Daily Prompts:Bonus Assignment

Do you keep a notebook? Good.Jot down the first thought you have upon waking, whether or not it’s coherent.

The above was a bonus assignment given to us  yesterday for this morning.

I was awakened by my alarm. I was trying very hard not to  leave my bed to get ready for prayer this one day. I figured God would forgive me if I said my prayer after sunrise.

My mind split into two, there was a tug of war going on between them. One said, “Yes, Ranu, God will forgive you if you say your prayer after sunrise.”

The other the conscientious one kept buzzing, ” No He won’t so get up and get ready for prayer!”

I was already awake and could not bear to listen to the two minds, besides guilt overtook me and reluctantly I left my bed to get ready for prayer. In a way I’m pleased,   I  knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep while the good and the bad  mind were continuing to argue.

This happens to be what I thought when I woke up this morning.

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Author’s view: On Prayer

Then a priestess said, “Speak to us of Prayer.”

And he answered,  saying :

You pray in your distress and your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

For what is prayer but the expansion of your self into the living ether?

And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.

And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer , she should spur you again and yet again, through weeping until you should come out laughing.

When you pray you rise to meet those who you can only meet by prayer.

Let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.

If you enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive,

you enter into it to humble yourself,

even if you enter it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard,

It is enough you enter the temple invisible.

God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.

I cannot teach you the the prayer of the seas, the forests or the mountains,

You who are born of the mountains, the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart.

And if you listen in the stillness of the night, you shall hear them in silence:

“Our God , who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.

It is the desire in us that desireth.

“We cannot ask thee for aught for thou knowest our needs before they are born into us .

” Thou art our need ; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.”

To be continued once more along with the author’s name!

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Daily Prompt: Daily Ritual

Think about your day. Select one of your daily rituals and explain to us:Why do you do what you do? How did you come to adopt this ritual? What happens on days you can’t perform it?

One of my daily ritual is waking up before sunrise to pray. The time changes according to the season. In summer it can be at 2 AM. I don’t mind waking up at that hour. In my mind I know after twenty five minutes, I’m free to go back to bed and sleep.

Normally the latest I’d stay in bed would be 8 AM , beyond that I cannot contain my conscience it doesn’t stop reminding me, it’s time to leave the bed.

Next prayer time is noon hour, which I do on time, sometimes I may be late  by one hour, to take care of outside chores. I do have enough time to pray, it starts at noon and can be up to 2 PM or 4.30 PM depending on the season. In summer I get more time, the days are long.

There is a prayer after the noon hour, here we get time up to a few minutes before sunset, which gives us time to do  other chores, like cooking.

Next is the prayer after sunset,for this prayer we don’t get too much time to wait. Some say it should be done within a few minutes, others are of the opinion that to pray within the hour is fine. I pray as soon as the sunsets. My mom felt we should not delay praying after sunset.

The last one is hour and a half after the sunset prayer. It is longer. Usually we get plenty of time to pray. Back in my original home i.e. Bangladesh, the people have supper very late, as late as 10.00 PM it can even be 11.00 PM.

We always ate our supper between 6 or 7 PM .My father went to work before 8 AM. My school bus picked me up at 6 AM. Which meant we had to go to bed early.

The days I cannot perform are the days when I am traveling depending how long it takes to reach my destination.I missed my prayer schedule when I traveled to Bangladesh. It took three days to reach Dhaka city. This was the the time I was unable to carry on with my daily ritual..

It doesn’t happen frequently so I’m okay with it.

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Daily Prompt: Obstacle Course

Think of what you wanted to accomplish last week.Did you?What are the things that hold you back from doing everything you’d like to do?

I wasn’t able to work on a different theme, I could not make up my mind what would be the best, while I was thinking the time passed me by. I realized there are so many hours in a day,during these hours, I have prayers to take care of, cook food, eat , feed the felines, if there is a delay in their feeding time one of them looks me in the eye and tells me, I am forgetting my responsibility. He is very vocal about it.

The fact of the matter is there is only twenty-four hours in a day. I have to sneak in an hour for  entertainment, during this time I  watch two game shows,”Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.”

When I subtract all the times for  my extra-curricular activities from  24 hours, I’m left with two measly hours which for me is not enough for blogging 101.

Did I forget to mention I also need to sleep or my brain will shut down? Oh my online course completely slipped my mind, this also takes some thought to answer one question out of four. I wonder how I took care of so many things when I was in school.In fact I had to answer six out of ten questions in my final exams in four hours, back then I didn’t even use up all my hours, I was able to answer six questions without any problem.

It’s not the same now, you can give me a week I’ll still  be dawdling. I think there are too many distractions these days, like my favorite tennis player Roger Federer is playing I have to watch seriously how he  is playing, I say a  little prayer for him to be successful,then there is my not so favorite one  I try to jinx him so he loses and the field is open for my favorite player, who I hope would take advantage of the situation.

