today is an historical day! almost...

it was quite cold and windy today, so at football practice I decided to put on a sweater, for the first time in more than 10 years. however, after warming up for about 5 minutes, I got warm enough and took it off. so, almost, but not quite there...

I didn't play all that well today, had one chip that was really sweet, but other than that I was too stressed and couldn't quite perform as I wanted to. ah well, there will be more chances. at least I'm getting a good workout.

ran 3 km on 11.40, that's quite good.

it all started at the airport...

... and somehow continued all the way.

we got up saturday morning to get going, and after quite an uneventful trip we arrived to tel aviv airport. last time I was there, 2 years ago, I barely got out of the plane before I heard the words "sir, can you please step aside". naturally, due to how I looked, they wanted to make sure I was not dangerous. got asked why I was there, etc. and then I also got stopped as I had gotten my luggage and was on my way out to the arrival hall. this was in addition to the passport control.

naturally, I expected something similar this time. however, that did not really happen... didn't get stopped or anything outside the airplane, passport control went smoothly, and after the luggage was picked up and we were on our way out, the only thing that happened was this slightly strange conversation:
- security girl (checking my passport): where are you born?
- me: sweden
- security girl: israel?
- me: no, sweden
- security girl (returning my passport): okay

and then we just walked out. I was expecting a whole lot more. it took us about 30 minutes from arrival until we had our luggage and were out at the entrance hall. needless to say I was surprised.

since we were out at ~15.30, and couldn't get into haifa until 21, there was some time to kill at the airport. to my great surprise, a crazy friend showed up at around that time, to keep us company. we had talked about meeting up at the airport, but due to sabbath, there were no trains coming, so we sorta blew the idea off. luckily, she got a ride with a friend who was coming to pick someone else up :)

so as we're sitting there, talking, chatting, having fun, etc, we see a couple of other half-lost people walking around, and figure out that they must also be Baha'is. talk to a few, ask where they're from and such, and suddenly the greatest coincidence ever happens. I had heard from a dutch friend who's currently in india that one of her friends who'd been serving with her there for a while was going to be in the same pilgrim group as us. she told me her name, but I had sorta forgotten about it and didn't really think I'd see her, especially not on the first day.
so what happens? this girl walks by, we ask if she's a Baha'i, we introduce ourselves, and I guess you can realize who she is... so after the usual "wow, what a surprise, how are you?" etc, she suddenly says "I have a letter here, does anyone of you happen to be borna?"
she presents me with this letter from my two friends in india that she's been carrying around with her for almost 3 months, brought to more than 10 countries (she recounted them), and now finally found the recipient for it. a great surprise to say the least. I was asked to "hide in the closet" when I was going to open and read the letter, so naturally I couldn't open it there, neither retell what was in there... :)

so at around 21.30 we got to our hotel, checked in, and took it a bit easy. we went out to check out if there were any restaurants open, found a sandwich place and had some delicious sandwiches. took a walk down to the top of the terraces, couldn't be let in since we had no pilgrimage badges, so just stood out there, took a few pictures, and talked to the security guard up there. it was a nice chat, but eventually it was time to go back to bed and get ready for the next day, the first day of pilgrimage.


- - - - -

that's the first day, and pilgrimage hasn't even started... I hope you found it interesting to read, and I'll try to keep the rest coming in steadily. now I'm off to bed!

"the trouble with the super rich"

that's the topic of this article on the nation. it's a very interesting article, and reminds me of this quotation from 'Abdu'l-Baha, the Son of the Founder of the Baha'i Faith:

"Certainly, some being enormously rich and others lamentably poor, an organization is necessary to control and improve this state of affairs. It is important to limit riches, as it is also of importance to limit poverty. Either extreme is not good. To be seated in the mean is most desirable. If it be right for a capitalist to possess a large fortune, it is equally just that his workman should have a sufficient means of existence.

A financier with colossal wealth should not exist whilst near him is a poor man in dire necessity. When we see poverty allowed to reach a condition of starvation it is a sure sign that somewhere we shall find tyranny."

this by no means however implies that everyone should be having exactly the same amount of money regardless of what they do. there must be a correlation between job/education and income, however not to the extreme difference of degree that exists today.

pictures, pictures, pictures!

I finally went through the pictures and uploaded them all. they're up on facebook, but you can find them here as well:

The Arc	Shrine of the Báb	Bahji
Monument Gardens	Terraces	People, part 1
People, part 2	Flowers	Artistic pictures
Burst shots	Other places	Haifa shots

a few notes on the pictures:
there are some duplicates, most notably in the artistic/people category. pictures are taken by me, my brother and a couple of other friends. I could've put basically all pictures in the artistic section, but tried to keep it to a minimum to those pictures that were taken with the intention of being especially artistic. the burst shots is an attempt to see how it will look like. I will put captions and tag people later, as well as upload some movies. for now, just enjoy :)

cleanliness

I will start by quoting the virtues project about cleanliness:

Cleanliness means washing often, keeping your body clean, and wearing clean clothes. It is putting into your body and your mind only the things that keep you healthy. It is staying free from harmful drugs. It is cleaning up mistakes and making a fresh start.

