User account

In the spirit of the Persian and Baha'i New Year, I'm counting my blessings this year. The second thing I'm thankful for, is that I have been able to reconnect with a lot of long lost family members this year. One of them is the award-winning actress Shabnam Tolouie. We go back to one great-grandmother.

March 21 marks the Persian New Year, Naw Ruz. You can Google or Wikipedia it and read up about the history of this festival. But what’s more significant is that the Baha’i Faith (www.bahai.org), which is like quantum physics of religions, has really rendered this Persian festival global.

In my son’s children’s prayer book, there is a sentence that has always baffled me: “…bestow Thou freedom while in a state of childhood…”

I thought he was already pretty “free”: free to get naked and play in the dirt; free to eat rice with his hands and then throw half of it on the floor; free to roll around in the grass without a worry…