BahaiConnect

06/03/2026

New Song Release: Throne of the Inner Temple

The inspiration for this song began with a simple but profound statement from the Baha'i writings and a quote by the Báb:

"AS this physical frame is the throne of the inner temple, whatever occurs to the former is felt by the latter. In reality that which takes delight in joy or is saddened by pain is the inner temple of the body, not the body itself. Since this physical body is the throne whereon the inner temple is established, God hath ordained that the body be preserved to the extent possible, so that nothing that causeth repugnance may be experienced." - The Báb

For many years I have taught that the body is more than flesh, blood, and bone. It carries our memories, our sacrifices, our joys, our sorrows, and the stories we often cannot find words to tell. What we experience as pain is not an enemy. Sometimes it is a messenger. Sometimes it is the body speaking in a language we have forgotten how to hear.

Throne of the Inner Temple is a reflection on healing, survival, and the sacred relationship between the body and the soul. It is a reminder that our scars are not merely evidence of suffering. They are evidence of endurance, resilience, and love.

One of the central insights of this song is:

"My body didn't carry sorrow.
It carried my survival."

I hope this song speaks to anyone who has walked through difficult times, cared for another, carried hidden burdens, or struggled to understand the messages written within their own heart and body.

May it remind us that the body is not a prison, but a sanctuary; not an obstacle to the spirit, but its companion on life's journey.

06/02/2026

"Treat disease through diet, by preference, refrain from the use of drugs; and if you find what is required in a single herb, do not resort to a compounded medicament. Abstain from drugs when health is good, but administer them when necessary."
— Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet of Medicine (Lawḥ-i-Ṭibb)

"This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer. A physician ministering to the sick, gently, tenderly, free from prejudice and believing in the solidarity of the human race, he is giving praise."
— ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 177

Yesterday was awesome. So awesome we are going to offer a Women's Health and Wellness, Part Three, the date to be announced.

Our Women’s Health and Hormone Balancing Workshop was one of the best attended and most engaging programs we have offered to date. The room was filled with enthusiastic healthcare professionals eager to learn, share experiences, ask questions, and explore practical solutions for helping women achieve better health through natural and holistic approaches.

To begin the day, we began with one of our teaching songs, Joy Gives Us Wings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd4k7Qd4tIk

Throughout the day we explored hormone balance and dysfunction, assessment strategies, nutrition, herbal medicine, therapeutic modalities, medical massage therapy applications, and practical clinical approaches for supporting women through the many stages of life. The level of participation was exceptional, and the quality of discussion reflected the dedication and professionalism of everyone in attendance.

A special thank you goes to Rafael Sustaita and Amanda Sadler, who did an outstanding job. Rafael demonstrated pelvic and abdominal massage techniques and sharing his clinical knowledge and experience. His presentation generated tremendous interest and discussion. Amanda Sadler did a heroic job of teaching how to make an herbal lotion, and this was a highlight of the day. Amanda and Ashley provided a hands-on demonstration showing participants how to create herbal-infused oils for therapeutic use.

These practical demonstrations added another dimension to the workshop and gave participants skills they can immediately begin applying in practice.

What impressed me most was the energy in the room. There was genuine excitement, curiosity, and a strong desire to learn. The questions were thoughtful, the discussions were lively, and the atmosphere reflected a community of practitioners committed to improving the lives of their patients.

For more than fifty years, our mission at Blue Heron Academy and American Health Source has been to build healing communities through education, service, and the sharing of practical healing knowledge. Yesterday's workshop was a wonderful example of that vision in action.

Thank you to everyone who attended, participated, shared your insights, and helped make this event such a success. I am deeply grateful to our students, instructors, assistants, and supporters who continue to make these programs possible.

The future of healthcare belongs to practitioners who never stop learning.

'sWellness

05/30/2026

There are times when we all carry burdens that seem heavier than a stone. We stumble in the darkness, feel alone, and wonder how we will find our way forward.

As a healer, teacher, and student of life, I have learned that not every wound is healed by medicine alone. Sometimes it is a smile, a kind word, a gentle touch, or the simple presence of a friend that lifts the spirit and helps the heart begin to heal.

This realization inspired my newest song, Joy Gives Us Wings, from my ongoing Songs of Healing project.

The title comes from these beautiful words of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá:

"Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded."

Joy is not merely an emotion. It is a force that renews us, strengthens us, and helps us rise above fear, pain, and discouragement. It is one of the great medicines of the soul.

I hope this song brings a little sunshine into your day and reminds you that even the smallest act of kindness can become a source of healing and hope.

May your heart be light, your spirit uplifted, and your wings renewed.

05/29/2026

"Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning."
— Bahá’u’lláh

I have been revisiting and expanding a project that I first began many years ago. What started as a study of ego, human motivation, and self-destructive behavioral patterns has evolved into a much deeper exploration of authenticity, conscience, emotional healing, and spiritual transformation.

