My blog is now located at http://beewolfray.com. It looks just the same but new updates will only be found there from now on. I’ll leave this blog up for a few weeks to give time to adjust.
My baby sister has a new blog, and it is amazing. Of course it is, because she is an amazing woman. I grew up surrounded by amazing women. Amazing, relentless, strong women, fighters all.
She says,
Relentless Women Are Fierce
Dictionary.com defines the term relentless as such: unyieldingly, severe, strict, or harsh: a relentless enemy. Yikes, I have been deemed this term by one of my closest friends. I immediately attend to my closest critic, myself, and get out my boxing gloves and try and beat this horrible term out of me. GET OUT YOU HORRIBLE PIECE OF FERN, HOW CAN WE REACH PERFECTION IF THESE INCESSANT IMPERFECTIONS KEEP POPPING UP LIKE WEEDS!!!!! Man, I was very hard on myself – wow, I’m so selfish, all I can think about is myself, all about me, me, me when this life should be about a higher calling and serving the fringes! …. read more
This is what you see when you walk to the bottom of the Baha'i Terraces. Gorgeous... on that note, goodbye to you all for now.
My friend in Tel Aviv, Josef, picked us up at the airport. It is a singularly warm and wonderful feeling to be picked up at the airport in a foreign country. Here he is at the door to his apartment, where he introduced us to Murphy the cat. We will be seeing Josef and Murphy tomorrow.
Our rented internet connection runs out in a couple of hours, and after that, we’re on the run until we make it to Canada. There, I will meet my new grandbaby, Taylor Ryan… so excited! Please enjoy the following photos, highlights from this trip. See you in the western hemisphere…
I was struck by the contrast between the ruin on the right and the beautiful roof garden on the building on the left. This is such a land of opposites,the old and new, destruction and beauty.
This marked the official beginning of my mother's pilgrimage... here she is at the Pilgrim Reception Centre in Haifa.
The Shrine of the Bab is the crown jewel of Haifa, and the reason for the many tourist trips there. However we are 'wonderfully blessed' to not be able to see it this year (our pilgrim guide is relentlessly positive) because it is wrapped for renovations.
The terraces of the Baha'i gardens looking down. Stunning... and at this point, we're only about halfway up.
Gilding the peacock: Baha'i temples and holy sites are heavy on ostentation, decoration, clipped hedges, with excruciatingly tidy and managed gardens. Beautiful and serene, but personally I like a little chaos with my spirit. Oh I'm such a westerner.
This is the Shrine of Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith... apparently he lived next door to this shrine before his death. Baha'is are big on shrines, mementos, relics and remembrances of the big guy and his family and friends, all of whom are considered holy, and their belongings and virtually every place they ever set foot are revered.
This building sticks out like a sore thumb in Haifa. It looks like a rocket ship, it's actually very beautiful. Apparently, though, it caused a lot of controversy, clashing with the aesthetic of the city. Indeed. Welcome to the new millennium, Haifa!
A few months ago there was a devastating forest fire on Mt. Carmel. Josef & I went and walked the site... very sad and sorrowful place. There is, or was, a penitentiary which looms over the site like a sentinel, and 40 people were killed in a bus trying to rescue the prisoners from the fire. Very strange experience... still, wildflowers are rampant all around, and greenery is growing up through the ash on the forest floor.
I used to have these (Coleus) as houseplants... cool to see them growing outside. Beautiful red leaves.
quote from our guide: "What a wonderful privilege it is that you are here when the temple is being renovated--it is the only time in a hundred years that it can't be seen! You'll be able to tell this story to your grandchildren!" This is one relentlessly positive woman.
these arabic characters (which mean something very lofty) resemble the word 'evil' to me... there is a truth in there someplace. Like, 'evil is live spelled backward,' or something like that. I'm tired.
This is where we were today, the Gardens of Rizvan... lovely and peaceful. We ate oranges, they were delicious. Now I must go to bed. Goodnight all...
