Monday, May 30, 2011

Intermission : Relationship with your God

Salam and hello! I'm off to Jakarta soon, no doubt next month's travellogue gonna be all about Jakarta, Indonesia baybeh!! So until then, I would like to leave you all with a fantastic post I came a crossed recently. It made me felt so humble, so please do share it peeps. It's never too late to make an effort, so let us try to be better Muslim everyday, Insyallah.

XoXo,
Tim.


I've talked a little bit about the importance of having a strong relationship with yourself, but essentially the most important relationship we will ever have is our one with God. He is the only one that we can truly rely on to be with us throughout everything, no matter what. It makes sense then that this relationship is one that we should nurture to ensure it stays strong and lasts (beyond) a lifetime.
One of the best opportunities to connect with God is in our daily prayers. The thing is though, to actually connect with God when we pray takes more than actually praying. It requires focus, concentration and preparation; we need our heart to be present.
As Muslims, we pray 5 times a day; however doing something this often, combined with the hustle and bustle of daily life means that it's a potential slippery slope from prayer being a connection to our Creator to an autopilot action that our minds disengage from.
Each prayer that we disengage from is a wasted opportunity. Your prayer is a conversation with God. He wants you to talk to Him. He listens every time we talk to Him. Don't miss that wonderful opportunity to connect with God again, to forget this worldly life for a few minutes and to wholly connect with the Almighty.

* One way to resist auto-pilot in your prayer is to change it up a bit.
Before you pray, choose the verses from the Quran that you want to recite, and make sure you know the meaning of it in your own language. You could make it a habit to recite different verses with every prayer
* Pray as soon as you can
When the time for prayer starts, pray as soon as you are able to. Don't leave it to the last minute - if you leave it then you'll more than likely be worrying about praying to get it done with, rather than connecting with God. If you pray as soon as you can, then you can take your time and really have a present heart.
* Read the tafsir of the verses you are planning to recite.
If you understand the bigger meaning behind those words, it will be easier to engage your heart with what you are saying
* Start your day with Fajr
Seriously, Fajr (the morning prayer) kicks butt. It's awesome. Praying when everything around you is still and quiet, when the sun has barely risen, when it's just you and God - that is the best way to start a day.
* Think about how grateful you are and all the blessings God has given you.
Before you start praying, you could list off your own Blessings & Loves in your mind and thank God for all of those things. How could we not focus on God, once we realise all that He has given us?
* Concentrate when you make wudhu' (ablutions).
I'm sure this is another wisdom behind ablutions before prayer - it prepares us not only physically but mentally as well. Instead of jumping straight from watching TV to trying to connect with God, we've got wudhu' in between to ease us into it. Think of it as a warm up - athletes always stretch before they play a game, and we too need to prepare ourselves before prayer.
* When you're finished prayer, don't move on straight away to something else.
If you had just caught up with your best friend, you wouldn't jump up and run off when it came time to say goodbye, would you? No, you hug each other goodbye, you talk about when you are going to catch up again, and you say how nice it was to be able to spend this time with them.
So likewise, don't jump off your prayer mat and rush to watch TV or make dinner. Talk with God a bit more - tell Him what you're doing until your next prayer to Him, ask Him for help or strength to make things easy. Thank Him for listening and being with you. Show Him your gratitude.
These are just a few things you can do to turn off that auto-pilot during your prayer and to put the controls back in your hand. It can be a challenge, but remember this:
On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. [Surah Al Baqarah, 2:286]
It is possible to turn every single prayer into a connection with God, we just need to have faith and try.
Do you have any tips for turning off auto-pilot in prayer?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

CAMERON HIGHLAND, PAHANG OR PERAK??

