Former NI Bahá'í Ina Cantrell sends this thought-provoking story from the USA:
Do you know the story of the Cherokee Indian youth's Rite of passage?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds and leaves him. He is required to sit on a tree stump the whole night and not take off the blindfold until the rays of sun shine through it.
He is all by himself.
He cannot cry out for help to anyone.
Once he survives the night he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience. Each lad must come into his own manhood.
The boy is terrified. He can hear all kinds of noise. Beasts are all around him. Maybe even some human would hurt him. The wind blows the grass and it shakes his stump.
But he sits stoically, never removing the blindfold. It is the only way he can be a man.
Finally, after frightening hours, the sounds of the night fade. He feels the warmth of the sun. He removes his blindfold.
It is then that he sees his father: sitting on the stump next to him, on watch the entire night.
We are never alone. Even when we do not know it, our Father is protecting us. He is sitting on the stump beside us. All we have to do is take off our blindfolds.
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