I think I saw her again today in the market, though I haven't downloaded those photos yet
As it was Saturday today, we had a day free of pilgrimage-related activities; we went to Acco to explore on our own. This was my first real experience of being in a thoroughly different culture!
Akko is a Muslim city; the Jewish cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv are more western in look and feel, although the architecture is of course different, with many crumblingly beautiful old buildings.
We had toured the old prison in Akko a few days ago, but rushed through the town just quickly enough to be intrigued; I had snapped the photo of the woman on the left as we rushed by. Today, we heard the muezzin call to prayer and saw many women wearing beautiful clothes like these, with brightly coloured fabrics, lush velvets, swirling patterns, sparkles.
I got yelled at for not being dressed decently when we tried to go into a mosque (where we had been directed to go to find a toilet, wrongly as it turned out). In the rush to find the bathroom, I had missed seeing the sign that said, ‘Holy place, must be decently dressed’. My hair and shoulders were uncovered, which was not acceptable; to be fair, they did have shawls hanging on hooks by the door that I could have donned in order to meet the standard. It was kind of like a restaurant that won’t let you in without a tie, but will offer you a tie at the door because they really do want to let you come in.
Once it was clear that this was a mosque and not the route to the WC, we left. Finding a toilet was a series of misadventures, up stairs and down, in and out of blind alleys, from one side of town to the other. A good lot of our wanderings about Acco were in search of the facilities. Finally relieved, we found the market, and the ocean, in that order.
The Akko market proper was a surreal experience! We thought we had seen the market; every street was lined with food stalls and umbrella vendors selling all sorts of goods. As we were leaving, we asked how to get to the ocean. We were told, ‘through the market’… um… market? You mean the street vendors? Shocked, she gasped, “You haven’t seen the market! You must see the market!”
She directed us into a labyrinth of tunnels, not easy at all to find, and it was a bizarre bazaar indeed. Surreal! It wound indoors and underground for what seemed like blocks, with fish stalls, food stalls, people selling goods of every conceivable type, crammed with so many people that when we wanted to purchase something we had to plant ourselves firmly to avoid being swept away.
I was more comfortable diving into the fray than Mom, so I spearheaded our journey against the flow of the crowd, which all seemed to be headed in the opposite direction from us. What fun! And yet, it was so thoroughly hidden that we had difficulty finding it again when we wanted to show some friends who had also missed it.
Thus far I am thoroughly impressed with the people here. Even the security guards that search my bags going into the mall have had a sweet smile and a friendly word to offer. I think I love it here, though I hear that summertime is not nearly so wonderful. Everyone loves spring… I do believe I got a sunburn on my nose today.
With Saturn in the 4th house, Earth in Libra in the 2nd and a Taurus South Node, physical context is very important to me. I have a strong sense of location; when I move to a new place, the first thing I must do is explore my surroundings and get a sense of what my orientation is.
Here in Israel, I feel my body`s confusion as it struggles to make sense of the bulk of planet between my home and where I am now; it is a powerful sensation and impossible to describe.
The many kinds of context I am experiencing here, as witness and helper on my mother`s Baha`i pilgrimage – an ancient prison, many beautiful, serene and opulent gardens, temples, mansions and–today–the site of a recent forest fire on Mount Carmel in which forty people died – are causing much growthful turbulence in my being.
ghosts of past sufferings still haunt the prison at Acco (Acre)
Now I have some time to reflect yet I find myself without words. Only images can speak for me now. I am taking hundreds (perhaps thousands) of photos; this helps me to feel what I am experiencing, but it may be some time before I am able to speak of it in any depth.
As part of the pilgrimage, we were taken to the prison at Acre (Acco), one of the oldest cities in the world. Known as ‘the Prison City,’ the prison building is truly impressive. We got to explore more of it than we were meant to, when a small group of us became separated from the rest (taking photos slowed us down) and the door our group had gone to was locked. We wandered through the labyrinthine prison looking for the group until we were rescued by a cleaning lady. Fascinating place; much cleaner and brighter than it had been when prisoners were held there; it’s now a museum.
