Diary of a DayDreaming GlobeTrotter

The most beautiful flowers I’ve ever gotten in my whole life! Thank you to my most amazing husband who got me these a thoughtful card AND a gorgeous necklace on top of giving me a wonderful date night and watched the vow for my sake! I love u so much! There is no one else in the world that holds my heart the way u do!

1. A just ruler.

2. A young man who has been brought up in the worship of Allah, (i.e. worship Allah (Alone) sincerely from his childhood).

3. A man whose heart is attached to the mosque (who offers the five compulsory congregational prayers in the mosque).

4. Two persons who love each other only for Allah’s sake and they meet and part in Allah’s cause only.

5. A man who refuses the call of a charming woman of noble birth for an illegal sexual intercourse with her and says: I am afraid of Allah.

6. A person who practices charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand has given (i.e. nobody knows how much he has given in charity).

7. A person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes get flooded with tears.

-Bukhari Vol. 2 : 504

muacaiik:

10 Things We Waste

1. Our Knowledge: Wasted by not taking action with it
2. Our Actions: Wasted by committing them without sincerity.
3. Our Wealth: Wasted by using on things that will not bring us ajr (reward from Allah). We waste our money, our status, our authority, on things which have no benefit in this life or in akhirah (hereafter).
4. Our Hearts: Wasted because they are empty from the love of Allah, and the feeling of longing to go to Him, and a feeling of peace and contentment. In it’s place, our hearts are filled with something or someoneelse.
5. Our Bodies: Wasted because we don’t use them in ibadah (worship) and service of Allah.
6. Our Love: Our emotional love is misdirected, not towards Allah, but towards something/someone else.
7. Our Time: Wasted, not used properly, to compensate for that which has passed, by doing what is righteous to make up for past deeds.
8. Our Intellect: Wasted on things that are not beneficial, that are detrimental to society and the individual, not in contemplation or reflection.
9. Our Service: Wasted in service of someone who will not bring us closer to Allah, or benefit in dunyaa
10. Our Dhikr (Remembrence of Allah) : Wasted, because it does not effect us or our hearts.

-Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

(via stayondeen)

Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss.

My last post of my 30 day challenge and this topic is definitely an appropriate one since the challenge itself and Tumblr has helped me cope with missing my other half.  I miss his kisses, his cuddles, his hugs, his soft touches, the way we would wake up together and the way we fell asleep together.  Even being dead asleep and completely out, you show each other how much you love each other by never letting go, even in your sleep. I miss any and all of these moments where a simple touch conveys all the reassurance and love I could ever need. 

In all this time we didn’t have that touch, Tumblr was a way for us to be able to communicate even with our 3000 miles apart. Its all about capturing a snapshot of that moment of consciousness, and all the emotions that go along with it.  Its like taking a peek into a person’s life at a certain time in their life. It is something we can always look back on to see how much love we have for each other since sometimes it is f a r   too easy to forget.  With that said, Thank you to Tumblr for allowing me to express myself in a way I never thought I could.  I didn’t even think I had the ability to write this much but all of it just came pouring out of my heart.  Thank you Tumblr for giving me this timeless gift that I can always open and remind myself of something special I have. 

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile.   

This picture proves to me that love can last a lifetime and never get old!  The way this man is holding his wife’s face in his wrinkled hands that tell a story of all the hard work he has endured to support her in every way she needed and the way he is kissing his wife on the forehead is the best possible way to show someone how much you love them and the fact that they are doing it years into their marriage proves that they will never get sick of the kisses, the embraces, the hugs, the cuddles, the love.  Just look at her smile and the way it shines.  The way she is holding his hands with her frail hands that she used to cook for him and maintain the house and life they built together.  Its as if they are looking at each other and cant help but feel their youth being restored just like it’s the first time. 

Sometimes I wanna just believe that it is this easy and this is what a marriage should be.   Then I get to thinking… We only see the “end result.” That “end result” is built up from hard work, teamwork, communication, trust, and love. That is not easy by any means, but the final result proves to be the most special. You learn about a person inside and out. You love them for every flaw and strength that they have. It’s a beautiful gift but a hard one to maintain. 

