Making time

Some time ago I suspended my Internet projects indefinitely. Now I'm thinking I might go back online in February or March, if I can learn habits I want to learn before then, including:
- making time in my life now, for some things that I'm hoping will some day happen in my life.
- spending more time with some friends and family members, learning to be a better friend.
- getting some things done from my list of Things to Do.

Mostly what I want to make time for, sometimes at home and sometimes outside, is to spend with some friends that I'm hoping to have some day. Those will be friends who will be following Baha'u'llah, and studying and practicing with some of their friends, learning to work with neighbors to help improve the community life for everyone in a neighborhood, using what we're learning from Baha'u'llah. Those friends of mine and I will spend time together in fellowship, in my home and elsewhere, and exchanging ideas and experiences in helping to spread the knowledge and love of God.

I'm learning to make time for that in my life now, without waiting until it starts happening. I'm using that time now to practice things I might do with those friends in the future.

I might go back online in February or March, if I'm satisfied with my progress in learning those habits. For now what I have in mind to do, if and when I go back online, is to spend time with people following ideologies opposed to mine, learning to encourage and support them, in their best efforts that I can see, to help spread the knowledge and love of God.

Joy from watching companionship

Yesterday, while Patty was shopping on and around the walking street, I spent some time sitting on a bench, practicing keeping my heart open to God. I looked around and up at the sky for a while, then I remembered being filled with joy once before, sitting on the walking street, watching people go by. At first I couldn't remember how that happened, then I remembered that I had watched people laughing and having fun together. I didn't see as much of that this time, but I did see a lot of companionship in groups of various sizes. After I watched that for a while, I felt so much joy that it bubbled out in laughter and put tears in my eyes.

I took some pictures of groups of people, to share. I wrote about it, along with a few photos, to one of my friends that I'm studying and practicing with, learning ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling blue. I'm planning to write a post about it on my Nets of Wonder blog, along with a few photos, and to share that on Facebook.

Experiences like that sometimes remind me of the idea in The Celestine Prophecy, that one way to get energy, without draining it from others, is from beauty. This experience also reminded me of what Baha'u'llah said about fellowship. He wrote "This goal excelleth every other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of all aspirations."