Naw Ruz Reflection

Today is Naw Ruz, Baha’i New Year, also the first day of spring.

Happy Naw Ruz to you all,
Happy New Year to all of you and
Happy First Day of Spring to every one.

Spring is my very favorite season. I live on spring, live for spring. Every year at the end of February, I become increasingly restless and impatient. Every year when the spring is about to be gone (end of June) I become very depressed. People would often say that fall is beautiful too, summer is fun, and winter has its merits. True, but it’s not just the beauty of spring I love. I can find beauty in many things: in a picture, in morning dew drops, in an innocent baby face. But spring and only spring is life giving. While the beauty of fall can be enjoyed as a zoom out picture, the energy of spring can be felt in every details: every leaf in spring is new and fresh, every flower full of potential and bringing hope. It is this capacity of spring I love the most when it’s here and I miss when it’s gone. No one can talk me into that other seasons could be mentioned/compared along side with spring. There is phrase in Chinese that describes spring most accurately: “万物复苏, 万象更新”, I wish I could find an English phrase for it. Basically it means in spring everything is revived and renewed, only in a more poetic way.

I wished that spring would stay forever. I wished that there would be no other seasons but only spring. But one year I went to Baton Rouge in Louisiana at the end of March, where winder is not so severe that trees will not die back and flowers keep blooming through winter. When I was there, azaleas were blooming everywhere and trees were green all over. But something is missing: there was no feeling of spring, there was no smell of spring and there was no soul-stirring energy of spring. I puzzled for a moment and it dawned on me that because there they don’t have winter, so they don’t get the feeling and benefits of spring. So despite the degree I dislike winter, if it’s the price I have to pay in order to enjoy my spring, I am willing to go through winter with great patience and confidence that spring will one day for sure arrive. I am not going to trade my winter with a place with all seasons spring-like. "Unless the season of winter appear...the season of the soul-refreshing spring would not come, the fragrant breeze would not waft...”(Abdu’l-Baha)

The lesson learned from the season can be equally applied to human life in particular and human history in general. Suffering has been a mystic topic for many. Human nature seems to be created in such way that we learn most effectively through contrast. Without experience of pain and darkness, it would take a saint to appreciate the joy and light. I remember many years ago, after my husband was naturalized to become a citizen of US, his colleagues threw a party for him. One of his best friends came to him and said: I am jealous of you that what we are born with you have to earn. I often wonder how many who are born here in US truly appreciate the fact that many people in the world are willing to risk their life to come to the shore of this great country.

I like the way Guy Murchie put this point of view in his book: “Most humans seem to believe they want to attain something in life. But do they actually secretly yearn for frenzy, conflict, failure and more struggles? Can there really be joy if there be no pain?” I guess that’s why God has ordained that human’s eternal journey toward ultimate perfection starts here in this earthly plane where light is always followed by shadow, good by evil, health by sickness, wealth by poverty, and knowledge by ignorance.

It is Baha’i perspective that human history goes through a similar cycle of four seasons and right now we are living in the beginning of a new spring of another great cycle of history. The regenerating spiritual energy of spring has been released through the Revelation Baha’u’llah. Just as the energy released by the physical sun of spring will bring life to everything that is alive, while hastening the decay to anything that is lifeless, the new released spiritual energy will break down age long prejudices and out-of-date institutions while brings to life a new world order: “The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System..." "Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.” (Baha'u'llah).

At this early stage of development, it will take a spiritual eye to see what is happening right now and what lies ahead. Just as the son and the father in this fable demonstrated (from “Thief at Night” by William Sears) :

“Once upon a time, a father and his young son journeyed into a far land, and climbing to the mountain-top, they rested for the night. At dawn, the sun banished the darkness and painted the snow-capped peaks with brilliant orange.

“The son awoke; he saw the glowing sky and the flame-colored mountain-tops. He was a small boy, and could only see through the top of the window above him. He did not understand the brilliance. It alarmed him. He longed for the comfort of yesterday when he was at home with his mother. He wished he had never set out on the journey.

He was sure there was only disaster and fire in the strange new heavens.

“The rising sun warmed the winter snow which had lain cold and barren for so long upon the mountainside. It loosed the drifts and sent cascades thundering down into the valley below.

“The dreadful roaring sound terrified the young son even more than the flaming sky. He rushed to his father and shook him. He roused him, crying:

“ ‘Father! Father! Wake up! Wake up! It is the end of the world!’

“The father opened his eyes. He could see everything clearly through the window which was still too high for the vision of his son.

“He saw the sun-painted peaks with their morning fire. He heard the avalanche of snow released by the warming rays of the Spring sun. He knew that soon it would bring fresh water to the parched land below, restoring life. He understood these things. He took his son by the hand to comfort him.

“ ‘No, my son,’ he said. ‘It is not the end of the world. It is the dawn of a new day.’ ”

Posted via email from The Garden of Heart