As many of you know, Rory and I are Baha'is, and in the Baha'i
Faith there is a prescribed period of fasting where we abstain from
food and drink. Fasting is common in many religions; some Christians
fast or give up other material things during Lent, Muslims fast for
30 days during Ramadan, Jews fast on Yom Kippur. There are many other
examples of fasting for religious reasons, but often a common desired
outcome of all these periods of fasting is nearness to God and the
nourishment of one's spiritual self. By practicing self-control and
sublimating our physical desires, we find ourselves in stronger
contact with our own noble souls and with the world beyond our little
bubble of daily life.
"Happy is your condition for you have executed the divine
command, and have arisen to fast in these blessed days. For this
physical fasting is a symbol of the spiritual fasting, that is,
abstaining from all carnal desires, becoming characterized with the
attributes of the spiritual ones, attracted to the heavenly
fragrances and enkindled with the fire of the love of God." -
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The Baha'i month of fasting is a period of 19 days—the Baha'i
calendar is composed of 19 months with 19 days in each month—and
this special period happens during the final month of the Baha'i
year. It takes place around March 2-March 20 every year, and Baha'is
celebrate the end of the fast and the beginning of the new year on
March 20 or 21 with
Naw Ruz, the
new year's celebration.
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| A sunny early spring day at the Parc Montsouris. |
Baha'is between the ages of 15 and 70
are exhorted to fast from all food and drink between sunrise and
sunset for these 19 days. We wake up early in the morning, have
breakfast before the sun comes up, and eat dinner after the sun sets.
There are a few exemptions from fasting, however. Those who are
traveling long distances, who are ill, or who are engaged in heavy
labor do not need to fast, as well as women who are pregnant,
nursing, or menstruating.
I have been fasting for the last 14
years of my life. The Fast is something I always greatly look forward
to as winter draws to a close and spring begins to peek through the
gloom. This year, however, I get to trade the privilege of fasting
for the privilege of growing a human inside my body. Although I
usually enjoy the Fast and find it challenging and spiritually
uplifting, I am loving the experience of pregnancy and the increasing
connection and love I feel for the banana-sized baby curled up in my
tummy.
Even though I'm eating (like a horse!)
during the Fast this year, I still wanted to use this special time
for my own spiritual growth. For me, fasting at its most basic level
restores self-discipline and routine to my life. Rising early despite
tiredness, staying focused despite hunger; these are some of the more
mundane aspects of fasting, but ones that promote balance and
productivity.
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| The first daffodils I saw in Paris--in January. |
So in lieu of forgoing food, I have
been getting up before sunrise with Rory every morning for breakfast, partly for my own edification and partly to support him in his fasting. After we pray together, I make time to meditate, read the Baha'i
Writings, and write some reflections in my journal. These are
activities that I try to do all year long, but the self-discipline I
manage during the Fast is what makes it work every day. I don't look
at my phone or computer until after I have completed this morning
routine. And I removed Facebook and games from my phone so I wouldn't
be tempted to waste time on them. Two other elements of my fast this
year have been regularly practicing the cello (which is harder to do
when you have no impending orchestra concerts and no students to
teach), and exercising and getting out of the apartment every day.
These sound like simple tasks, but to an introverted pregnant lady
with no regular job living in a foreign country, it's harder than you
might think to motivate yourself out the door and up and down those
five flights of stairs.
Happily, taking these simple steps
during the Fast has increased my productivity, gratitude, and joy,
brought me out of my technology-induced fog, and made me feel more
connected not only to God but also to my husband, family, and
friends. It's like I had been treading water for many months, barely
able to keep my head above the surface, and suddenly I realized I
could just get out of the pool.
Today is my 29
th birthday, and normally, having a birthday during the Fast means having lots of positive energy to carry you through the day, but also often means having to turn down offers of birthday lunches or having to save a birthday cupcake for eight hours before I could eat it. The positives outweigh the negatives, so I never minded too much, but it was admittedly a very pleasant change this time around to have a birthday lunch for the first time in 14 years. One of the best birthday presents of all, though, is that tomorrow I fly to Oregon to visit my family and friends for the
first time in ten months. I can't wait!