The result is a revision and expansion of my original booklet on the ego and the three negative behavioral motivators: greed and materialism, the need for personal recognition, and the desire for power and control over others through manipulation. What began as a study of human behavior has now grown into a broader examination of the relationship between psychology, spirituality, trauma, conscience, and personal growth.

Drawing from the wisdom of the world's religions, philosophy, modern psychology, trauma-informed care, and the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, this work explores the universal human struggle between appearance and authenticity, self-interest and service, fear and courage, ego and conscience.

One of the unexpected discoveries during the writing process was how often I found myself reflected in the very ideas I was exploring. The journey became less about studying others and more about examining my own motives, assumptions, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth. At times, the process was uncomfortable. It reminded me that the struggle between authenticity and ego is not someone else's struggle. It belongs to all of us.

My sincere thanks to Susan Wright, whose sharing of a remarkable passage from Bahá’u’lláh rekindled my interest in this subject and inspired me to revisit and expand the original work. I am also deeply grateful to the staff, instructors, assistants, and volunteers of Blue Heron Academy of Healing Arts and Sciences, whose dedication and support make projects like this possible.

This booklet will also become part of our Trauma-Informed Care Training and Certification Program and our ongoing efforts to Build Healing Communities through education, self-awareness, compassion, healing, and service.

The challenge remains the same as it has always been:

To look beneath the mask.

And having seen what is there, to continue the work of becoming.

The booklet is a free download at this link:

https://issuu.com/muyblue/docs/beneath_the_mask_-_spiritual_authenticity_ego_an

For more than 50 years, The Blue Heron Academy of Healing Arts and Sciences has been carrying forward this sacred vision—offering training and education in Baha’i-inspired traditional medicine and holistic health care. Rooted in the spiritual principle of service to humanity, our mission has always been to Build Healing Communities through knowledge, empowerment, and compassionate action. We continue to blend timeless healing wisdom with modern understanding to uplift individuals and communities alike.

Beneath the Mask is an exploration of the universal human struggle between appearance and authenticity, ego and conscience, self-interest and service. Drawing upon the wisdom of the world's religions,

05/26/2026

My new song, “Starry Crown,” was inspired by The Drama of the Kingdom, a play originally outlined by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1913 after attending a theatrical performance during His visit to Great Britain. He later dictated portions of the dialogue, themes, and spiritual imagery for the play, including lines and concepts surrounding the Promised One, the Kingdom of God, the hidden Name, awakening humanity, and the “starry crown.”

Years ago, after reading H.M. Balyuzi’s account of the play and its outline, I was deeply moved to write my own poetic expression of it in my book, The Drama of the Kingdom, rewriting many of the themes, scenes, and partial script into rhythmic and rhyming couplets while trying to preserve the mystical and prophetic atmosphere of the original outline. This work was submitted to the Baha'i Review Committee and approved for publication.

Several lines from this song come directly from that poetic adaptation, including:
“Show us then a sign,
from a source Divine…”

and
“And they shall wear the starry crown…”

What surprised me most was how naturally these poetic lines transformed into music. More than any previous song I have written, arranged, or produced, I simply had fun creating this one. It felt less like composing and more like uncovering something that was already alive beneath the surface waiting to be heard.
The song gradually evolved into a kind of sacred Appalachian prophetic hymn blended with atmospheric spiritual rock, centered around the themes of spiritual awakening, the coming of the Kingdom, the Hidden Name, and the recognition of the Divine Presence in a new Day.

I hope you enjoy “Starry Crown.”

“And they shall wear the starry crown…”

https://www.youtube.com/-s3s

05/25/2026

This is not a song about destruction. It is a song about devotion.
There are moments in life when faith ceases to be a philosophy, an identity, or a set of beliefs, and becomes a fire within the soul. A fire that cannot be extinguished by criticism, loneliness, suffering, loss, or the coldness of the world around us.

Many people see spiritual intensity and think they are witnessing someone being consumed. But sometimes what they are really seeing is illumination.

This song was born from that feeling.

The feeling of carrying a flame through a darkened world.

The feeling of standing apart from a culture that often celebrates emptiness while mocking conviction, devotion, sacrifice, and love of God.

The feeling of burning inwardly with certainty while surrounded by spiritual indifference.

One of the lines included in the song comes from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh:
“Set your hearts ablaze with the fire of the love of God…”

There are nights when faith feels like standing in gasoline holding a match. Yet still, we burn. Not from anger, hatred, or destruction, but from love, longing, devotion, and the desire to bring light into a darkened world.

