'Ode Times

Insh'Allah tommorrow I will be leaving for Las Vegas for a 4 day vacation. However, I am not too sure about it's potential to be a "real" vacation, on so many levels. For one, I will be meeting and staying with relatives who I literally BARELY know, two, I have STRICT orders from the doctors to stay out of the sun due to some skin treatments (NOT BOTOX...yet - j/k ;-) ) NOW, can someone tell me how in LAS VEGAS NEVADA I am supposed to stay completely out of the sun.

I am listening to this old CD I dug up, Carl Thomas's "Emotional," as I write this. For the purposes of time and sanity, I am going to limit the discussion regarding music. I am aware of the arguments on all sides, and for the most part, agree more toward the "no" side...but I am weak. Particularly with my oldies....I have almost NOTHING new. Not 60s or 70s old, but like late eighties through late 90s. Today, all day I was singing and humming Sarah Mclachlin's (sp?) "Angel" and other songs from Surfacing. Like all people, certain songs hold special meaning...not necessarily because they were "couple" songs, but because you were experience something significant, even a negative thing, and listening to it again and again throughout it.
Another one is Lauryn Hill's "I Used to Love Him," not sure but I think it's one of the few songs from Miseducation that didn't have a video. I swear it is one of the best songs ever...EVER. You can listen to that song for 10 hours in a row (BELIEVE me) and every single time you will FEEL it. lol...memories are coming back. College should be just foregone for a few stabs in the heart. Am I not making sense? No surprise.

Anyways. My sweetheart nephew came over. Amazing how much you can love someone or something that basically just is crying, pooping, farting, or peeing all the time! Like a sack of bodily functions...but a DARN cute one. I refer to him as THE man of my life right now.

Life is amazing really. Feelings change everything. They color your vision, your heart. Songs sound better or worse. The sky becomes cloudier or more like the flawless turqouise skies of New Mexico.

Okay, the three good songs on Emotional are done. Time for some old time reflecting with LB.
Insh'Allah I will better next week with posting...have to STAY motivated.

Anyone know a good divorce lawyer?

I Wanna Give a Big Shout-out to Allah!

As a Muslim, one who gravitates strongly toward tasawwuf - Islamic spirituality - I know, deep in my heart, that Allah (God in Arabic) has power over all things. From the black holes, Big Dipper and Milky Galaxy to the "black ant on the black rock in the black night." Wa Allahu qullu shayin qadeer." "And Allah has power over All things." I know that Allah, Most High, could have, were it his Will, granted me the Richy-Rich-perfect life. But that wasn't the case.

AlhamdulAllah (Arabic for "all praises are to do Allah") for all the things I had, and there are many, and things which I never had. They are His will, and there really is no other. I know that liberal-minded, secular may read that think "another mindless religious person" or something to that effect, and I think that that is unfortunate. It's just that, if we constantly second-guess God, we will always be unhappy. Acceptance - submission - is contentment. Yes, maybe the tortured atheist souls turn out the more colorful writing, enter Nietzche types, but then they all commit suicide or end up 80 and wish they had acknowledged God before the death rattles took their throats. One of my favorite teachers, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, of Zaytuna Institute often reflects on how the most obvious signs of the existence of God is the atheist. An atheist, a pile of flesh and blood and bones and ingenious design, who can go around saying "I don't believe in God." I mean, well he said it better than that, but really. I mean, it's like. Just read (or, even better, listen to) Surah (chapter) 55 of the Qur'an - Ar-Rahman (the Merciful). Really.

I am going to cut this short. I revisited my gym after 2 months today, and frankly am in a tremendous amount of pain. I dread the soreness that will greet me tommorrow morning. For now, I am going to lie down and pretend that free weights are my friends.

To Blog or Not To Blog?

Why am I writing a blog? Good question.

Why is W. still President? Another good question.

Why do different retail stores carry sizes that are so vastly different from one another - you can fit a 6 at Gap, a 4 at Express, a 9 at [stupid teenybopper store], and an 8 every where else?? Even better question.

Why do women's feet seem to grow even after you stopped growing in height? GREAT question.

There are tons of questions without clear answers out there, so I don't really see the need to answer my own, and maybe your own questions. Why AM I writing a blog? I don't have an interesting job and will never have one of the BEST Muslim blogs on the net. But shoot, why not? And who knows, maybe something will be of benefit to the poor soul who finds him or herself here.

We will just have to find out, won't we? Insh'Allah.