These three pictures are: Monument at the resting place of Shoghi Effendi, Beloved Guardian of the Baha'i Faith; Lillian Holt at age 17; and Angeline and Dr. Ugo Giachery, Hand of the Cause.
In summary this is a story about how following a thread of light led me to get Lillian Holt appointed to the World Wisdom Council.
This symphony of threading lights began before the place I choose to narrate from, but I will start describing it from a specific burst of light. Literally.
In February 2005, I was saying my long obligatory prayer at about 3am. When it gets to the part where it says
Let him then seat himself and say:
"I testify unto that whereunto have testified all created things, and the Concourse on high, and the inmates of the all-highest Paradise, and beyond them the Tongue of Grandeur itself from the all-glorious Horizon, that Thou art God, that there is no God but Thee, and that He Who hath been manifested is the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol, through Whom the letters B and E (Be) have been joined and knit together."
Just before getting to the "B and E" part of the prayer, I felt a sense of humility and an accompanying thought that I didn't love Shoghi Effendi enough and wanted to ask to be enabled to love him more and to serve him. At that point a lightning bolt literally hit nearby our house. Sounded like the backyard was hit, it was so loud. I had to interrupt the prayer because my children woke up and needed to be comforted. The next day, when I recounted the story to my extended family who were living in neighbouring suburbs they told me they too were woken by the thunderclap.
Several days later my brother-in-law Dr. Ata Eshragi was talking with me and started spontaneously sharing how he had the bounty of speaking with and being embraced by beloved Hand of the Cause Dr. Giachery in the Sydney Airport on his last trip to Samoa in April 1989. When I heard Dr. Eshragi telling me this story, I felt a hopeful thought, "Perhaps this is Dr. Giachery trying to tell you he is with you." I then remembered that when I was 21 and in Haifa, Dr. Giachery had once written me a wonderful letter (How could I have forgotten!) in response to my own letter expressing appreciation for his writing a beautiful book about his work for the beloved Guardian (Beloved House Member Hooper Dunbar had encouraged me to write that letter). In Dr. Giacheri's letter he spoke of sharing his profound love for Shoghi Effendi with me and his hope for it to sustain me. A profoundly humbling letter for me to receive particularly since it was 1989 and he was in his hospital bed (with the writing slanting from top left to bottom right in his own hand). Nonetheless I had somehow managed to forget that and this conversation had reminded me of the letter.
Finally, the following day I was saying prayers to Shoghi Effendi asking him for some small task that may be of service to him so that I may demonstrate my love for him. When I finished the prayers I felt compelled to pick a book out of one of my bookcases, not even bothering to see what book it was, and opened to the following line:"In September 1982 Dr Giachery visited Samoa after representing the Universal House of Justice at the Canberra International Conference." (p. 240, Lights of Fortitude) (Beloved Hand of the Cause Giachery had taught the Faith to the King of Samoa who became Baha'i). I was filled with energy and excitement. In a 'coincidence', two weeks later I was due to present a Baha'i talk at an international conference IN CANBERRA! convened by a number of institutions including UNESCO called "Transformations". http://www.fecca.org.au/transformations/
Of course I was very excited and felt a stronger sense of responsibility in preparing as best I could for the conference in Canberra as an act of devotion to Shoghi Effendi and Dr Giachery. I will leave out much more detail, (Such as subsequent conversations the day before the conference with Counsellor Joy Stevenson who relayed to me the last words she heard from Dr. Giachery, "Just do your best." which was so reassuring because it all felt a bit beyond me.)
I had a look at who was presenting at the conference. I noticed Lillian Holt as a keynote. I had never heard of her before, but decided I would try to reach her in my presentation somehow. She was among the first graduating class of Aboriginal people at university and the first to have a Masters in Education. A very strong woman with a bright spirit. At that time she was the Vice-chancellor fellow of Melbourne University and was completing her PhD in Aboriginal humour. :-)
The end result was that at the talk I did my best, but still feeling like perhaps I could have done better and wondering if I was pure enough in my service. The powerpoint presentation couldn't go on the screen because of computer problems and none of the people I had hoped to attend had come, including Lillian. I momentarily felt a failure somewhat. But after the talk, one man came down with a big smile and told me that he enjoyed the presentation immensely and that it was 'spot on'. He also said, "I agree that the separation of spiritual and material reality in the development field is a very dangerous enterprise. What you have said is essential to this. Well done." (This was a paraphrase of his words.) He also told Melanie (whom I co-presented with) that "I agree with you that men must be empowered to own the idea of equality. When they are told what to do from the outside they become defensive." The name of that man was Mali Voi and he is the subregional director for UNESCO and is based in Apia, Samoa. So there was a connection to Samoa after all!
I then wrote up my talk (See http://bahai-library.com/index.php5?file=jones_spiritual_cultural_development) and sent it to Mali Voi. He wrote back from Samoa saying he had read it three times and had enjoyed it very much in a long letter commenting on what he appreciated in it.
Now recall that none of the people had attended the talk that I had prayed/hoped for. That included Professor Galla and particularly Lillian Holt who was someone I had 'written the paper for' wanting her to hear it, and I was a bit sad that I didn't manage to reach her. However someone in the audience who did attend, Christine Watson, came up to me afterwards and expressed her enjoyment. I never told her about my secret wish to connect with Lillian. Some weeks later she called me to advise she was organising a conference two months later and asked me to present at her conference. She ended up asking me to present one paper. Once I was at the conference she then asked me to chair another panel and then I was asked to offer closing remarks at the conference. (!) The important thing here being that one of the panels I was asked to present on had myself, Professor Galla and....Lillian Holt. After I finished my presentation, she commented to the audience that she felt hope again. We spent a fair amount of time in conversation afterwards and became very close friends.
She contacted me later to ask me about a quote I used in my talk... it was from my Masters thesis which quoted Ervin Laszlo:
"Living on the threshold of a new age, we squabble among ourselves to acquire or retain the privileges of bygone times. We cast about for innovative ways to satisfy obsolete values. We manage individual crises while heading towards collective catastrophes. We contemplate changing almost anything on this earth but ourselves."
After she expressed a feeling of resonance with this quote, I felt inspired that maybe I should pray and see if anything unfolds in trying to get Lillian together with Professor Laszlo. I did not know him or how to contact him at the time. I googled his name and the year (2005) and VOILA! a description of his next conference talk (in Europe) appeared and...what's this? at the bottom was an advertisement for a talk in New York by....Lillian Holt. !!! I decided that must be a clear confirmation that I should try to bring them together in person..
I'll have to make this part 1 for now but will continue sharing the rest of the story soon..
.jpg)