Without the proper care, there is a huge risk of growing apart, emotionally, rather than physically. There is no question that you will always side by side: passing in the kitchen, driver and passenger seat, in the tiny bed at night.  But somewhere along the line presence can give way to mere existence. Life has a funny way of loosening even the tightest bonds. A demanding job or constantly tending to children can make it seem as if you haven’t truly seen each other in years. But ultimately, kids leave and start their own lives and all you have left is each other.  It is then that you realize you had wasted so much time just existing and not living and loving  so you try to create colors in those formerly darkened hearts.  But why not just keep those hearts filled with color from the start and make sure they shine brighter with every day that passes.  We’re so arrogant, aren’t we? So afraid of age, we do everything we can to prevent it. We don’t realize what a privilege it is to grow old with someone. When you get to the final point, there is no fear anymore in a relationship. You both are so engraved in stone by then that fear is no longer an issue, the only fear you have then is worrying about how long you have on this earth together, which may be the worst fear.

Once I watched an old couple for 30 minutes, and they didn’t stop speaking to each other once. How amazing must it be to never run out of things to talk about with your significant other? There is a certain appeal to the thought of times of comfortable silence with your spouse, but there is  also so much beauty to never stop learning about him, not even for a minute.   Everyone deserves a person to lay next to every night, who is right alongside you pushing the weight, who’s going to hug you when you cry, and give you soup and crackers when you’re sick.  But it is something you earn.  Its not as easy as this picture makes it seem but it sure is worth every second.  Below is a text I found on Tumblr from a guy to his girlfriend titled,  ”when we grow old together”  It kinda makes you wanna skip to being an old couple who has worked so hard to stay in love that it just comes naturally and effortlessly after a while.  This definitely made me smile.

When we’re old im still gonna tickle you, hold your hands, hold you from behind, hug you, tell you how much i love and miss you, im still gonna tell you how beautiful you are, and how after 60+ years your still the only girl i see, when were old im gonna take you out on dates, im gonna still celebrate our anniversary every week, im still gonna make you cute little love letters, when were old,im still gonna whisper in your ears, im going to cook with you, go for walks around the park with you, hold hands everywhere we go, when were old im gonna pucker out my lips and wait for a kiss still, id still walk around the mall all day with you, i’ll still be scared to ride rollercoasters and ferris wheels but id ride them all with you, im still gonna bring you whatever food you want whenever your hungry,

im still gonna do everything i can to make you smile everyday as soon as you open your eyes, im still gonna cook you breakfast and bring it to you in bed as soon as you wake up.   when were old im still gonna wipe away the tears and lend you my shoulder and tell you everything is going to be alright, when were old im gonna cuddle with you under the blanket while we watch dvds all day, when were old ill still give you piggy back rides when your feet are tired, ill still sit on the sings with you and hold your hand, we will still stay up all night kissing each other and saying how much we love each other,

ill still take forever just to say goodbye, ill still make promises to you, ill still sing to you even though i suck, when we are old ill still always look for you from the moment i wake up and open my eyes, ill still pinch your cheeks, ill still play with your hair and tell you how beautiful it is, ill still remind you everyday how beautiful, special, and important you are to me, ill still sacrifice anything, even my life for you, ill still wont let anything separate us. 

i’ll still walk to the ends of the earth for you, ill still pick you only the prettiest flowers, ill still be your dork that tells you cheesy and corny jokes, ill still just randomly tell you i love you out of nowhere, ill still take care of you when your sick, ill still tease you, ill still call you cute nicknames, when we are old together i will grab you water in the middle of the night if your throat is dry even if i just fell asleep, i’ll still remind you how im the lucky one to have you as my girl after all these years 

Post #28 - A picture of something your afraid of

There is a story I live by about a young boy who proclaimed he had the most beautiful heart in the whole city. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. An older man whose heart was all jagged and scarred appeared and told the young man his heart wasn’t nearly as beautiful as his.  The older man explained that every scar represented a person to whom he had given his love….. he tore out a piece of his heart and gave it to someone … and often that person gave him a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in his heart but because the pieces aren’t exact, he has some rough edges. The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out offering it to the old man. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his.

