- behold gentleness - this heart with care and gentleness. The world is going through so much, our hearts are aching and I’m struggling with words. It comforts me that I’m not alone feeling this way. I want to say that I love you all and I’m so honoured to have friends who have shown their vulnerability and are doing the work of anti-racism with selflessness and dedication. I want to do more but I don’t know what I can do and it’s overwhelming but I know that silence isn’t an option. Anyways...To process what is happening I decided to create a series of illustrations as a way to introduce concepts that unite us all. I hope you enjoy them and know that if you need to have conversations about what we are experiencing these days, I’m here 🖤. || BEHOLD: A project to create a series of illustrations to introduce concepts that unite us all. #beholdbyshara || #BLM

- behold warmth - When I recall those moments of the great conversations I’ve had with my friends and family, I remember having a cup of coffee in front of me to sip on. If I could replace this cup of coffee with all the warmth and wisdom that it offers with a single word, that word would be ‘care’. If you know anything about the making of coffee, you know it takes a whole lot of care and diligence from planting those beans to roasting and brewing -- it’s a process! I’ve been reflecting on this thing we do all the time: ‘having a conversation’. Let me just tell you how much I miss sitting at a cafe with my friends and doing that (hi @nemesis.coffee and @oldhandcoffee ). So what is a conversation? “Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly misunderstood, reduced to a withering weed…Yet something impels us to hold these possibilities in both hands and go on surrendering to the beauty and terror of conversation, that ancient and abiding human gift. And the most magical thing, the most sacred thing, is that whichever the outcome, we end up having transformed one another in this vulnerable-making process of speaking and listening.” Now, going back to this practice of exchanging words…there is a lot of it happening right now around very IMPORTANT issues and more than ever we need to find the courage to have these conversations with our human family. I’m praying that we find the courage that it takes to act according to this principle of oneness existing between all of us. 
I’ll end my thoughts with a favourite quote from the Baha’i Writings: “…an enlightened man of wisdom should primarily speak with words as mild as milk, that the children of men may be nurtured and edified thereby and may attain the ultimate goal of human existence which is the station of true understanding and nobility.” || BEHOLD: A project to create a series of illustrations to introduce concepts that unite us all. #beholdbyshara || #BLM

- behold beauty - Today I’m reflecting on the creative transformation of our hearts and minds and asking myself what roles do beauty and harmony play within us. I’m still figuring it out but I think it’s important to think where and how change starts — a change that ultimately will lead us to harmony amongst one another despite our differences of thought, belief, race and colour. All of us are working hard to learn, re-learn and adapt the principle of “Oneness of humanity” in words and also in our actions. As we all do our best to be and do better, let’s celebrate the many approaches that people are taking to combat racism. Beauty comes with harmony and harmony necessitates diversity. Let’s be kind and let’s empower each other. I’d like to end my thoughts with a quote from the Baha’i Writings; I hope you gain gems from it too. “The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord.”|| BEHOLD: A project to create a series of illustrations to introduce concepts that unite us all. #beholdbyshara || #BLM

- behold knowledge - “Knowledge is a single point, but the ignorant have multiplied it.” Today has been an emotional roller coaster of feeling the pain of those in pain right now. Today I’m struggling with words. Today I’m not the same person I was yesterday because I’ve been doing my best to educate myself and to act on it. Today I learnt more about systematic racism and my heart is aching more. But more importantly, today I’m not going to stop talking about what is happening to our brothers and sisters who possess a different skin colour or culture or religious belief. It you’ve made it this far into reading what I’m saying, continue but first please give yourself the permission to reflect on this quote I’m about to share, allow your heart to feel it and sit with the discomfort that it may give you - I know I did and still am. Sending you all love and a reminder to take care of your mind and soul. “People say all the time, ‘well, I don’t understand how people could have tolerated slavery?’ ‘How could they have made peace with that?’ ‘How could people have gone to a lynching and participated in that?’ ‘That’s so crazy, if I was living at that time I would never have tolerated anything like that.’ And the truth is we are living in this time, and we are tolerating it.” -Bryan Stevenson. || BEHOLD: A project to create a series of illustrations to introduce concepts that unite us all. #beholdbyshara || #BLM

- behold detachment - the sun as a metaphor for detachment. Yup, we can change. I’ve heard many times that people don’t change but we do when the stakes or the pain is high enough. And when we change, life changes too. Right now the stakes and the pain are pretty high. I’m reflecting on the concept of detachment because I believe nothing keeps us from changing more than our tendency and our willingness to remain locked into the versions of ourselves, into personae and identities barred in by heavy laden rods of self-righteousness. I know that too often, we’d rather be right than understand - ourselves or others in the world; but it’s only that understanding which will help us grasp our reality and others. I’m practicing detachment from the things I used to call ‘right’, I’m removing that lock on truth which I’ve held on throughout my life. I’m talking about the prejudices I’ve learned (mostly from media, gosh that’s a whole different topic) and I’m learning and striving to detach myself from those and start the purification process in my heart. It feels good and it’s hard...but it’s important. Anyways...what do you think? || BEHOLD: A project to create a series of illustrations to introduce concepts that unite us all. #beholdbyshara || #BLM