Happy Fasting!
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- Category: Fasting
- Created: Sunday, 02 March 2008 04:11
- Published: Sunday, 02 March 2008 04:05
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So the Baha’i Fast starts soon. I’ve been thinking a lot about it. For those of you who are new to the Baha’i Faith, we have period of Fasting every year that lasts 19 days in March. We don’t eat from sunrise to sunset. It is a time for reflection and spiritual renewal.
I always have two reactions to the Fast. The first is from my lower nature reaction. This is the part of me that dreads the Fast as it draws closer like a burdensome duty or chore I wish I could hide from. This is the side of me that thinks of the Fast and the aching feeling in my stomach that longingly pulls me towards the nearest food or drink in whatever building I’m in. This is the side of me that thinks of the tired afternoons where I have to keep working but all I want to do is take a long nap. It is the side of me that remembers the awful feeling of the early mornings where my body moves about preparing the breakfast but every other part of me is still back in my warm bed fast asleep.
{josquote}I hope it is a time of reconnection and renewal of your spirit.{/josquote}Then there is the spiritual side of me the looks forward to the Fast every year. This is the side of me that remembers the feeling of privilege that comes from fasting when the whole world eats and drinks around us. This is the side that feels the warmth of the hunger as a gentle reminder that I am a follower (and a spiritual lover) of Baha’u’llah. This is the side of me that feels the cleansing shower of sacrifice pouring down over my soul and washing away the attachments, distractions, and unwanted desires and replacing it all with a reverberating sense of calmness and serenity that clears the mind and opens the heart to what really matters in life.