On a "Sisu" Baha'i: May Is Mother's Month

child_of_africa.
Here is a Mother's Day story from Child of Africa on LiveJournal that, to my mind, evokes Abdu'l-Baha's Memorials of the Faithful. Sisu is a Finnish word for a combination of stamina, perseverence, strength, and determination. Through reading this author's tender story we come to understand why she calls herself "Child of Africa."

May is my dear mother's month. Mothers' day is in May of course. May is also the month in which my mother was born--May 23rd, 1926--and the day her life was so violently taken away from her--May 9th, 2001.

So there are many occasions to think of her in May.

Google image: Finland

My mother was an extraordinary woman. She was Finnish and embodied that Finnish national characteristic of "sisu." (I first heard the concept of sisu from xl...she also has finnish connections...it gave me a whole new layer of appreciation of my mother.)

Here are a few comments on sisu that I found online: "Sisu is a unique Finnish concept. It stands for the philosophy that what must be done will be done, regardless of what it takes. Sisu is a special strength and persistent determination and resolve to continue and overcome in the moment of adversity…an almost magical quality, a combination of stamina, perserverance, courage, and determination held in reserve for hard times.

Google image: Finland

"In the past Finns were obliged to struggle against nature and against foreign intruders. Despite all of the drawbacks along the way, the struggle gave a lot of strength. The early settlers found inspiration in the Finnish landscape, sky and in mythological heroes who taught them that it was possible to overcome obstacles. In more recent times the same sources have been the basic source of inspiration for athletes, artists, designers and architects who have made Finland known to the world."

As residents of one of the northern most countries in the world, the people of Finland have learned to survive and prosper by developing extraordinary inner strength, courage, stamina and stubborn determination. This wellspring of core qualities that allows Finns to meet the challenges of an often rough environment is called sisu...The following is an excerpt from "The Winter War". This book chronicles the Soviet Attack on Finland in 1939 to 1940. The book describes extraordinary hardship endured by the Finns while defending their homeland.

"In such areas, people could have never survived all the hardships of history and climate without that quality known as "sisu" which loosely translated means "guts". The country gave the northern Finn a stolid rock-like obstinacy, patient endurance, and dogged courage, closely akin to the ancient formations on which he lived..." http://www.sisuhealth.com/en/about

I often wish I had more of my mother's spunk... I need to have faith in the sisu that I have inherited in my finnish blood :)

My mother became a Baha'i through reading Baha'u'llah and the New Era. She had a naturally curious and inquiring mind, a fierce independence of thought. In her thirties, still single, working as a bank clerk in Helsinki, she was at a point in her life where she was feeling a deep spiritual hunger that was not satiated by what the church had to offer. She felt a strong need to learn about the other kinds of spirituality were out there. She went to the library in Helsinki and browsed through the religion section thinking about getting some books on Buddhism and other faith traditions. Among the books on the shelf her eye was immediately drawn to a book that stood out shining in its brand spanking newness. This was in the early 1960s...(perhaps someone had just put it there)... the translation into Finnish of Baha'u'llah and the New Era [there is a list of all editions of this book available in the baha'i world center library...including the first edition in Finnish in 1940 and one that was produced in 1962 as well as further editions after that . She took it home and devoured it, identifying strongly with everything that was written in the book....she tried to contact the Baha'is immediately after she had finished reading the book. It was quite difficult to find them but she persisted and arranged for a visit with a Persian family who were pioneering there. After a few months she became a Baha'i and soon was serving on the National Spiritual Assembly. She was honored with the opportunity to participate in the election of the second Universal House of Justice at the International Convention in Haifa, Israel, in 1968.

Zimbabwe 2004 Festival participants

There she met a fellow delegate, a dashing American man with sparkling blue eyes and a shock of thick black wavy hair, a pioneer in (what was at that time called) Rhodesia... My mother was 42, he was 45...she returned to Finland and she wrote a few letters to him, Finnish-English dictionary in hand, and he wrote a few letters to her, and a few months later she made a dramatic decision; in the face of the shock and horror of her friends and family she left everything behind of the world she knew in Finland to travel to Rhodesia, in Southern Africa as a Finnish pioneer, and to marry a man she hardly even knew! Africa was such a different world for her, she was still struggling with English, her new husband was away alot as a result of his work as a geologist that took him away for weeks on end in the African bush...they were the caretakers of the national baha'i center...I was born just over a year later...in January 1970...they gave me the middle name of Carmel after the holy mountain where they met and in honor of the Faith which was the single most important focus of their union.

Early Baha'is of Zimbabwe at 2004 Festival
My mother had so many adventures of service during those 33 years of her life in Africa. she had a rich life...rich in friendship and service...rich in the warmth of the African sun and the radiant smiles and warmth of heart and purity of spirit of the African people ...she loved it there...Africa truly became her home...

Child of Africa, "May Is Mother's Month," Live Journal