— Blogging, Community, Community Building, Community Development, Family, Parenting, Personal Development —

Why I Decided To Take Precious Time Away From My Baby To Start Blogging Again

My blogging journey—an incredible, fulfilling one that has given me so much—started almost nine and a half years ago right here in Sahar’s Blog.  I never intended to stop blogging—that is, until I had a baby. I had always intended to take a short hiatus when each of my children was born.  When my first… Read More Why I Decided To Take Precious Time Away From My Baby To Start Blogging Again

— Blogging, Community, Community Building —

Mutual Support and Assistance in the Book Blogging World: My First Bloggiesta Experience

I spent a large chunk of last weekend working on a list of blogging related tasks as part of Bloggiesta. Every couple of months, the website hosts an event during which a group of book bloggers take on certain tasks and complete them during a set number of days. Lists are posted on the website,… Read More Mutual Support and Assistance in the Book Blogging World: My First Bloggiesta Experience

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Friendship, Personal Development —

How to Make the Time to Nurture Deep Friendships while Having the Time to get to Know All Community Members: Some Thoughts

Just a couple of weeks ago, Bahá’í communities around the world elected their national administrative bodies in a unique electoral process.  One of its aspects is, as I personally understand it, that each elector has to make the effort to get to know all the members of one’s community. I also understand that to build… Read More How to Make the Time to Nurture Deep Friendships while Having the Time to get to Know All Community Members: Some Thoughts

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Personal Development —

The Insistent Self: Dealing with Desire For Success

The way the conversation around success seems to be going, it remains a broad, complex, and subjective concept.  For example, I can define success as something you will consider completely unimportant. But even if we don’t agree with a certain definition of success, some of them still generate in us behaviours indicating that we just… Read More The Insistent Self: Dealing with Desire For Success

— Community, Community Building, Family, Labor and Delivery, Pregnancy —

Live From the Delivery Room! Community-Building and the Birth of a New Member

One of the things about having so many friends who have been pregnant before me is that I have had the pleasure of hearing about their pregnancy, labor, and delivery experiences and what they have learned from it.  If there is one important, vital, underlying lesson I got from all of these experiences, it’s that… Read More Live From the Delivery Room! Community-Building and the Birth of a New Member

— Community, Community Building, Community Development —

The Real Meaning of Unity: Removing Obstacles to Fulfilling our True Purpose in Life

Quite unfortunately, community-building doesn’t just happen when a group of good-willed individuals come together. Not that good-will doesn’t help! But it’s not enough. All the good-will in the world cannot be properly channeled unless there is unity. If we think of the community-building process as rowing, it becomes clear that we can have a lot… Read More The Real Meaning of Unity: Removing Obstacles to Fulfilling our True Purpose in Life

— Community, Community Building, Community Development —

Unity Amidst Increasing Diversity in Smaller and Smaller Spaces: The Vital Importance of Respect

I recently posted reflections about the importance of learning the skills related to consultation in the context of a family, so that we can apply said skills in the context of society. The world is becoming smaller and smaller through increasingly efficient travel and exchange of information. This means two things: different people end up… Read More Unity Amidst Increasing Diversity in Smaller and Smaller Spaces: The Vital Importance of Respect

— Community, Community Building, Community Development, Friendship —

Pleasantries: the Hydrogen Bond of Community Building?

Do you remember your organic chemistry? Do you remember those little H-bonds, who were not in themselves strong enough to hold a molecular structure together, but were strong enough to change properties of, say, water? The ones that make a molecule wrap itself differently, and/or make it a little stronger? I have always had an… Read More Pleasantries: the Hydrogen Bond of Community Building?