One who wants to stay happy has to change often.
Salam aleikoum dear readers and friends.
Thank you so much for the lovely comments on our happy news. I was especially touched by those of you whom I “know” through blogging since years but had no contact since a long time. May Allah bless you all with a beautiful sunny may and lots of positive change.
Love to you and yours! Xxx
We don’t have any snow left in this valley. The days are now sunny blue and cold in the shadow but really warm in the sun. The nights are still freezing and I guess we might have some more wintry winter days soon, inchaallah.
Anyway, the cold season is here and every one of us struggles from time to time with a sniffle or a cough. These are the moments when I really value the late summer treasures stocked in boxes and glasses on the shelves of our larder:
Achillea millefolium, Calendula, Taraxacum, Chamomilla, Malva, Galium, Weed, and my favourite Plantago major: piled up in a jar, with lots of sugar and left for weeks and months it makes the best home made cough syrup we ever had, subhanallah.
It is the first winter that we really mostly use only what we gathered ourselves and it makes such a difference: when brewing up a mug of hot tea, pouring the water over the chosen herbs, remembering the moment when we picked them together in the woods and fields, alhamdulillah, this act in itself is already healing and much more fulfilling than opening a bag of ready-made tea.
And I am sure, that the plants from the area where we live in carry the same energy and spirit and have much more healing power to our body than those coming from far away, inchallah.
Some of our stock already shrinks and I look forward to spring when these little helpers of nature grow and show up again, inchallah. I am looking forward to new glasses of home made dandelion honey and fresh herbs to pick.
But for now I am amazed by the power of nature and the blessings that God put just around us. Alhamdulillah.
Helpful books about herbal medicine can be found on my book-page.
- that different sorts of wood burn differently long and intense, with different smoke and different heat production. I really prefer juniper, which is available around here; I love it for its lovely smell and the long and rich warmth it provides.
- taking better care of my own needs (body and soul), treating myself kindly, asking for help and not always putting myself last.
- how to set and keep boundaries in general, concerning rules, but also concerning my own and other’s needs.
I’ve especially learnt it with the children, at home and in school, where it is essential to find a balance between freedom and limits, with love and respect. (and I am still learning on this as it is a life-long process, I guess).
- being patient and letting things go and flow; knowing that Allah is the best planner.
Everything comes differently than expected, but never worse than we can bear and often with much more blessings in it than we could have imagined. Alhamdulillah.
- that compost toilets really are better in our location, when water freezes for days and ordinary water loos just awfully begin to stink, urgh.
- that the consciousness and inner attitude and expectations we have towards something can really dramatically change a situation. It really helps and opens gates if we are expecting good things to flow naturally into our lives, knowing that Allah holds enough available for everyone.
If we open ourselves to the bounties of Allah, feeling worth earning enough of everything we need and if we can accept the good without shame – might it be love, health, money or every other thing – it will come and be given to us, inchallah. Subhanallah!
(some books and affirmations of Louise L.Hay might be helpful to learn more about this).
- many new words and modes of expression in Tamazight (the Berber language), which is one of the most difficult languages to learn, mashaallah. I am realizing that I still need to learn a lot more in order to really being able to discuss profound topics and feelings, inchaallah.
- that the work with the inner child and with one’s own past is worth it, if some shadows of childhood still touch the present. As much as it hurts and as hard work as it takes to go through it, as healing it is in the end to discover hidden things, to face the truth, to speak honestly about it and to finally make peace with it, alhamdulillah.
- to count on quality, to buy less but really good things instead of lot and cheap.
Because over time it pays off spending some more money on something really good which stays well and beautiful for a long time, which nurtures body and soul and which provides or supports health (for example organic and natural clothes, food, utilities,…see also my new link category “conscious shopping”)
- that I learned a lot more than that, every day, subhanallah; and that fully living means constantly learning, and that I still have so much to learn, Alhamdulillah!
What about you? What did you learn and what are your goals for 2013?
Ich bin nicht dafür.
Ich bin nicht dagegen.
Ich bin darin.
(Hugo Kükelhaus)
In between all the “R”-ing and as a part of it, I really enjoy the moments we spend in the garden: to touch the earth, to smell the ground, to organize the planting, to sow new herbs and flowers, vegetables and fruits and to collect nature’s little helpers for a green spring cure: Galium, Taraxacum, Malva, Salvia, Plantago,…
Subhanallah, what a gift Allah gave us right in front of the door: those little plants that appear everywhere just like this, that often are banished from gardens or not even recognized at roadsides or on the pathways in big cities, always growing out of nothing, sometimes even in the middle of tarred streets.
I am sure now that these little weeds find their way to those who need them. I am sure that they have the divine order to grow right beside the people who need their special energy. Alhamdulillah!
So we try to identify them now, we collect them, we learn now about their specific healing effects, we use them freshly as teas, lotions and washes and we dry them for the colder seasons, inchaallah.
Books that help us on that learning path:
Maria Treben: “Health from God’s Garden” – “Gesundheit aus der Apotheke Gottes”
Ursel Bühring: “Heilpflanzenjahr”
Susanne Fischer-Rizzi: “Medicine of the earth” – “Medizin der Erde”
Maria Thun: “The biodynamic year” – “Gärtnern mit dem Mond”
“Guide Delachaux des plantes”
“das Ulmer Garten Buch”
Books from Wolf-Dieter Storl
What are your tips for a natural cure?
How does water sound? What’s the singing of a bird? Is the falling of snow loud?
After more than a year of suppositions and questions, after long months of medical appointments and examinations, after putting ear tubes in and cutting adenoids out, and after several audiometric tests we know now for sure that our little girl is deaf.