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When waiting for a bus, a taxi pulled up to try to sell us on a ride to our destination. “Only 20 shekels!” he said. “No thanks,” we replied, “We’ll wait for the bus (which is 6.4 shekels).” A few minutes later, the same cab driver pulled up again, having spotted two other people who had joined us. Correctly deducing that we were all going to the same place, he tried again. Rather than offering the 20 shekel total deal, he charged us 6 shekels each, but we took it. What the heck, cheaper than the bus.
It isn’t often that we get to take the bus when we wait at the bus stop. In addition to enterprising cab drivers, sheruts are mini buses that charge less than a regular bus; you can call them like taxis and they’ll take groups anywhere in the city for 6 shekels. They will also pull up to bus stops with several people gathered and offer to take us there for a bit cheaper than the bus (6 shekels). How they make money, I have no idea.
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Having my bag searched by mall security guards was kind of a harsh reminder of what country I’m in… the machine-gun toting cops by the El Al ticket desk was a sign too. At first, I thought they were asking for something else… what… do I have to produce a membership card or something? Then I got it… ahh that’s right. I could be a terrorist.
photos of my brief visit to London
I’ve put most of my time online tonight into organizing my photos, and now I’m all tired. Instead of writing tonight, I’m going to post a link to my set of flickr photos from the London leg of the trip. I didn’t have much time there, but I snapped happily.
You won’t see these on facebook; it’s too much bother to upload all these to two places, and I like flickr better for photos. Do enjoy, and more to come!
seemed like a good sign... first day on the pilgrimage
Rainbows are so special and it was amazing to see this one when I did, yesterday. I wandered off while the Baha’is were doing their prayer thing in their shrine.
I am an alien here, the only non-Baha’i in a sea of believers. But the temples and gardens are lovely, and they are generally very sweet people. I glaze over when they start talking about it all… but I try to be polite and respect the space. I close my eyes while they’re praying and breathe, listen to my own thoughts, let it all wash over me.
I don’t go into the shrines because I would go in as a tourist, oh look that’s pretty, hm, that’s a bit tacky… while to them, it’s the holy of holies. Today we visited the ‘Holiest spot on the surface of the Earth’ and I’m sorry, but my eyes rolled. I have a hard time holding myself back sometimes. But I’m not here for the faith, I’m here for my mother. On that level, this is a very good thing, and this was a well timed rainbow for me. I was the only one who got to see it while the others were in the shrine praying. This was my prayer.
I now know exactly what this means! And considering the amount of luggage we were hauling on the underground, it was excellent advice.
We saw an amazing lot for such a short visit… music in Covent Garden, the market on Saturday, street performer (magician), the theatre district… wandered into the Savoy Hotel and took pictures of all the chandeliers n fancy stuff. The doorman was very kind to the curious Canadian tourists. We were looking for music–Canadian blues. It wasn’t to be found, despite the internet insisting otherwise.
Wandered through the shops on Oxford St (see, I called them ‘shops’ not stores lol!)… Mom bought postcards. One said, aside from the food, the accommodations and the weather, I’m having a wonderful time! That was our London visit in a nutshell.
I enjoyed the signage differences… ‘Way Out’ is much more interesting than ‘Exit’, though I was a bit put off by the clinical sound of ‘Male Toilets’ and ‘Female Toilets’… isn’t England the land of ‘ladies and gentlemen’? Still, I think ‘Give Way’ is more poetic than ‘Yield’.
We are now in Haifa, Israel, and the pilgrimage started today. Many steps, much beauty, many photos. And once again, I’m ready for sleep. It’s only 9pm local time, but what is time really? From the perspective of nearly halfway around the planet from the place I call home, all things are seen in their relativity.
So far, it's all very spiritual... but it's not my faith, so I slipped out to take pictures while everybody else prayed.
It’s amazing how quickly the novel can become the norm. Yet, new novelty awaits… tomorrow. Highlights so far: opulent gilded buildings, dog poop on the streets, feral cats numerous as squirrels — some friendly, some skitties.
Bee's Buzz 