The moral of the story for me is that I try to give that huge chunk of my heart to the people in my life so you see, when you give that much of yourself to someone who passes or leaves, that empty feeling at your core takes over. ’You’ll get over it…’ It’s the clichés that cause the trouble. To lose someone you care for is to alter your life for ever. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap never closes. How could it? The particularness of someone who mattered enough to grieve over is not erased by anyone. The hole in my heart is in the shape of that person who is missing and no one else can fit. Why would I want them to?  This is what makes letting go and goodbyes so hard! 

What I fear the most is losing the people I care for the most.  My body quivers at the mere thought of losing my family.  I can’t even imagine that day and would rather not live to see that terrifying day.  Ever since I was young, I used to tell my parents that I wanted the world to end in 2000 (back when the year 2000 seemed so far away) only so that we can all leave this world together.  When we were on an airplane and my mom would be scared, I would tell her I have no fear whatsoever because for me, this is the best way to go - all together.  Now that I have opened up my heart completely to someone I have trusted it with, I fear losing that person because he is the person I have given my WHOLE heart to. When I say lose, I don’t just mean by death, but losing your love in a relationship and feeling distant.  Love is something that has to be handled very carefully and needs to be nurtured constantly so that it grows beautifully.  It is so important to show it every single second of every day, even when your not together so that you never lose that feeling and constantly remind yourself of your own feelings. That is why I try to hold on to it so tightly and do everything in my power to reignite it everyday so it lives forever and I can only hope that he will do the same.  I truly do pray that I do not live to see the day that I have lost someone I love because its impossible to live when your heart has a huge hole in it.  

Post #27 - A picture of yourself and a family member

~The Pink Unicorn - SABO~

I recently heard the phrase, “Pink Unicorn” and when I asked what it meant, my friend said “you know how a unicorn is rare to begin with, well imagine a pink unicorn!- rarest of rare”  That’s Sabo for you and everyone who  knows her can vouch for that.  She loves her family her friends and her God passionately and wholeheartedly.  Her attributes blow people away and she instantly wins the hearts of everyone she encounters.  She is the most patient person I know – God must have planned for her to be that way from even before she was born because her name even ended up meaning “Patience.”  She is so calm when she deals with any and every situation.  I couldn’t be any more different because I constantly worry and im far from calm in my everyday life with people and everything.  My parents have never ever had a problem with her. She was always the perfect child.   We are always told we don’t look anything alike and quite honestly we are nothing alike in so many ways.  Yea of course we have been raised the same way and have the same values, manners and morals but when it comes to personality we are completely opposite.  I had my days of rebelling against my parents for wanting more freedom and wanting to travel and how I dealt with it was in an immature way but anytime she wanted her way, she would approach it so much more calmly and maturely making my parents believe that they were in control and ultimately she would get her way.  She has always kept them happy.  She was never the type to want to rebel even.  When it came to her school work, she was always a hardworker and no one had to tell her what to do, she just knew and found her way.  Silently, she worked her way up to be top 10 in her class of 400 people.  And when she found out, she didn’t even make it a big deal.  She is the humble type of person that doesn’t want the attention.  After persistently applying for jobs her freshman year of college, she landed a prestigious internship which she got all by herself and worked her way all through college, paying her own way through.  The more experience she gained the more she tried to pay it forward by helping everyone she knew with their resumes.  I know she has a million resumes on her desktop right now and I can truly say many people owe their success to her.  She is there for everyone wholeheartedly, giving them genuine advice when they need and listening when need be. This is the reason why she is so loved by everyone around her.  Even during this past Christmas when my family was doing a secret Santa, it was no surprise that everyone wanted to buy something for her even though they didn’t have her as their secret Santa.  Its because she is the nicest to everyone.  She is very kind, caring, and considerate and loves to show her love and affection whereas the rest of us in my family don’t as much. It takes a lot though to show that kind of love constantly when you rarely see it being returned.  That’s pure unconditional love which is so hard to accomplish without feeling a bit taken for granted!  She is like a little puppy sometimes and needs to be taken care of and shows that she needs us in her life for small things like walking her across the street or driving her when she is scared but we all love her for it because it shows us she loves us to want us to do things for her and we get happy knowing we can do those things for her. 

