Soundtrack in my head:  Mansa “Fascinating Rhythm”

Last night I held a “Declaration Party” celebrating my declaration as a Baha'i nearly three weeks ago.  

I got the idea from a housemate who held a party at our house when she converted to Judaism.  Some of her friends from her temple came out and interacted with a small number of us.  I thought it was a great idea.  Too often in my life I have had different friends and different communities in my life living in separate spheres, interacting little.  So I thought it would be great if people from my co-op community got to interact with people from my newfound Baha'i community.  

However, there were many things working against the potential success of the party.  December is crunch time for students, and many of my housemates are students.  Also, people are often in a rush preparing for the holidays.  To top it off, it began snowing again in Madison—two to three inches was predicted.

Nevertheless, two older couples and a family of four braved the weather and the craziness of downtown parking to attend.  (And this party happened to occur at the same time the Badgers men’s basketball team was playing Marquette at the Kohl Center, which is just three blocks from my house.)  

But the only housemate who sat with us was someone who had to grab dinner before rushing back to pull an all-nighter for a paper he was writing.  Another housemate was in the kitchen making cookies for a graduate school department party, and couldn’t really participate, but this outgoing and remarkably mature high school girl who came to the event engaged him in conversations about veganism.  

While I looked at the party as a way for friends to get together with friends, I think some of the Baha’is who came also wanted to make sure I felt welcome in the community.  They succeeded—I was very touched.  One person gave me a set of prayer beads made out of hematite—a heavy and beautiful stone that’s also magnetic.  It’s something I probably wouldn’t have gotten for myself.  Baha’is have a daily practice of reciting “The Greatest Name” ninety-five times per day.  I was reciting using my fingers and knuckles as a means of counting, but prayer beads are much nicer.  The family who came gave me a copy of “Fire & Gold:  Benefiting From Life’s Tests,” which is a compilation of Baha'i writings that addresses the subject. It had been their own personal copy and they wrote a little note of encouragement by the title page, just as the Baha’is in Urbana did nineteen years before in another book. I find it particularly relevant for me, because I know I’ve been tested a lot in recent years.  Sometimes I find myself wanting to turn tail and run when I think about being tested.  Add that to the gift of “The Hidden Words” by Baha’u’llah, and the copies of the Baha'i Prayer book and “Baha’u’llah and the New Era” given to me by the Baha’is in Urbana nineteen years ago, I think that the Baha’is have, overall been quite generous to me.  

So yeah, I’d consider it a successful party.  I had a lot of fun, and so did other people.  I did say that this was a community-building party, and I’d say we succeeded in that.