Spotted holiness

In the center of my city stands a gigantic mosque that is a tomb of Hazarat Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed. It is always full of birds, reminiscient of Trafalgar square, except a bit dirtier and less, modernized I guess. The legend is that the more time the birds spend at the mosque, the whiter they become because the place is so holy. It is also said that if they land on your house, it is a blessing for those inside. So, I could either believe that or that they are the most annoying things, making nice white and grayish birdie-poo stains on my house under the window sills.

Today I was standing, gazing out on the city from my second story window of my house. I love to just look out and anonymously watch the goings-ons of my street. There is ALWAYS some group of kids or some men and occasionally the burka clad group of women walking by. I pray for them, I ask God to increase my love for this place, the people. On some mornings I watch the sun rise from behind the mountains or watch the colors dance from yellow, to pink to dark purple on the peaks in the evenings. Today I watched a flock of the "oh so glorious" group of feathered poopers land on my neighbors' house. They caught my attention because most of them weren't reallly white. They were spotted. Some were almost all black with the tiniest spot of white on their tails. Ah, yes. New converts, I quietly mused to myself. Being that it's spring, they must have migrated in and are only beginning the journey to holiness.

Sometimes life would be easier if we could just wear holiness on the outside. We wouldn't have to lie about the jealousy over our friend's success because we'd have a nice big dark spot over our heart telling the world about it. We would have a good reason to ignore the others who were covered in dark color because we knew their deep unholiness. And we could fly with pride when we emerged dazzling white for the world to gaze upon us, dropping our blessings on every person and household we could grace.

But then again, maybe it's good that even though man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart.