November 24, 1978

Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society

Noor Mahal

758 D Street

Petaluma, California 94942

November 24, 1978

Dear Mansur and Geneve,

As-salaam aleikhum!

Yesterday was the annual Thanksgiving Day Joe Miller Walk. Some 200 people showed up for an absolutely clear and beautiful day—after a week of rainy weather and fog. The devotees present represented such a diversity of spiritual backgrounds that one could not help but consider deeply the prophecy given by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

“The Universal Brotherhood may form of itself…”

Anyhow, one lady came up to me (can’t remember her name) and said she was a member of your Khankah in Hull. She was very pretty, blond I think, and just wanted to convey greetings from you all. Also, another lady named Anna came up to me on the Walk and said she had met you and Geneve once in Boston in 1973. She was rather giddy, but wanted me to remember her especially to Geneve whom she recalled as Nakhra or Cass.

I didn’t want to lead a Dance (Joe invariably calls upon Wali Ali or me to do this just before we feed the ducks; the Walk is through the Arboretum initially, then on to the ocean through the park), so I read the following poem of Nyogen Senzaki, to commemorate Thanksgiving as an “American” holiday:

Land of Liberty!

People of Independence!

It blooms like the spring flower.

It is the scripture by itself.

No foreign book can surpass it.

Like the baby Buddha,

Each of the people

Should point to heaven and earth, and say,

“America is the country of righteousness.”

Love and blessings,

Moineddin