I just cleaned up big parts of my home, and wow, it really does make a difference, not only in that it actually looks clean, but also how it makes you feel. just seeing the cleanliness around really makes you a lot happier. here's one for always keeping it clean at home.

monthly monthly, part 5?

it's been 5 months (and a few days more) now that I've moved out, and tradition bids that I write another monthly post about events, thoughts and whatnot. however, this time I won't do it, due to pilgrimage being the major part of the last month, and nothing much else happening. and since I will be writing quite a lot about that (it's coming, patience!), I'll drop this month's monthly monthly.

buying loyalty, and a bit more...

I never thought it'd be so easy to buy my loyalty. I always thought I'd stick to what I believed was best, regardless of any other circumstances.

now I realized it isn't so. after starting to work at aftonbladet I have started reading punkt.se, which is their (our?) free daily paper, a competitor to metro. I used to think that metro was the better paper (at least compared to the third competitor, city), with better language and good reports other than the "standard news".

but now I take punkt.se over metro when I have the choice, and I'm not sure I do think it's a better newspaper. (as for aftonbladet vs expressen, imo aftonladet is far superior.) it's got its advantages, but I definitely feel that I have been affected by where I work. not good...


in other news, yesterday proved to be a very interesting day. we had a seminar with short talks about different topics (spirituality, consultation, advancement of women, obedience, etc), with about 10-15 people showing up. my talk about consultation was quite okay I suppose, might type it up and post here, if I remember what I said...

also went to a houseparty at an old classmate's place, whom I hadn't seen for two years or so. small apartment, many people, good amount of snacks, chips and candy. what was really interesting was sitting and talking with his younger brother and a friend of his. we talked for more than an hour about everything, climate, media, celebrities, the world, etc. when we got into religion, she had to go (it was quite late). I figured I'd go with her and keep on talking, and we did for about half an hour more. we had really interesting discussions, and hopefully we'll meet up again to talk. it should be giving :)

no, I don't want to know the color of your bra!

back in stockholm, and the weather is just lovely. ~25 or so degrees, and sunshine. virtually not a cloud in the sky all day, and lots of people outside walking and enjoying their time. naturally, warmer weather means less clothing, and there comes something that I find annoying...

girls are showing more skin than clothes, more cleavage than face (huge sunglasses are apparently the "in" thing nowadays), and I don't know who finds it nice... they're showing their bras, underwears, and whatnot, and I'd much rather be without seeing any of that. sure, it might be attractive to see some parts of girls, but if any of those were my girlfriend, I'd send them right back into the closet to put on some proper clothing. it *is* possible to look good in the summer while still wearing clothes and looking decent, just seems a lot of people have problems doing that.

two quotations by Baha'u'llah seem very relevant:

"Such must be their state that their eyes should behold the evidences of His might, their tongues and hearts make mention of His name, their feet be set towards the lands of His nearness, and their hands take fast hold upon His precepts. And were they to pass through a valley of pure gold and mines of precious silver, they should regard them as wholly unworthy of their attention."

"Let your eye be chaste, your hand faithful, your tongue truthful and your heart enlightened."

as for the guys, I'm not interested in seeing what kinda color they have on their boxers either... it's not that hard to pull up a pair of pants or use a belt, is it?

I'm not saying people should walk around wearing burkas, no need for that, but just dress properly. it's much more appropriate, and sometimes it's what you don't see that's attractive.

a few short notes on pilgrimage

going on pilgrimage is a very personal, spiritual and, in many ways, life-changing experience. it is very difficult to explain it in words... but I will try anyways. with 10 days of experiences to share, it might take a bit of time to go through it all. hopefully I will be able to write it up in 5 posts (2 days per post).

I cannot say that my life has completely changed, but I have definitely been able to change the focus on some things. one of the most challenging things is to keep the spirit of pilgrimage up, as the instant I left sight of the Shrines, buildings and terraces, I felt that something within me faded just so slightly. no wonder that everyone who goes there instantly wants to go back, and I'm in no ways different...

pilgrimage is a time of prayer and meditation, joy and laughter, experiences and surprises. and I can assure you there was plenty of it all. stay tuned for more!

and I'm back

a lot of experiences richer, and two kilos lighter. will take a while to sort out my pictures (got 500+ of them), but hope to be able to have them up together with a long account of things by the end of the week.