Salam..What’s cookin’ ya’ll? How come I didn’t smell anything smokin’ lately?? (Err, please excuse my Jenny-From-The-Block slang. Okay, I know, it’s pathetic). My weekend has been extremely boring lately. I anticipated chilling with my girlfriends; instead I end up home alone watching Big Bang Parody on YouTube (which is excellent, by the way). Either they were really busy or they were trying to avoid me. Haha! At one point, I even thought of going for blind dates, with ANYONE, I don’t really care! Not that I’m being horny or anything (yikes!), I just desperately need something to kill the time until Monday comes. I’m now 30 and single. I lived and worked in a laid back small town. The main highlights here are either super cheap family stores or the Sunday market. Most of my friends are either married, or working in KL and Selangor. I mean, let’s face it. I can easily fall into depression in no time! Thank God I still have Anuar Zain and Big Bang to keep me sane, at least for now. The thing is, I can listen to them non-stop 24-7, but sadly they can’t listen to me. One way relationship doesn’t last long, you know. Aiyyoo…my life is so in vain la..It’s about time to go for that deep soul searching again…

Our travelogue venue for this month is, Cameron Highland in Perak. Grr…Can you feel the chill?? I’ve been here a few times before, but what I want to brag here is my D.I.Y vacation back in 2009! It was actually my 10th years college reunion gathering. I was one of the volunteered committee for this project and my task was to collect money & allocate the budget. At the beginning, the committees were very ambitious. But slowly we (they!) just lost the drive and the whole thing almost got canceled. Here I come to save the day! Hehehe…(Pls vomit anywhere convenient, at your own risk..)

You see, people started to bank-in money in my account, yet the person in-charged hasn’t even decided on the venue yet alone make reservation for our 2D1N event. Can you feel the pressure on me now?? I’m always very nervous with other people’s money. I don’t know why. I can’t sleep thinking about it. So out of no where, I just stepped in, drag a friend with me, and DRIVE to Cameron Highland for the first time. With the budget that we had set earlier, we went to a few places that we (read: I!) had searched earlier in internet. Finally, we came to Marina Chalet & Home Stay, located in Kg. Sedia, Tanah Rata, Cameron Highland. It’s located on slight hillside, surrounded by bushes of flowers and big old pine trees. It was homey and welcoming, nothing like the fancy chalets or resorts. The person who greeted us was of course, the chatty Makcik Marina herself. We were captivated by the host and the place in an instant! After much discussion on how to organize the rooms between married couples with children, married couple without children and the ‘soloist’, we end up booking ALL the rooms they have! Well, minus the log cottage build just near the entrance. It was just too ‘public’ for us. Hihi..
 The room rates ranged from RM130 (2 x queen bed with bathroom, front area), RM120 (1 x double bed with bathroom, private area), RM60 ~ RM80 (home stay style rooms with 2-4 single beds, sharing bathroom) and RM60 for the log cottage (mattress & pillow with small bathroom). (Note: room rates on 2009)

 Other than Marina Chalet, there were a few other home stays available in Kg. Sedia settlement. One has different charms from another. We have children playground, waterfall (What? Swimming? Are you crazy? It’s freezing peeps!) and the Surau just across the street from our chalet. The best thing was, we get to enjoy the strawberry and vegetable farms, which is just a walking distance from our chalet! How convenient was that! I’ve stayed in apartment in Brinchang area, which is the peak of Cameron Highland. Man, the place was crowded. There were too many people so you can’t really enjoy the experience. We definitely enjoyed the privacy we had in Kg Sedia. The place was totally ours! Do enjoy the pictures below.

waiting for our strawberry ice cream..shedappp uollz!

crazy time

yeah..walking & hopping!

Strawberry farm, walking distance from Marina Homesstay

@Marina Homestay

@Marina Homestay..Daebak!

Klik Klik

the early birds..

Registration..

BBQ time

Ladies..

Gents

Marina Homestay-in front of our room

Our gathering's banner!! Awesome rite?

Marina Homestay

Marina Homestay Cabin
Contact: Pn. Marina
Tel: 6054911295 @ 0169884433
http://marinachalet.blogspot.com/
Additional service: BBQ, Breakfast, Karaoke, etc.

Daisypath Graduation tickers