By Zofia and Jan Michniewicz, Lower Silesia, Poland
Our journey with the revelation began in 2011, when friends from Houston, visiting Poland on their 50th wedding anniversary, gave us a copy of this amazing book. The Urantia Book crystallized and clarified many questions that had not been answered by other texts, such as the Christian Bible, the Hindu Mahabharata, the Chinese Tao Te Ching, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Our long search for the truth about the cosmos, our earth, our ancestors, and our future was rewarded with satisfying details about the universe and the laws that govern it.
In 2014, we learned of a workshop on the soul and joined other participants at the Foundation’s headquarters in Chicago. Seeing the birthplace of the fifth epochal revelation was a tremendous and fulfilling experience. It gave us a sense of the century that has passed since the beginning phases of this latest epochal revelation—the one that would appear in a different form than the previous four, and which promises real change on earth.
When we first met with other readers, they would ask: "How many times have you read the book?” Our response was that we were just getting started, and upon hearing that some of them had read it several times, our reaction was "why would anyone read the same book multiple times?" We now understand the reason perfectly because we have read it several times and we still return to delve more deeply into the concepts. Layers of meaning can be found in every sentence.
We often contemplate the parallels between our careers and the concepts in The Urantia Book. We met in architecture school in Poland in 1979, and married the following year. When martial law was imposed in Poland in December 1981, we emigrated to the United States, where we lived in Virginia, Oregon, Washington State, and Texas. As architects we first plan, design, and create complex structures in our mind, and then with our will we execute everything the best way possible. The experience, reason, logic, loyalty, and help from others combine to create a useful, beautiful, and enduring structure. Teamwork is the basic recipe for success. We have found it to be similar with our soul, that embryo of our future complex spiritual being.
In 2002, we returned to Poland and created our own corporation, working with other professionals to offer architectural services on a project-to-project basis. This allowed us to help Jan's mother as she entered her 100th year and support ourselves while freeing up time to fly back and forth to Poland to care for our aging parents.
Despite her age and Catholic upbringing, Jan’s mother openly accepts information about the universe and is reading The Urantia Book herself, sometimes asking for clarification on the more complex topics. Her attitude toward life has changed and she is no longer afraid of death.
Our experiences with assisting our parents have helped us temper our own reactions, learn patience, and consider the views and needs of others. Humility and service have led us to appreciate the still, small voice that helps us reason with ourselves and build better ways of reacting to everyday experiences.
Our journey to find The Urantia Book has been like our shared career—complex, challenging, and ultimately rewarding. These are the mirrors in which our soul is reflected. With a strong soul base created in such extreme universe circumstances, we agondonters are the luckiest beings in creation!