Quiet times; precious and rare indeed in a house full of kids!

After years of living with babies and kids, I have learnt to truly appreciate the value of time; quiet time that is, for the well-being of my heart and mind. Though one may not realise it, we are all in need of that quiet time, a quiet space at a certain point in our daily life to maintain our sanity. Actually it was through reading a children’s book, “The Day of Ahmed’s Secret” that I was reminded of its importance. Of course the writer was a non-Muslim so he missed the most crucial part; ie. quiet times in remembering and connecting with our Creator. “…verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” ( Al-Qur’an Surah Ar-R’ad:28 )

And the beauty of Islam is that Allah, our Creator knows what we need more than us and has graciously granted us ways to achieve these quiet times; ie through our obligatory salah or extra acts of ‘ibadah like dhikr, reading Qur’an etc.

I remember the times during my single days when I would sit and wait for the adhan on the radio (they usually played nasheed close to salah times) and prayed right after. These were my quiet moments and needless to say it was easier to concentrate on salah since there were hardly any distractions or disturbances.

But then marriage and children happened. I remember when I had my 1st baby and for the first time in my life had to experience praying while my baby wailed and wailed away and thereafer scenes like that were not uncommon in our household till this very moment. (smiles). Of course, through experience I have learnt to adjust my prayers around my son’s crying routine, though I’ve yet to be consecutively successful (smiles).

I’ve also learnt that it’s healthy for me to have time alone all by myself, it doesn’t have to be long, even an hour a week is enough, but there should be absolutely no disturbances and I would be free to do whatever I wish. The only options for me right now would be the times my husband would take the children out or for me to go to the masjid and spend some time there all by myself. Alhamdulillah the masjid where we’re at now is a comfortable 20 minute walk away. And yes quiet walks are also included in my list of quiet times and I do enjoy nature walks (smiles).

Interestingly enough, the rare times when I’ve been all alone by myself in the house, it didn’t take long for me to start missing my kids and it was always a joy to see them when they returned. So actually these short moments being away from them really help me to re-charge, rejuvenate and to appreciate being with them all the more. (smiles)

PS. This was written about a year ago, and alhamdulillah things are much better now and crying scenes like those are quite rare. Currently a new challenge awaits me; dealing with sibling rivalry! Nowadays, it seems that there’ll be some moments of relative silence and then a cry; “Mommy, he’s not sharing!” or something of the sort. But alhamdulillah ‘ala kulli hal, insha-Allah this too like every hardship will pass…(smiles)