Sabo and I have had a far from perfect relationship growing up, always bickering over the dumbest things, but few people love each other more deeply than Sabo and I do, even though we have the oddest way of showing it (like not showing it at all).  My parents had a policy when it came to her and it was always to listen to your big sister and no matter what she does, she is right.  (EVEN THOUGH I MYSELF KNOW I WASN’T ALWAYS RIGHT) I used to pinch her all the time and always leave scars on her arms when she wasn’t listening to me or when we fought over things but not once did she tell on me.  I have no idea how she put up with a sister like me.  I know my youngest sister is completely uncontrollable and would never put up with the stuff I put Sabo through.  Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t completely evil, I was just trying to teach her to be caring for her parents and to make sure to spend family time together. I wouldn’t allow her to go sit by herself and lock herself up.  But she listened and learned and now is more caring than all of us.  She knows how to balance everyone in her life.  Very rarely do i get to feel “big Sister” with her because she’s her own person…very independent…EXTREMELY MATURE, always has been …You know how most kids go through that phase when they love you unconditionally, but as time goes on, they grow out of it? Well, that’s not how my little sister is.  No matter how much older she gets, I swear she just continues growing her heart. My sister has grown up to have a huge heart for everyone around her. She has walked with me through some moments in my life that, truthfully, I’d rather not ever live through again. She knows the best and worst parts about me and still loves me and has dealt with me through it all.  She is the only person that I can be completely myself with and tell anything and everything to and she wont judge me or hate me or get bored of me.  I am most comfortable travelling with her, spending time with her, joking with her, being silly with her, and yes having her sleep on my boobie (and secretly it makes me feel special that she even wants to do that :/).  Even when I kick her out of my room and say the meanest of things to her, she still comes knocking on my door whispering “let me in, I want to play, I need a friend”  Who else would still even want to come in and be around me.  That’s love and patience defined!  It’s rare to have people in your life like that and I do not take it for granted. I can honestly say that a larger percentage of my life experiences have been with her and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

She succeeds at unintentionally commanding the attention of everyone in the room just by walking in and follows that up effortlessly by bringing joy into that room. Or, to be frank, whatever emotion she is currently feeling. :) There are times when she will be mad and she treats you like you don’t exist but its that attitude that makes you feel like you are the most horrible person alive.  When you have wronged her, she knows how to put you in your place and has that sharp tongue that will slice you into pieces but I have to admit, if you get that treatment from her, you most likely deserve it.  She stands up for what’s right.  Reaching the proverbial quarter-life mile marker, coupled with graduating early from college and working towards her MBA and having an established career brings about usual questions of what will come next, and knowing her, she’ll do it all with a distinctive Sabo flair, of which we could all use a little. Moreover, she’ll show the glory of God in a way that only she can. I just know that whatever guy ends up scoring her, has won the jackpot and will be the luckiest man alive but he better be deserving of her.  I love that I’ve been blessed with a chance to collaborate and have front row seats as it all unfolds.

May 16th 2009 Balboa Park, San Diego-

Soul mate?  a question all your life right until the moment you meet them, then it becomes the answer to almost everything in your Life (past, present & future)

 2 years ago today, I became the luckiest girl in the world! I was given this letter by my soon to be Hubby which actually became our proposal story!  We walked in the park as friends and walked out as soul mates reunited!

You magnify my happiness
When I am feeling glad;
You help to heal my injured heart
Whenever I am sad.

You came along and my wishes came true

Happy Anniversary to my Prince Charming who made my fairy tale complete! LOVE U always and forever i’A! ~ur imperfect perfect mate :)

My Ideal Mate

Funny. Smart. Beautiful. Down-to-earth. It seems everyone lists the same qualities when asked what their ideal mate is like. But just how many people in this world actually fit that criteria? How many ‘perfect’ souls are out there just waiting for one of us to snatch them up? Sadly, the truth is few to none. But does that mean we should just get hitched with the next half-way decent romantic who’s tolerant enough to put up with us? That’s where it gets complicated; trying to toe the line between being selective and being picky. Knowing what you want and holding out for it, and rejecting every suitor who’s not Miss Perfect. 

