Thursday 31 December 2015

Reflections...

Alhamdhulilah...

In a snapshot...my 2015 probably has been like this coloured picture.

As cliche` it sounds, well yes, time really seems to fly. We are at the start of 2016 in a few hours, In-Shaa-Allah.

Several moments that sprung up in December have proved to be very few reflective for me in the last few weeks of December.

Thinking about this post, I thought this page from a colouring book for adults that I purchased last month, would nicely sum up my year.

I say so because of these reasons - may be trivia but so meaningful in its entirety to me.

~ I bought this book that is supposed to help serve as a form of therapy, during one of my lunchtime strolls along the malls. Probably answering an internal call to find some 'me-time' to relax, and unwind.

~ Got onto this 'a book a month' momentum. I readily liked the idea of buying books online, instead of bringing home books from the library and hogging them for months. Buying the book means I can make notes in them, share them, and most of all, read and re-read at my own time and pace.

~ Learning to let go. And leaving it all to HIM. I started on Tahajjud just on two nights in the year and stopped! I pray for strength to re-start this and make this a part of me, In-Shaa-Allah. Because there is going to be no point of time in my life that I am not going to have to ask Allah for anything. I want to keep asking, and so if I want it badly, then I better make this part of my lifestyle. Never too late, In-Shaa-Allah.

~ Treasuring Family. And the simple joys in life. And Family. The pages from the colouring book above are the first two. It makes me smile everytime I recall that so many hands and hearts from my family have some together to colour these pages, sitting alongside with me on our living room's sofa. My Brother, AZ... and even Mum. She has said she will bring out her specs (not used in a long time) to colour within the drawings the next time we sit down together to colour as my parents catch up on news and as AZ makes time for his aviation books. The colouring book is just one lil example. I am glad I have made time to make time for them increasingly by the day. Alhamdhulilah.

~ Journals. My Gratitude Journal. My Islamic Learning Journals. My Mothers' Recipe Journals. Masha-Allah, so happy that I got into documenting things that mean a lot to me in pen and paper.

I had set some goals for myself (as always!) and have actually started working on them (doesn't happen all the time) this year.

Of coz, I haven't achieved them all, have not been very steadfast in my duas on them too, I am very sure.

This brings me to a coaching session that I sat in at work. The trainer was very competent and set me on a deep reflection mode actually.

One of the many exercises she introduced was on this - Journalling down these.
-- What do I want to STOP. START. and CONTINUE - in my life?

For me, this paced the momentum for 2016.

I have penned down on these three aspects. I have more than one thing on this list. Ambitious much, but a good starting point nevertheless.

I hope we all get started somewhere, or find inspiration to restart from where we are. In-Shaa-Allah.