Be Happy in the Present

*A retelling based on **The Diary of Juliet Thompson** (Kalimát Press; diary entry dated 25 August 1911). The narrative is retold in our own words; the short line in quotation marks is verbatim from the Diary. Read the [full text](https://bahai-library.com/thompson_diary) for Juliet's own account.*

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It was a summer day in 1911, near Thonon on the shore of Lake Geneva, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá decided to go out into the country. To the surprise of the little party — Juliet Thompson, and Laura and Hippolyte Dreyfus — He invited them all into an automobile, that new and rattling marvel of the age, and off they went toward a forest inn.

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Along the way the car was suddenly swarmed. Some fifteen peasant children came running with their hands full of violets, pressing the little purple bunches toward the Master. He bought them all — every bunch — delighting in the children and their flowers. And when, emboldened, the children stretched out their hands for still more coins, He did not scold them, but gently had Laura tell them they had already received their fair share. Even His "no" was kind.

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At the forest, He came alive with a child's own joy in the beauty of the world. He led them onward, walking ahead in His white robe and dark 'abá to a place called the Devil's Bridge. At a waterfall He climbed onto a rock above the drop and simply stood there, lost in the rushing water, drinking in the cascade as though it were a revelation.

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On the drive home He kept pointing things out — the bright green of the fields, a cluster of villages, a little settlement high on the mountainside — and He spoke with tender sympathy of how hard the winters must be for the people who lived up there.

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Juliet, watching Him take such open delight in everything, felt the ache that every lover of Him felt: that these golden days could not last, that the disciples could not simply follow Him always, everywhere, forever. She said as much. And 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave her the gentlest possible correction — not a promise about the future, but an invitation into the moment they already had:

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> We are together now. Be happy in the present.

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It is a small sentence, and an immense one. He who carried the weight of a world's redemption knew how to stand still before a waterfall and how to rejoice in a child's violets — and He wanted His friends to learn the same art. Not to spoil the gift of *now* by grieving over its ending; not to let the fear of tomorrow's parting steal the joy of today's nearness. The present was a gift, and the loving thing to do with a gift is to be glad in it.

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*This account is retold for the Bahai Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted line is verbatim from The Diary of Juliet Thompson. See the source for Juliet's complete entry.*

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