Wendi’s Wanders

Their purpose must be this: to become loving companions and comrades and at one with each other for time and eternity. `Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í writings

Most of the journeys we make in this life are along familiar paths. We walk to school along the same pavements day after day. We drive to work along the same roads. We make our way to the same shops to buy our food and clothes.

When we leave these roads to go to a new place, we consider that we are embarking on an adventure, something challenging but also, perhaps, exciting and fun. We might take maps or sat navs if we do not know the new route at all; if we are going for a long time, we might pack suitcases with clothes and food. Occasionally we set out on an unknown path, not knowing exactly how to prepare for the journey or how long it will take or where it will end but knowing we will never return along that same route.

The road of our life is like this. We are embarked upon it before we know anything about it and we do not even get to choose our first travelling companions!

At some point, if we are lucky and we live in a society that allows choice, we may be able to choose a person to travel with. For Bahá’ís this is a free choice and then, to create the unity necessary for the journey to proceed without a hitch, all the parents must agree.

Bahá’ís know that choosing a travelling companion out of love and for his or her spiritual qualities, good character, moral behaviour and ability to live a practical life with high ethical principles - as well as being attracted to his or her appearance and sense of humour! - is central to whether the journey will be pleasant or a misery. The other side of this is being all these things oneself!

Having found a travelling companion, we then set out on this unknown path. There is a general map across the terrain and some guideposts as well as lots of advice from people who have set out - successfully or unsuccessfully - on a similar route. Knowing which map to trust is key! But in fact the road is a completely new one that no one has trod before and it is necessary for us to find our own way along it.

It helps to know how to read the general map, of course, and to follow the guideposts where they exist. Bahá’ís, for example, use the map provided by the Bahá’í writings which shows that the way forward is a path of service to humanity linked to a love of God and adherence to His laws.

Many of the guidelines for a safe journey are found in the Bahá’í writings: love, justice, equality, non-violence, consultation, respect, trustworthiness. There is a section on crossing the badlands: love, consultation, faith, consultation, hope, consultation, perseverence, consultation, patience, consultation, more love, consultation . . .

Many travellers on this journey are joined at some point by younger travellers they have to guide along the path for some way. Interestingly, in this connection the guidelines contain a big section on mining - for gems - and another on sustainability and yet another on building bridges.

As they travel the companions may well discover they can improve the condition of the road if each works to create the conditions and environment in which the other can do his or her best work.

The guidelines acknowledge that while it may seem that most of the journey is uphill, this is better than going downhill. These Bahá’í guidelines also point out that if the travelling companions walk hand in hand along the road - admittedly they sometimes have to drag each other along it - then their unity will make walking easier.

An unusual characteristic of this particular journey is that the farther the companions travel together, the more energy they get, probably because their relationship is a `gleaming out of the love of God’.

As they go along, the path becomes wider but they get closer and closer together so that sometimes it appears as if they are just one person. When this happens, they are `aglow with the same wine, both are enamoured of the same matchless Face, both live and move through the same spirit, both are illumined by the same glory’. Because the bond between them is a physical and a spiritual one, `it is a bond that will abide forever’.

So far, as of today, I have been walking this uphill path with my husband for 37 years. As I write, he is in Israel and I am in Italy but somehow we are closer than ever and the road seems to stretch ahead of us forever.

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