All these extra activities of mine takes away time I do not have. I end up not getting my assignment done. Come to think of it. It sure is an ‘Obstacle Course.’

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Daily Prompt: Journey

Tell us about a journey—whether a physical trip you took, or an emotional one.

I’ve taken physical trips several times. My most memorable journeys are those we took to Makkah and Medina.The whole atmosphere was special, there were people from all over the world, we all had one purpose pray for ourselves and for our near and dear ones.

We got ready for prayer at the call of the muezzin daily, we came out of our dwellings and walked towards the mosque in Ka’aba, after prayer we came back and had  our breakfast.

We’d congregate in the early and late afternoon, then sunset and the last one hour and a half after the sunset prayer.

In between the prayers we made our rounds around the Ka’aba seven times and a place called Al  Safah and Al  Marwah, here also we walked the whole length seven times.

In Medina we visited the prophet’s grave, it was open for women at 11 am daily.We prayed in the large mosque five times a day. We stayed there for a week.

We had a wonderful experience.

 

Daily Prompt: Forgive and Forget

Share a story where it was very difficult for you to forgive the perpetrator for wronging you, but you did it–you forgave them.

My story is about what happened to me in school when I was seven years old. One of my classmates did not do her homework, she asked me to lend her mine, I refused, the bell was rung, I did not have enough time  as we  were required   to run to join the rest of the people for prayer.

When we came back to our classroom, the teacher asked to see our homework, I took out my exercise book and opened the page where I had done my homework, to my dismay the page was missing. When I ran for prayer my classmate stayed back and tore off the page from my book.

I was scared and did not know how I should tell the teacher, what happened. I went up to her and showed my book with the missing page. the teacher asked my classmate if she tore the page, at first she denied, when she was asked the second time she admitted tearing the page.I cannot remember if she was punished, I was happy that the teacher believed me.

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DP Daily Prompt:Two Right Feet

What are the things you need to do within 30 minutes of waking up to ensure your day gets off on the right foot? What happened the last time you didn’t do one of these things?

Every morning I wake up well before sunrise to say my prayer, this is the first prayer of the day and we are expected to say it before sunrise, it takes me twenty -four minutes to say it. It leaves five minutes out of the thirty minutes. Usually if I remember I turn on the TV for sunset time, this is how I use my five minutes. Knowing the sunset time is necessary it helps me to say the evening prayer on time.

If I miss my morning prayer I do not feel so good, I try to make it up as soon as I can, but it’s always after sunrise,I only say the important prayer, it takes me no more than three to four minutes. I feel awful all day,because my routine is disturbed I can only blame myself for not waking up early.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/dp-daily-prompt-6/

365 Writing Prompts: I believe in Magic

You have been transformed into a mystical being who has the ability to do magic. Share your your new abilities in detail. How will you use your new skills?

I believe if one sincerely believes in God can in most circumstances help someone who needs it. I have tried to help my family by praying.

So far I must say I was successful, one of my family members applied for a scholarship, she wasn’t sure she’d get it. She asked me to pray. It took me ten days to complete the number of times I was supposed to repeat the prayer. She received the scholarship.

Another relative of ours lost his job, my husband and I and a few others joined  to say the prayer, we were able to complete the prayer in a short time. The relative got back his job.

I cannot claim I have mystical powers but I’m certain, if anyone has true faith can succeed. It should be done for a good cause.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/365-writing-pr…lieve-in-magi

DP Daily Prompts: Under the Snow

You were caught in an avalanche.To be rescued, you need to make it through the night. What thought(s) would give the strength to go through such a scary, dangerous situation?

The thought of getting caught in an avalanche is dreadful. If it ever happens, although I hope it never does.

My thoughts will be about all the different prayers I have learned to get out of dangerous situations. I’d be repeating those all night and will ask God to forgive me and will promise I’d be more caring towards all my friends, family and neighbors, if I am rescued alive.

I know prayer always helps, in my mind there is  nothing else better than prayer.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/29/dp-daily-prompts-2/

 

 

365 Writing prompts:Eat,drink and be merry

— for tomorrow we die. The world is ending tomorrow! Tell us about your last dinner–the food, your dining companions,the setting, the conversation.

I have no idea how others will react, if they know the world is ending tomorrow! Who will think about food it’s something I do not think I’ll think about. It’s a scary thought.

This is what I will do, I’ll get all my family members, discuss how we treated each other, talk about things  we did wrong, ask forgiveness and for once sit together and talk only about times we enjoyed being with each other.

If we gather together food would be something we’ll eat but it’s not going to be the main attraction, there’ll be no special setting,  we’ll eat simple foods and apologize to each other for all the things that went wrong because we were stubborn and did not care.

The most important thing to do would be to pray that we do not suffer,that death comes without pain!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/365-writing-pr…k-and-be-merry