If you see me burning,
perhaps it is only because I wanted you to see the Light.
—I Set Myself on Fire

https://www.youtube.com/-s3s

05/24/2026

“We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; that all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled - what harm is there in this? … Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.”
- Bahá’u’lláh

This Memorial Day weekend, I pause to remember and honor all those who served, and especially those who gave their lives in war, in this memorial I include all of those who lost family and loved ones, and all of those who lost their homes and homelands to war.

I want to remember my friends Bill Lattner and John Ruberto, and the countless others whose lives were forever changed or lost in service to their country. Not all those deserving to be remembered died in battle, some carried and suffered from their scars for a lifetime.

Their names and memory remain in my heart and in my prayers.

Sixty years ago, to the month, in May of 1966, at the age of 18, I entered Edgewood Arsenal as part of the U.S. Army’s human chemical warfare experiments connected to MK Ultra. As a result, I suffered a near-death experience (NDE) that changed the course of my life forever. Like many others of my generation, I learned firsthand the personal cost of war, not from history books or speeches, but from fear, suffering, loss, and the long shadows those experiences leave behind.

This Memorial Day, may we remember not only sacrifice, but also the human price of hatred, violence, and these ruinous wars. The title of my new song comes from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, Who more than a century ago warned humanity of the consequences of hatred, division, militarism, and war.

“Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.”

I completed a new song entitled “These Ruinous Wars,” a lament for the brokenhearted, the fallen, the forgotten, and all those who still carry the wounds of war in silence.

May we remember.
May we mourn.
May we choose peace.

05/24/2026

“I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things.” - The Báb

Tonight we gather in remembrance of a sacred moment in human history, the night when the light of a new Revelation first dawned upon the world. In the quiet city of Shiraz, on a spring evening in 1844, a young Merchant arose and declared a message that would awaken hearts, transform souls, and open a new chapter in the spiritual destiny of humankind.

On this holy night we remember the courage, purity, sacrifice, and love of the Báb, whose very title means “The Gate.” Through Him, the way was prepared for the coming of Bahá’u’lláh and the renewal of God’s eternal covenant with humanity.

This celebration is not merely a remembrance of a historical event. It is an invitation to awaken spiritually, to renew our hearts, and to reflect upon the meaning of divine guidance in our lives today. The Declaration of the Báb calls each of us to seek truth with sincerity, to arise in service to humanity, and to become bearers of light in a world so often darkened by division and suffering.

Tonight we gather in prayer, fellowship, music, and reflection. We remember the first believer, Mullá Husayn, who recognized the Promised One with humility and joy. We remember the countless souls who gave their lives in devotion to this Cause. And we remember that the light kindled on that night in Shiraz continues to spread across the earth today.

May our hearts be illumined by that same light.
May our words become instruments of peace.
May our lives reflect the spirit of love, sacrifice, and service revealed through the Báb.

Alláh-u-Abhá.

05/22/2026

“O My friend! Listen with heart and soul to the songs of the spirit, and treasure them as thine own eyes…”
— Bahá’u’lláh

Sometimes I feel as though I am living somewhere between sleep and awakening, memory and prayer. In that strange and beautiful place, poems and melodies come to me in the night as though they are already alive, living and breathing quietly within the soul.

"And in the dream, my soul speaks all languages.
But of them all, it loves the words of Spanish the most."

There is something about the softness, longing, tenderness, and ache of Spanish that feels like music before music is ever written. Sometimes melodies drift into my thoughts like waves moving across a dark and restless sea, and the songs seem to sing themselves into existence.

My new bilingual song, “Heartbeats from the Soul,” was born from that place.

“These words are not words alone…

son el pulso de mi vida…

They are a quiet river
moving through my soul…

They are…

The Heartbeats of the Soul.”

“Latidos del alma.”

This song became a weaving together of English and Spanish, not as translation, but as two voices of the same heart speaking to one another across longing, sorrow, memory, light, and love.

05/20/2026

When calamity striketh, be ye patient and composed. However afflictive your sufferings may be, stay ye undisturbed, and with perfect confidence in the abounding grace of God, brave ye the tempest of tribulations and fiery ordeals.

- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 73

Some things, once broken, cannot be fixed.

This is a truth I have learned slowly through life’s storms, losses, disappointments, grief, and trials. Most of my poems and songs eventually find their way toward light, healing, hope, or redemption. They follow the familiar path of struggle, conflict, resolution, and uplift.

This is not that song.

“Miles from the Lightning” was written from a different place. It was born from exhaustion, sorrow, loneliness, silence, and the heavy realization that not every story ends the way we hope it will.

Sometimes life leaves scars that do not disappear. Sometimes the storm takes away more than we can recover.

And yet, there is honesty in speaking those truths aloud.

This song is not about victory. It is about surviving the storm long enough to give suffering a voice.

For anyone who has ever walked through darkness carrying invisible pain, this song was written for you.

“Miles from the Lightning.”