Tranquility

What a glorious weekend, alhamdullilah.

As earlier noted, spent Friday night with the entire family going to a baseball game which was really nice just to all be together, alhamdullilah.

Saturday my daughter and I went to my parents where we spent the day again with the family to celebrate Easter. My family is not particularly ‘religious’ per say, but respectful of others, alhamdullilah. Knowing my daughter and I are Muslims they are always respectful of us and make sure they always have food we can eat. Since my parents just returned from traveling for a couple of months they combined two holiday meals into one day, which I thought was funny. We had smoked chicken (usually ham) and corn-beef and cabbage (yuck). The corn-beef and cabbage, of course, would be for St. Patrick’s Day. We are not Irish but since we missed the holiday meal together and corn-beef is my sister-in-laws favorite, mom decided to serve it for Easter. Too funny! Of course having a million thoughts on this subject alone could really send me tail-spinning into all kinds of philosophical topics, but will stick with the title line because after all the entire weekend was tranquil, alhamdullilah.

After dinner Saturday, we watched the kids (2) hunt all over the yard for plastic eggs filled with goodies. What impressed me the most about watching this event was the gentleness and kindness of my nephew who is 10 1/2 years old. He made sure he pointed eggs out to my daughter (3 ½ years old) so she could gather them in her basket as well, mashallah.

After egg hunting it was off to riding quad-runners and motorcycles in the yard for the guys and my daughter. She just loves to ride with Grandpa on the quad, and he always looks so proud to be riding her around the yard ever so slowly, mashallah. My brother and his son on the other hand are real dare devils, so were racing for hours around the yard. I was equally as thrilled to spend time with my mom and sister-in-law laughing and telling stories.

Sunday morning came to the sound of cooing doves outside my back window. What a fantastic sound that is, if you’ve never experienced it, alhamdullilah. Spent the majority of the day preparing taxes for the tax guy I work for seasonally, and then took a long walk with my daughter, alhamdullilah.

Trying to place my finger on what set this holiday aside from so many others, and came up with the conclusion that it was ok for the first time for me to be without a husband. For countless years, that has been the most painstakingly painful part of holidays for me. That feeling of loneliness that surrounds you when you gather with family and friends, and see everyone has a partner but you. I am not certain what sets this holiday a part from so many others, but will relish the peacefulness and serenity around this one, alhamdullilah.