Magical Maltese Taxi Driver

Our Maltese taxi driver was a large, middle-aged woman with a warm smile. While our cases were being loaded in her boot, another driver hooted impatiently. Her car was blocking his way through the narrow street. She responded with an open-handed gesture that seemed to say, “What do you expect me to do?” His irritation did nothing to disturb her good humour.

As we drove off, she explained that many taxi drivers were paid per ride and therefore rushed to get their customers to their destinations. With eCabs, she told us, she was paid by the hour.

“No need to race,” she said, smiling. “We can go at a reasonable pace.”

On the way to the airport, she told us about her life as a taxi driver, a mother of five and a grandmother of many more. Then she announced her household rule.

“No mobile phones in my house. They all have to put them in a box at the front door. That way, I get proper conversations with them all, instead of their heads in a screen all the time!”

I was impressed and asked how she kept her grandchildren amused without screens.

“We play the old games. I draw a line in the yard and we all throw coins to see who can get closest to it.”

I pictured them gathered in the yard, absorbed in this simple competition, with their grandmother joining in. What memories those children would carry with them: the games, the laughter and the conversations, all presided over by this good-natured matriarch. I wondered how those hours together would shape the people they became.

There was something worldly-wise about her, a weariness perhaps, but also a resolute good nature. She was not blind to the faults around her. She simply seemed determined to remain loving and cheerful despite them. Another driver could hoot, the world could hurry, and her grandchildren could arrive with phones in their hands. She would still set her own pace and insist on time together.

By the time we reached the airport, we felt heartened. An ordinary taxi journey had become a reminder of how much one person can bring to the lives of those around them.

We all have choices about the kind of world we create in our own homes. Hers began with a box by the front door.

“Every child is potentially the light of the world…”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Practising Calligraphy and seeking illumination

The Báb, who was born almost 200 years ago in Iran, rose stellar-like with brilliance above the darkness of a corrupt world. His followers exhibited a fearless detachment from materialistic pursuits.  The address of the Báb (part of which is shown below) instructed his followers to set forth and proclaim a new revelation from God,  resonate with that eternal call to walk a spiritual path.

Despite atrocious persecution the mild-mannered Báb exhibited such warm loving gentleness that more and more fell under his spell.  Even his hardened prison guards could not but recognise his spiritual greatness and warm to his radiance. In his 20’s this young man proclaimed words which resonate still across the globe.

Despite imprisonment in more and more remote prisons, the Báb penned words of such simplicity and beauty they illuminate the heart to this day. Perhaps, it is only when sacrificing and suffering are the edges of the path we walk does the inner truth of nobility emerge. Certainly, the Báb’s short but moving cry out to God, "O God, my God, my Beloved, my heart's Desire" reminds us all that love for God that should ever animate our words and deeds.

In the face of imprisonment and torture, he did not withhold his call to urge others on this spiritual quest unlike any other.  In this prayer of the Báb, he speaks of how God is the remover of every anguish and the dispeller of every affliction and that only God can banish every sorrow.

Despite the brutality of his death, the vitality of this young man and his words fuelled the flames of a new world order.   This prayer of the Báb, below, calls for protection in times of tests and ends with the observation that nothing can withstand or thwart God's Will or purpose.

The Baha'i Faith has risen phoenix-like from the ashes of many thousands of his followers,  put to death, who would not nor could not recant the truth they knew he embodied.  Their pain and that of those who still to this day face death, imprisonment, exile, lack of education or jobs, or face discrimination is remembered in this piece.

On no subject was the Báb more vehement than on the coming of one even greater than he, “Him Whom God shall make Manifest”. Much of his writings urged his followers not to fail, like past generations, to recognise the Promised One. When Bahá'u'lláh declared his station on April 21, 1863 in a garden outside Baghdad, before being again exiled and imprisoned for much of his life, the Báb’s promise for humanity’s rejuvenation was fulfilled.

As this period marks the Bicentennial celebrations of the birth of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh it felt like the perfect time to take their powerful exhortations and try and use calligraphy to proclaim their eternal call to turn to God, obey His laws and to treat others with love and consideration. To recognise the essential oneness of humanity and its need for divine illumination in order to find its way in a dark, confused and divided world.  These words of Bahá’u’lláh remind us we are all broken-winged birds in need of a guiding light to bring illumination.

Often when we think of a spiritual path, great pilgrimages come to mind. Long distances travelled to spots blessed by the spiritual mirrors that effectively reflect the glory of God. The journey is meant to be both a physical and spiritual odyssey. Malta lay on the ancient pilgrim route to Jerusalem and much of its fortifications were to provide protection and shelter for pilgrims on the danger-ridden passage in homage to Christ. This prayer by Baha'ullah reminds us that, wherever we live from cave to mountain or from land to sea, praise of God has ever been the state that should be saught. 

Our journey in life both in place and time needs to be built on the recognition that we are all pilgrims on the path of nearness to God. Our words and deeds merely reflect that progress.

On the gravestone of my father-in-law, in Cornwall, is inscribed the quote below from Bahá’u’lláh. My father-in-law's name was Ridvan, and during these days of the Ridvan Celebrations, he comes easy to the mind.  A gentle loving soul who made unity his watchword.  Unity of family, of village, of country, of nation,  of religion and of humanity.  

The Baha'i Writings constantly reminds one of the need for spiritual progress and that the purer the heart the closer to God we become and as a result of this the greater the illumination revealed to us.  A Russian friend sent me this lovely arrangement of dried flowers whose simplicity and beauty is an echo of the words within.

Over thirty-five years ago at my wedding, a dear friend of mine, the doctor at the local hospice in Ireland read these writings (below), of Bahá’u’lláh during the service.  Afterwards, one of my relatives, a huge farmer of few words, came up and commented, "That's a very high standard -  generous, trustworthy, a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge... and be humble!"

It's important to realise what real wealth has always been about.  It has never been about possessions or riches of this life but always about attainment to the next world where the only things that will matter in your life here will be the steps that take you closer to God.

It is said that every least pebble can resound with praise of God and so this next piece tries to capture that with stones and flowers interspersed with Baha'i writings.

If there is one principle that the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh stressed more than any other it is that of unity.  That it is a reality not an aspirational goal.  The world is united. It faces challenges and difficulties that can only be addressed if this unity is accepted and implemented.  "..each and every thing manifesteth the sign of His Unity, testifieth to the reality of Him Who is the Eternal Truth, proclaimeth His sovereignty, His oneness, and His power."