Dear Readers,

I went to California to see my son and meet some grandchildren I had not hugged in person. Wow, did I have fun! The train trip was interesting and in places stunningly beautiful crossing the US. The weather in California was perfect: warm, sunny, hills green with the rainy season, and flowers everywhere. The trip back followed a huge winter storm that got worse and resulted in delays and detours, but did get us home again -- about 29 hours late! Still, AMTRAK treated us very well, providing hotel and taxi fare, while exhausted workers tried to get us all to our destinations. I heard some workers even slept in their stations, unable to get home through the power outages, ice, and huge drifts of snow. I never realized before what a big problem snow is in cities: you can plow the streets, but then what do you do with all that white stuff?

We were without computer access for much of the trip (but we didn't mind too much, LOL, because three lively grandchildren can take up a lot of time). However, there were two new articles posted automatically while I was gone:

1) Bahá'ís as Activists
How are Baha'is involved in social activism? How do they think they can change the world just be changing themselves?

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art43829.asp

2) Humanity's Greatest Tragedy
The greatest tragedy facing humanity isn't racism, classism, poverty, or any of the other social ills. It is ignorance of mankind's true nature, which is spirit, not material.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art36402.asp

And the latest this morning from the Baha'i site at BellaOnline.com,

3) How to Read Historic Bahá'í Names
How to parse the names of historic figures and places in the Bahá'í Faith to assist in reading and understanding them.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art28545.asp

I think I'm all vacationed out for this year! But just in case my plans change, or as in this case, I'm not able to send out the weekly notice of new articles, do remember to visit bahai.bellaonline.com at least once a week so you don't miss the latest articles.

And this site has a community forum for discussion available any time, located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=321

Oh, and if you'd like to see some pictures of our trip, husband put some up on flickr! by dates 1/22 through 2/3. There are several sets of them to scroll through...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55123562@N03/

Passing this message along to family and friends, is always okay with me. :)

Cheryll Schuette, Baha'i Editor
http://bahai.bellaonline.com