"...This, surely, is the Day of God." or "Oh, Happy Day!"

The past day has been a great one! Today was Race Unity Day so I went to the Race Unity Day picnic. I saw some great high school and Bahá'í­ friends. I performed in "Children's Dance" after only having learned it in the morning. I left the picnic with promising prospects of actually staying in touch and hanging out with my good friends.

Later in the evening, L.D. and I drove up to a Spiritual Café in the Rutgers area. We picked up my friend Alisa who has been interested in coming to the monthly event since like fall semester. As always, the event was uplifting and intriguing on mental and spiritual levels. The topic was "Unity of Religions," but our discussions varied. Gosh, I love discussing spirituality. L.D. and I continued similar and more indepth discussion (including his props for Julita) on the long ride home. Hopefully, the day has given me the boost I've needed to get through this test of self-discipline, etc. that I've been struggling with. Throughout the evening, I've been transmuted from contentment to a quasi-stoic it-would-feel-wrong-if-I-wasn't-smiling to joy. I'm happy to be pushing through and learning more about what is right for me and for us all. Good night!

[Added the next morning: Sagar shared last night that, even though we Bahá'ís talk about unity so much as our core principle and goal, we don't even grasp what it is. I quickly said something about general understanding and willingness to work together for progress, assuming that I had the whole idea, but Sagar insisted that it's so much more than that on so many levels. I believe him now because of something L.D. said on the ride home (a paraphrase):

We're all (every human) experiencing the same tests. [I thought that was absurd.] We all have to struggle with certain barriers to our development such as attachment to things other than God, but the tests are played out in different ways for every person based on their current condition and their surroundings. [Aha! Sagar was right! This is one of what I can see to be thousands of levels in which unity of mankind is manifested.]