Living Vivaciously through pictures

*off topic rant before the thread - stupid blogger, won't do the spacing I ask for @#$!@#^@#$#$#*

Every Ramadan, I troll the yahoo news pictures, and become engrossed in pictures of the ummah fasting and celebrating. This has become a habits out of longing for a community to belong to. I've been muslim for nearly 5 years now, and still haven't had muslim community to call home. I converted by myself at University. It took me 2 weeks to work up the courage to say salaams to a girl in my class who was muslim. Then I transferred to another school. It took me 6 months to work up the courage to start going to MSA events. I had quite a few muslim aquiantences in college, and a few sisters who I thought were real friends, but alas, those friends were apparently superficial and didn't survive past graduation.

Now, I've lived at my current location for 2 and a half years. I've tried to attend halaqas, I go to the masjid for iftars during ramadan, and still, no community to call my own. The iftars are the worst. The food is delicious, but I always sit alone. People chatter around me in arabic or urdu, and will occasionally glance my way, but most won't even offer me a kind word. I went to a masjid for jummah for awhile before and during Ramadan, but they're closed for construction. inshaAllah when they open again, I'll be there, but it's far away from my apartment, and I don't really see the kind of community I long for. I suppose I could attempt to create a community, but that seems like a tall order. (there's suppose to be a paragraph break here, but for some reason it disappears when I hit publish. Notice how there's a ton of extra space in between the pictures. I didn't put that there. Maybe that's where my missing space moved to)

Which brings me to the point I started off with - living vivaciously through others. I downloaded the Zaytuna Mawlid celebration onto my ipod and have been enjoying it. I'm paroosing the pictures and my heart longs to be there. See, see, there is a place you belong. Too bad it's in California and I'm in the midwest, with no money to relocate. *sigh* The husband would like to relocate. Maybe if we save up for a few years, we could swing it, inshaAllah. Is it too much to ask for a place to call home?

Mawlid an-Nabi 03/30/2007: Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir lead attendees in poetic reflection on the life, character and blessing of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace

Zaytuna Institute hosts a gathering to honor the occasion of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. Photo taken on 3/30/07