She is seriously hearing impaired on both ears: one highly impaired, and one medium; her audible range is very limited to only heavy sounds.
Mashaallah. I know now what I always feared: she does not hear my voice – in fact, she never did. It takes time to realize the diagnosis with all its long term impact. All is very new to us.
I am reading and learning a lot at the moment and getting in contact with others. Alhamdulillah. We wait now that our girl gets her hearing aids, although we know that they will not make all good.
We will have to learn sign language to make communication deeper and easier for her and for us.
We will have to teach ourselves through professional speech trainers and we will have to focus on a whole new world and all its meanings: the world of silence.
I am thankful to have the chance to get information from everywhere. I am thankful for the advice from several doctors we met in Moroccoand Europe. I am thankful for the detailed diagnosis we finally got. I am thankful for the support we get from family and friends. I am thankful to see that there is very good and professional medical help in this country. And I am thankful that we have the possibilities to afford it. Alhamdulillah.
I know, Allah is the best of all planners. I know that He does not burden us with more than we could bear. And I know, He holds something better in everything we take with patience and deep faith.
Allahu akbar. I trust in Him. And I am thankful for what we have. Subhanallah.
We are ready to grow, to learn and to share this path with our little girl. She is so brave. Subhanallah. We are ready to make the best out of it, inchaallah.
And I would love to meet with others who have taken the same direction- Happy to hear from you!
May peace be with you all!
Mashaallah, I have so much to do and therefore no time for blogging. Just wanting to share a lovely poem and sending greetings of peace to all of you !
Time Tested Beauty Tips
by Sam LevensonFor attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you’ll never walk alone…
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed.
Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands.
One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman whith passing years only grows!
Life up here, where we live, is mostly still unplugged. A lot of work is still done by hand and you seldom hear machines or motors; the air is still clean, children mostly play together in nature and people gather outside. That’s a blessing, subhanallah, and it was one of the main reasons why we choose to live here, alhamdulillah.
But here as well as elsewhere, in many areas of everyday life, it demands a conscious choice to choose “unplugged” as a lifestyle.
Unplugging means to me to avoid technical stuff; to avoid mechanic sound; to use desktops and screens fewer; to switch off often CD-players, TV, computers, mobile phones, i-pods, blackberries, kitchen helpers and all the other things that promise us to make live funnier, easier and quicker; to me it means to avoid everything processed in general.
Living unplugged means to allow silence and quiet; to listen to the sound of our souls and nature; it means to slow down; to choose a conscious state of mind; to look at and connect with the people and the beauty around us; to work by hand; trying to live as much natural-sustainable-eco-green as possible.
It is a choice everyone can make in her own life. It isn’t easy sometimes and courage and some effort are needed. But it is definitely worth it.
It brings us closer to the essentials of life; to our own self; to the people we love; it restores and fine-tunes all our senses; it heals and it draws us closer to our pure fitra (pure, good and innocent state of every human being).
And in the end it draws us closer to nature and to our Creator.
I wish you well, I wish you moments in “acoustic style” and may Allah bless your life with as much “unplugged” as possible!
Post inspired by nature and “Beauty that moves”.
“Parenting is a path of maturation and growth if we dare to learn more and teach less” (Naomi Aldort)
Every single day I grow deeper into my role as a mother and from year to year I realize more that being a good mother means being ready to educate myself, not the child.
Islam teaches us to strive to better our character everyday with every mundane act.
I think this is especially true concerning parenting. To become a good parent I have to better my self, I have to change, to question, to develop my own personality every moment from new – I have to grow with the child.
I look with awe and wonder at my children, I see them as a beautiful gift from God, subhanallah, and I have to admit with humbleness that it is mostly me who has to learn.
I have to learn to give unconditional love and empathy.
I need to be taught to let them be and to take them as they are.
I need to step back and to hold back my inner pressure to intervene.
I must learn to hold back my will to teach, my will to criticize and to give advice.
I have to learn to get rid of old patterns and schemes.
I have to work on my own preconceptions and on old behavior I stuck in.
I have to accept and to trust.
I simply have to love, myself and the child.
There is a lot to say about all of this, and a lot to work on. But today I simply want to recommend again the very wonderful book of Naomi Aldort “Raising our children, raising ourselves” (“Von der Erziehung zur Einfühlung”) and her website which both are an incredible source of inspiration on the path of growth as a parent.
I am thankful to be on this path. Happy Friday, friends!
“When your child presents you with a challenge, you have an opportunity to take a step toward your own self-realization, and by doing so regain your clarity about your child.” (Naomi Aldort)
In my last post I wrote about the concept of logotherapy and how well it matches the Islamic lifestyle. In one book, Elisabeth Lukas writes about the modern day’s illness of society which is about always wanting more, running after material goods, and not treasuring what we already have; and also that a lot of today’s depressions are rooted in the lack of faith in something higher than us.
According to Lukas, praying is a way to heal ourselves. But before asking for something we should begin to thank for what we already have, as it is through realizing the gifts we already are blessed with that we become happy, satisfied and encouraged to live out our owns best.
Islam tells us nothing different: be thankful, be humble, and look at what Allah has blessed you with, look at those who have less, so that you might be taught gratitude and compassion. Alhamdulillah.
Maybe I’ll begin a new thankful-series here – wanna join me?
Subhanallah, this morning I am thankful for…
… snow and rain (which the dry soil over here so desperately needed),
… but also for signs of spring and the warmth of the sun,
… black Darjeeling tea and a slice of cake,
… for health, energy and purpose in life,
… for inspiration all around.
Alhamdulillah and happy week!
