Collectibles

 Assalamu aleikum wa rahmatullah :) how are u doing?

I was gonna write edibles on the title, and I started the post with my e-mail address.. (essalo...) But that's what happens when you sit in the sofa corner, the sharpness and professionality of the kitchen table is gone, and we are off to this little craziness we might actually need. There's no tea with Aisha without a cup of tea, and we also needed my husband to go take a nap so we have the whole house for our thoughts and chat. :)

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Do you collect something? It can be anything. Go ahead and share in the comment section :)

I'd like to collect experiences, and maybe we all do that anyways. I mean I'd like to travel to many countries, go to a pottery and sewing class, art class too, and I'd like to learn more of making natural cosmetics at home. I'd like to do more things together with my spouse (mostly I'd like to travel with him! ♥), and I'd like to do something.. I don't know what it could be, but something very exciting and memorable.

Instead of this, I have gotten very different experiences in life, hehe. Well, there's a lot of goodness too, not complaining at all. But yeah, as a shy, socially anxious person it's the easiest to just stay in the comfort zone mostly (at home), so collecting experiences will be a dream, maybe in the future. In sha Allah. 

That's just one thing though. We can collect whatever we wish, and I have two collections which I supplement from time to time.

The first is something I frequently write about: my wardrobe. I love clothes, and instead of building a minimalist capsule wardrobe, I have actually collected a straggling collection of clothes that do fit together, but feel more like a collection than an actual working wardrobe. It's a bit controversial to me, right now I feel like I'm looking for my own style once again, and at this point I also think my wardrobe won't ever be ready. There's clothes I've worn for years, clothes that I've thrifted this year but which I will be wearing many years after, and then the special pieces that are beautiful but not worn so often, but often admired. I tried the minimalism for a while what comes to clothing, and it worked, but I feel I'm ready to evolve to something else. Minimalistic still, but maybe more colors, textures and prints. The abayas are calling though, and I found a beautiful taupe abaya from Vinted, so I will be incorporating them back into my day wear very soon in sha Allah. 

 

The second one is flowers. I like all kinds of flowers. My collection started from paintings. My first painting is my grandma's self crafted, quite large flower work, and I have even travelled with it. It sparked up both, my current collection of flower paintings found mainly second hand, gifted or gotten from mom and relatives, and my own paintings which we also have on the walls. I also have some flower decoration pieces, and today I changed floral sheets to our bed. 

These two rarely come together though: I have only one dress with flower pattern, and more won't come. But as a decoration, I think flowers are beautiful. They can be interesting, not only pretty, and they are easy to look. When you want your house to be relaxed and have that home feeling, go for flowers. I also love to have fresh flowers in the vase, but I save that for special occasions.

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Maybe if I would be living alone, I would slowly move towards maximalism both in dressing and home decoration. It's good my husband keeps some order in this house, hehe. If we don't include the paintings, our home is very neutral toned now, and minimal. We don't have much decoration, just in one little corner where I have my small arrangement, and then kitchen is.. well, you know, I think kitchen is a bit tricky to keep minimal so we have there more things on display, let's put it like that. We don't have so much items, we have a lot of empty space in our kitchen cabinets, but what comes to the counters, the kitchen must be functional too so it's a bit of a compromise. And that's ok. Like we often are with new ideas and lifestyle changes, I was so excited about minimalism years ago, and then it turned into a way of life and a habit. Now it's become so normal that maybe that's why I even forget and stray away. I still think minimalism is a very good way of life, could say it's islamic too by not attaching ourselves to materia, and also it's environment friendly. But I think it has evolved in my life to be a bit more relaxed version, with still making conscious choices and restricting my urge to consume. 

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I think it's a good to be able to adapt. Sometimes it's difficult for me, sometimes more easy. I think it's a good life skill. Life keeps moving forward and changing, and it's good to be able to catch up with it. There's a balance between stability and staying relevant in your age and time. 

Only thing that doesn't change is Allah swt. He is the anchor of everything, an echo we can always ping on to. I love islam because it gives a good frame for life, in every situation. One could say I'm not following so strictly, and I have had this time now which I've written about, looking for my place in the world as a muslim again. But it doesn't mean I'm not a believer. I have kept good manners, peace of mind, fairness and kindness and all these good qualities islam teaches close to my heart, and I've wanted love and happiness to be my guidelines in life. We all see islam in our own way, even if we follow the same Qur'an and ahadeeth, because we will form opinions and the view of it through our experiences in life. How we have grown, what kind of environment we have lived in, and so on. Personally I've practiced by build my personal relationship with Allah and perfected the ways I'm practicing. And still working on it! It's a never ending journey. I aim to stay on the right path, but we do end up in crossroads sometimes and there's many new roads to choose from. Life feels the best when we think ourselves as trespassers and adventurers, walking through the life without knowing what it will bring but staying firm on our faith.

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I'm trying to keep my mood high, this week didn't start as great as last week but I'm working on it. I don't write so much about the news worldwide or politics, but it's on my mind. Lastly I've been following the news from Nepal. I don't personally have connections there, but my niece is half Nepali, so it brings the events closer to here. I saw in the statistics a reader from Nepal, and I don't know who you are but I hope you are safe. Nepal is one of the countries that will be first affected by climate change, as this catastrophe showed. So what we can do here is of course donate to charities, and then check our own habits. Could we here in the West, in richer countries who pollute and consume past our needs, do things differently?

Minimalism isn't a bad idea at all. 

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Right now a sandwich is also seeming like a good idea, so I'll head to the kitchen. Have to pray first too, time flies when I'm writing so I'm late.. let's keep making du'aa for us all. Later then,

Aisha