My name is Sholeh Samadani Munion and I am a Baha’i. I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Management & Marketing in December 2005, and served as a volunteer at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel from December 2006-June 2008.
I currently live in the Chicago, IL area and have my own event planning business, Sholeh Events, LLC, which I’ve run since 2010. I plan weddings, social events, and corporate events. Before my daughters were born, I worked as an event planner at several different organizations over a 13 year career – meetings, trade shows, and events of all kinds.
I got married in the summer of 2013 to Shea Munion, if you’re wondering about the last name change (formerly Loehle).
Our first daughter was born in April 2019, and our second in June 2020.
I have been blogging continuously since March 2001 and have written about 4,000 posts, many of which were on a previous blog. I am an editor and co-founder of Nineteen Months, an international collaborative magazine based on Baha’i principles.
I started writing poetry “seriously” (albeit slightly angsty and amusing) sometime in high school. The scrapbook in which these early attempts were scribbled has yet to be uncovered from the dusty box in which it is buried. This is perhaps best. I took photos with a Samsung Digimax i6 from December 2006-July 2009, a Canon Rebel XS from August 2009-August 2017, and now use a Sony A3000 mirrorless DSLR.
There are several reasons why I blog, and why I continue to blog after 23 years. It is a way to improve my writing, to push myself outside of certain comfortable realms of existence, to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time, and finally, it is a way to express what is on my mind in a place where I have some control.
I do not feel that my personal blog is a place for arguments.
I have been doing this blogging thing for a long time, and I’ve seen how destructive flame wars, misunderstandings, and malicious attacks can be. If you make a comment that is out of line, it will get deleted, without apology from me. So please behave yourselves, and show everyone a little respect.
A few details about me.
I was born and raised as a member of the Baha’i Faith, and it influences every part of my life. Cooking and baking makes me very happy. I am half Persian (and half German/Dutch/Scot-Irish/English), hence the mentions of Persian food or culture. Books are an obsession and I am a frequent library card user. I am fascinated with technology, social media, science, and history. I think getting handwritten letters in the mail is one of the most wonderful things in the world. I am gluten intolerant.
I love photography, being both in front of the lens and behind it. There is something beautiful in that creative process.
This site is hosted by my friend Paul B., to whom I am eternally grateful.
“True reliance is for the servant to pursue his profession and calling in this world, to hold fast unto the Lord, to seek naught but His grace, inasmuch as in His Hands is the destiny of all His servants.”
~Baha’u’llah
“Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed,
nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely,
nor can every timely utterance be considered as
suited to the capacity of those who hear it.”
~Baha’u’llah