I am at the age now when marriage is no longer a goal set for me “when i grow up”, but an imminent reality I’ll soon be faced with. I need to start thinking about exactly which kind of person I want to share the rest of my life with. That’s a pretty hefty task for anyone who’s only a few years into adulthood, even more so for myself since my selection pool, for reasons based on my culture and my own personal preferences, has been narrowed down to a select few in relation to the three billion women on this planet. First things first, this woman has be beautiful, not necessarily in the Victoria Secret way, but certainly to my eyes. I truly believe as cliched as it is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The girls in my past have been picked apart in the looks department; apparently they were ugly unbeknownst to me who obviously found them attractive in the first place. The girl I want doesn’t have to turn heads every time she walks into a room. She only has to catch my eye. Why would anyone else’s opinion even matter? People can continue to say that looks don’t matter and to some, they may not. But for me at least, when everyone is a stranger, good looks are a sure-fire way to grab my attention. Of course beauty is never enough to hold it.

A beautiful face can get really boring really fast without something inside of it. I enjoy having 4-hour conversations that go by in 4 minutes. I like arguing whether or not the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is a good thing. As hard as it is for me to say it, I like being proven wrong from time to time. It’s not fun when a girl just accepts everything I say as cold hard fact. She has to have opinions on what’s going on this world. I’m not gonna dismiss a girl if I find out she didn’t graduate at the top of her class. If she worked hard and tried to learn something while in school, thats good enough for me. Not a lot of people are blessed with real intelligence so I don’t hold that against anyone, friend or girlfriend. But to strive for knowledge is a special thing that I respect. It’s definitely sexy when I see a woman know what’s talking about and not in a way to belittle the ones around her or to show off so people accept her. To put it simply, a girl has to have some kind of substance. 

I know for a fact that there are lot of beautiful, smart woman in Afghanistan. These girls would no doubt make good wives, daughter-in-laws and mothers. They most likely speak English too so language would never be a barrier for us. However there would still be something missing. A good portion of my personality would not translate well enough to a girl raised in my homeland. My likes, hobbies, interests in movies, music, sports, culture would not be reciprocated. Being raised in the US has wired me a certain way in which I have identified with two different cultures. I recognize myself as an Afghan, however with the asterisk that I grew up half way around the world from Afghanistan. I could get a long perfectly well with a girl from back home, but never on the level I need to be on with my ideal wife. It may seem silly to some in my family, but this one thing was what ultimately made me decide against marrying a girl who grew up in Afghanistan. I am not against the idea altogether however I just feel that for me, personally, it wouldn’t fit.

The last thing I want from a desired spouse is something you could call the x-factor. It’s that little something that would separate this girl from everyone else. It’s a mixture of a few things. A sense of humor compatible with my own. The ability to laugh at herself when called for. The desire to make everyone they know feel special and important. This is what a lot of people call down-to-earth. The funny thing is I’ve never met a person who has said they weren’t down-to-earth. Its one of those things like modesty. You can only be attributed the quality by the people who know you best, never yourself. I’m known by those closest to me to make ‘stupid jokes’ on several occasions, sometimes at the expense of myself. It’s such an infinitely better feeling when the girl I’m with laughs along (or at the very least smiles) rather than role her eyes in disapproval. It’s even better when me and her can go on for ten minutes with one joke, never realizing it was dead two minutes in. To wrap all of this into one trait might be a little of an over reach. I think for me its easier just to call it being sweet. To never be rude with a waitress at a restaurant. To be kind to strangers in need of help. This is probably the most rare and important of the four characteristics I’ve mentioned, enough for it to be a deal breaker. You either have it or you don’t.

My perfect girl is imperfect. It may seem like I expect a Miss Universe to walk into my life, but that’s far from the truth because while she may know how to light up a room, she also talks too much sometimes. While she may she engage me into some serious conversation, she also burns food when she tries to cook. But she tries to cook. She knows how much I love home-cooked afghan food and regardless of how talented she is in the kitchen she attempts to make me happy by trying. And thats the beauty of this girl. She’s not perfect. She makes mistakes like everyone else. She has her bad qualities which she tries to limit as much as possible. She could be paired with one hundred other men and it wouldn’t work out, but with me, we would be perfect.

My Ideal mate is you!

lisaslocket:

A note to all my male followers: Tell her she’s beautiful, not pretty. Don’t just tell her you love her, show her; but tell her often. Kiss her lovingly whenever you can. Actions speak louder than words. Sometimes however, words are exactly what we’re looking for. We women are temperamental creatures. I realize it works both ways, but is chivalry really dead?