Despite the challenges of moving to a new country and
navigating a foreign language, pregnancy, the health care system,
French bureaucracy, and all the other things I have complained about,
the Fast has helped me to realize just how blessed I really am. I
have grown more this year than any other (and not just my belly!) and
I'm so grateful for the opportunities I have been given.
Coming soon: Moving to a new
apartment...
on the ground floor!
Happy fasting to our dear Baha'i
friends and happy spring to all!
Spring is in full swing here and we are trying to make the most of
the two and a half months we have left in France. Although we're
eager for our Hawaiian adventure to begin, there is so much of France
left to see and experience. Having a baby made us put some trips and
activities on hold, but we're back in the game now. So yesterday we
took a trip with two of our good friends to the tiny village of
Giverny.
Giverny was the home of Claude Monet, the renowned late-nineteenth
and early-twentieth-century Impressionist painter. The village of
Giverny is in the southeast
of the Normandy region of France, and Monet moved to a house there in
1883 at the age of forty-three. By this time, he was already well
into developing his new Impressionist
style, a disparaging term coined by an art critic in 1874 after an
exhibition of his and other similar artists' work. Monet was
attempting to artistically document the French landscape using a
method of painting that conveyed his impressions and perceptions of
the scenery, rather than striving for realism. Much of his progress
in exploring this new style occurred at his home in Giverny.
Monet designed and created elaborate gardens on the land
surrounding his house. As he sold more paintings and his wealth
increased, he was also able to add a water lily pond, the one that
would figure so prominently in his later works. His house and the
gardens and pond are open to the public, so we spent the afternoon
exploring where he created his masterpieces and enjoying the idyllic
landscape. Unbeknownst to us when we planned our trip, mid-April is
an ideal time to visit as the gardens are dazzlingly in bloom. The
vibrant gardens showcased blossoming trees, leafy plants, vines
snaking across trellises, and row after row of fragrant flowers, with
particularly magnificent tulips of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The
water lily pond as well was encircled by bamboo trees, flowering
bushes, and a wide variety of other plants, though there were no
actual water lilies at this time of year. It exuded peace and
tranquility. It was not difficult to imagine Monet being constantly
inspired to paint his surroundings.
After visiting the house and gardens, we strolled down the main
street of Giverny, taking photos of the picturesque old homes, many
of which peek out through a dense layer of bright purple wisteria.
There are a couple of cafés and galleries,
as well as the Museum of Impressionism, where we had lunch but didn't
have time to otherwise visit. At the
other end of the village is the twelfth-century church and the
cemetery where Monet and some of his family members are buried. And
that's about the extent of the town of Giverny. It's tiny and
beautiful and even with plenty of tourists it still feels like a
charming and refreshing getaway from the rush of Paris.
For any parents of young children among our readers who might
consider a trip to Giverny, it should be noted that it works fairly
well to bring a stroller/push chair/poussette, though it can't be
taken into Monet's house as there are many stairs, and there are also
stairs leading to the water lily pond, so it's good to have help
carrying it up and down. We alternated the stroller with our baby
carrier, and Maëlys seemed to appreciate the variety of views. Also,
there are nice baby changing facilities and toilets for children next
to the parking lot.
At the end of our meanderings around the village, we took a
fifteen-minute shuttle bus back to the neighboring town of Vernon,
where we caught the train back to Paris' Gare St. Lazare. The baby
enjoyed watching the countryside fly past on the 45-minute trip and
was nearly asleep by the time we got home that evening. For a small
village in the middle of nowhere, we found it surprisingly easy to
get to Giverny via public transportation. It's not a super cheap
trip, as a return train ticket from Paris is about €25
per person and the shuttle costs €5
each way. Plus entrance to Monet's gardens and house is €9.50
per person. Still, a visit at the height of springtime is well worth
the money and effort; it provides a marvellous escape from city life
and allows you to feel the same tranquility and beauty that inspired
the paintings of Monet.
