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As many of us continue to hunker down in our homes, the need for social contact grows stronger. Even more than that, the need to feel needed – to DO SOMETHING USEFUL while we sit at home can be overwhelming. So let me share a secret: For the price of a card and a stamp, you, too, can commit a random act of kindness and senseless beauty that will cheer the heart of someone you care about. If you’ve ever received an unexpected card from a friend you miss, you know how it can transform your whole day, week, or […]

This clever design by Marty Quinn lets the world know that you are striving to construct a prejudice-free world, starting with yourself. The Prejudice Free Zone design prints in yellow on the front of a colored shirt, so the lettering will be the same color as the shirt. As an added plug for all of humanity, there is a smaller Human at Work sign printed on the left sleeve of the ADULT shirts, but not on the youth sizes. When you can’t SEE the Sunshine, BE the Sunshine. This uplifting message will brighten the day of everyone who sees it. I first heard it on

When I sent this e-mail out in March, we were all hoping that the country would successfully lock down, wear masks, and be ready to open back up by June. Now that it is clear that this could go on for months, if not longer, you might want to take a second look at this list of games and activities to get you through another month (or 12) of quarantine.  I’ve put a couple of them on sale as an added incentive. If you are tired of TV and your eyes are blurry from reading, here are some games and activities you can use

Whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, most of us try to abide by what we perceive to be the social norms of our group. The more localized or personal the group we identify with, the more strongly we are influenced by their norms. For hundreds of years, the social norm of white people was to consider themselves superior. Depending on where you lived, that norm might have been expressed subtly, or it might have been expressed overtly through blatantly racist statements and actions. Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve seen that social norm shift. Even when it was

25% Off of A Gift of Prayers ends July 9th Twenty-five years ago, Karen and I published our first edition of A Gift of Prayers. Since that time, it has sold well over 250,000 copies, and has been published in six different editions (including one in Italian).  To celebrate its Silver Anniversary, we reduced the price by 25% in March, but the sale ends July 9th. The world is in more need of prayers now than at any time since the last World War. Many people of different faiths and no faith at all are becoming open to ideas and possibilities

I was deeply gratified by the dozens of responses I received encouraging me to reprint this pamphlet. It is a non-threatening yet profound way to open hearts to the need for race unity and some ways to go about achieving it. If you’ve forgotten what it says, click on the picture or this link and click on the 2nd & 3rd picture at Baha’i Resource. You should be able to read the full text on a monitor. It is scheduled to arrive this afternoon, so go ahead and order. I’ll get it out this week so you will have it ready to

The news these days is heartbreaking. Like you, I continually ask myself what more I could be doing to promote racial harmony and understanding. Last year, I sold out of all of my pamphlets on Race Unity, and I’m sorry to say, the interest in them had gotten so low that I couldn’t justify reprinting any of them. I’m reconsidering that decision, but I need your help. After the picture below, which links to the few race unity materials I still have, I am posting the full text of two of my old pamphlets. If you have the time, please

Art and Consultation: Creating Space and Planting Seeds in the Garden of Your Mind I came across this old article about the art of consultation on the same day as a friend posted this WONDERFUL video mash-up of Mr Rogers. Somehow, the idea of creating space for new ideas seemed to be the perfect prerequisite for planting ideas in the garden of your mind. See what you think: Part 1) At a Wisconsin Bahá’í School class on consultation, someone mentioned the “art of consultation.”  Being an artist myself, my mind shifted sideways to ask what art and consultation have in

I originally wrote these comments on the first anniversary of 9/11, but they are just as appropriate today. *** One would think that after a year like the one we have just experienced, the world would be clamoring for what we have to offer. They aren’t. After much reflection, I have an idea as to why:  They don’t want what we are offering.  They want what we want.  What we are offering, for the most part, are words, ideas, hopes and visions.  What they want – and we want – is love. For many years as a Baha’i, I operated under the assumption that love is

I read two things today that moved me to write this post. The first was an article that predicted that the next few years may be even more challenging than the Great Depression. The second was a letter from the Universal House of Justice that said, among other things: “Local Spiritual Assemblies in particular should consider what means might be within their power to prevent, relieve, or mitigate suffering in the wider society of which they are an integral part.”  During the first great depression, the Baha’is of Chicago ran a soup kitchen for the needy. Thinking big is not something