{"id":1115,"date":"2008-06-16T00:36:14","date_gmt":"2008-06-15T22:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/archives\/1115"},"modified":"2008-12-28T21:23:37","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T03:23:37","slug":"my-last-post-from-haifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/archives\/1115","title":{"rendered":"My last post from Haifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am here, at 1:30 am, with so much in my heart and so few words. After 18 months in the Holy Land, I leave to go back to the United States in a few hours. Desperately finishing packing (a word of advice: definitely don’t leave this kind of thing to the last minute).<\/p>\n

Serving in Haifa was a blessing, and I am overwhelmed by the love and friendship that I have experienced. You all know who you are. You have affected me in so many ways, and I treasure every moment we have had together, and look forward to seeing you again. I have no doubt that we will.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I will be home on Wednesday, after a brief stop in Turkey, which I will write more about after my travels. For now, I want to share an excerpt from something by Hand of the Cause William Sears, which I found while writing my farewell email to the staff at the Baha’i World Centre. It touched my heart in exactly the right way, and explained so well how I am feeling.<\/p>\n

I can no longer wait,
\nThe time grows short, the world moves on,
\nThe sun goes down and the hour is late.<\/p>\n

Far off I hear His onward marching legions
\nDrawing nearer
\nWith me, unmoved,
\nStill standing here.
\nThe trumpet sounds, the sweet beat
\nOf the distant drums
\nRings clear.<\/p>\n

I see them now.
\nWith banners flying
\nAnd in my heart I fear
\nThey’ll pass me by.
\nMy torch unlit
\nThis winter, spring
\nThis fall, this year.<\/p>\n

O God Forbid!<\/p>\n

This crisis finds me
\nStill waiting here.<\/p>\n

Some chances, we are told
\nCome once in life.
\nSome, every hundred years
\nAnd, some like this, of ours
\nComes only once
\nThen never reappears.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am here, at 1:30 am, with so much in my heart and so few words. After 18 months in the Holy Land, I leave to go back to the United States in a few hours. Desperately finishing packing (a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,14,19,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bahai","category-haifa","category-personal","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}