Let your vision be world embracing
Bahá'u'lláh

The day after the archives we went back to Bahji for a last visit to the Shrine of Baha'u'llah and then we toured the mansion itself. It is a gorgeous place. We saw the room where Baha'u'llah died. We saw many of his things. The house is painted white and blue, a bright Mediterranean blue and kept immaculately. Turkish primitives are painted on the wall behind the upstairs balcony. They signify nothing but are examples of the art form. thanks to my camera which is much better at pictures than I am, I got some great shots of them.

I spent Monday evening with my friend Pat. We have been friends off and on for over 20 years. She has made some disastrous life choices and recovered beautifully. It was wonderful to see her there working and serving after so much grief.

On the last day we walked down the hill again to go Abdu'l Baha's house. He designed it and had it built at the foot of Mt. Carmel from there he succoured the poor of Haifa and gathered and stored grain with which he fed much of the populace of Haifa during WWI. He was knighted by the British and Allenby's first message when he captured Haifa was Abbas Effendi safe. It was here, I believe, that Kahlil Gibran painted him. And here where he died in 1921. After we toured the house, we went out for lunch and a last bit of shopping.

In the afternoon we climbed up the hill to tour the Universal House of Justice Building, a huge structure that goes several stories down into the mountain and rises three stories up from it. Faced in Carrara marble, it is very classical in style with Corinthian columns. The inside is decorated in Italian walnut. In the entrance hall is an eight sided carpet especially designed for the space by Mildred Mottehedeh, who also designed the china the House uses for receptions. The building is full of lovely things, mostly given by Baha'is from around the world. The money to build it was also given exclusively by Baha'is since no one but Baha'is can give to the funds.

The Israelis think we are rich, which is not true for the majority of
Baha'is around the world. That evening we went to the Shrine of the Bab for our farewell. We said prayers and stayed in the lighted Shrine for as long as we wanted to. We said goodbye to our friends and headed back to the hotel to catch a sherut to Tel Aviv. The pilgrimage itself was over, but I think it stays and grows in you over the years. In five years I will sign up to go again, though the next time will be vastly different. The groups will be larger. We will be different and it will resonate with the first pilgrimage and deepen it and strengthen it.