'Abdu'l-Bahá's portrait is a beautiful image. The white dome of his headgear is reflected by His white beard. It seemed to symbolize the heavens reflected on the earthly plane.
Some of the friends and neighbours at the farm in Sully, 1971: Marthe Grondin, Danielle Thibault, Angela Szepesi, Suzanne Chrétien, Teri Rhéaume, Louis Brunet, Mr Labonté.
At 19, a year before I became a Baha'í, I went on a long hitch-hiking trip. It took me to California and Mexico. Click here to follow my itinirary. The online experience uses Google Earth)
That picture of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on the wall was fascinating with its vertical and horizontal symmetry. When I arrived I immediately noticed and asked about it. The day I arrived was a Nineteen Day Feast. I was invited to participate. In this picture Hugh Smiley is having a birthday cake.
The place was magnificent - big space, night sky covered in stars, no urban sounds. I practiced praying outdoors with arms extended to the sky I felt like the trees had already been doing that forever and I was only now catching up.
Angela Szepesi who introduced me to the Bahá'í Faith
The Hobbit, the house where I met the Bahá'í Faith in May 1971 and where I became a follower of Bahá'u'lláh.

How I became a Bahá'í

Many young people as they grow up come to a point where they have to choose the set of values they will adopt for the years to come. There is also a tendency for many adolescents to be idealistic.

Growing up in the sixties was "interesting". On the one hand there was the traditional values of family and church. And then there was a whole explosion of ideas, an exploration of values, concepts, cultures and spiritual ideas.

With the passage of forty years it seems like a blip on the screen of history but being there then, the experience was definitely an immersion in a big social phenomenon.

But the social context in which this happened may have been incidental.

I was a kid trying to find meaning. The meaning of life. Why did the universe exist? What are humans supposed to do here?

Christianity was okay - Jesus was the real thing - but I had a bit of a problem with the way the Christian society was run. But trying to untangle the original Christian concepts from all the baggage accumulated over the centuries is tricky business. Who can do that?
One day when I was maybe seventeen, while browsing in a book store, my eyes fell on a book cover that attracted my attention - "Le Pèlerinage aux sources" by Lanza del Vasto. It is the account of the author's journey through India, looking for the spiritual meaning to life. The book opened a whole new world of human experience and ideas to me. It introduced me to the teachings of Ghandi. But how does one apply these lessons? It didn't seem practical to move to France to live in the community established by del Vasto. If the teachings were universal they had to be applicable anywhere one lived.

In 1971 I found myself in rural Québec near the border with New-Brunswick, in a village called Sully where a mother and her daughter had a farm. Now this lady did not grow up on a farm. In fact she was Hungarian and had seen a lot of the world. For example she had been a war correspondent in Portugal. This lady was a fascinating person. I invited myself to stay there for a while and help out in the fields. And it is while working in the vegetable garden that I heard about Bahá'u'lláh. That summer I made my choice.

So what kind of reasoning did I follow?

Well the universe is definitely too complex to be the result of chance. There logically has to be a Creator. I believed there is a Creator.

If the Creator was once able to send us Abraham, Moses and Jesus, why couldn't He do it again?

Bahá'u'lláh speaks with a language that very few ordinary humans would dare or be able to use. He speaks in the name of God with authority and majesty. So the voice that comes off the page is literally divine.

What about the content? Bahá'u'lláh proclaims that He is sent by God. His Writings and Teachings flawlessly diagnose the remedies for the ills of the world.

The language is majestic and the content of His writings is brilliant, genuinely inspired.

What was His life like? Did He live a life of comfort? Was there any advantage for Him to say these things? History shows that He suffered His whole life because of the reaction of the clergy and governments to His Teachings. That life of constant suffering over several decades looks awfully like the greatest proof of some one's love for humanity.

The only question I had to answer was "if this is true, what do I have to do?"

I did the only logical thing. I accepted the truth, and tried to live by it.

It is now 33 years. My love for Bahá'ulláh is still growing. But there is nothing I can ever do to repay the debt. But repaying it is what everyday is about.

Let me tell you a litlle of the Bahá'í story.

HE IS THE GLORY OF GLORIES

This is that which hath descended from the realm of glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue.

1. O SON OF SPIRIT!
My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.

2. O SON OF SPIRIT!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

3. O SON OF MAN!
Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

4. O SON OF MAN!
I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.

5. O SON OF BEING!
Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

6. O SON OF BEING!
Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.