer to meet with a friend coming from Calgary. My friend was bringing me 250 sets of newly published stories about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (each set consists of nine booklets). My task is to distribute them to as many individuals in northern Alberta as possible within a very short time frame. On my way home from Red Deer, I spent time exploring Red Deer itself, then Blackfalds, and then Lacombe. My dog and I walked almost 15 km, exploring walking trails, historical sites, and small ponds. My FitBit has awarded me with the “Urban Boot Badge” because of all the walking we did!
Over the past ten days I have been able to connect with ten beautiful souls for discussions on a wide variety of elevated (and some not so elevated) topics. In addition, I have touched base with many others that wanted to pick up Ruhi materials. It has been a busy ten days reaching out to initiate elevated conversations, and yet I also had time to complete three road trips (see Day 3 and Day 5 Reflections for information on the first two road trips), bake muffins (which inadvertently led to my making apricot spread), prepare delicious soup for future meals, clean my house, count inventory and balance the finances for the Ruhi materials and other books, enjoy some yoga in the park, complete two units in Ruhi book 6, watch four videos of inspiring and enlightening presentations, and write ten blogs. No wonder I’m tired! Yet it is an enjoyable tiredness, a peaceful tiredness. I feel content to let my body rest.
But there won’t be much resting yet. Tomorrow I will be unpacking the booklets I picked up today to prepare them for distributing to those eager souls who have requested them. It will also be a day to pack and prepare for my trip to BC to visit family.
What have I learned from my past ten days of focusing on service? To keep walking, regardless if my path doesn’t look the way I thought it would. Regardless of how my path unfolds. Regardless of where the path takes me. I keep walking. I know I won’t see the end of the path in my earthly lifetime, but I’m okay with that. While I am here in this world, I want to echo my friend’s desire to “be of use” to society.
This desire may allow me to see many different parts of the path: the beautiful, the challenging, the mediocre, the astonishing, the confusing, the dubious, the tedious, the remarkable, the endless, and even the loneliness. All parts of the same path that lead to a life well lived.
Ms. Martha Urquhart 