Day 1 of Ramadan 4:00

Holy poop am I really about to do this?


I tossed throughout the night. Probably nerves or something. And seriously, 4:00 has a way of sneaking up on you. I came downstairs and poured myself a big bowl of honey nut cheerios (SSSHHH!!!! Don't tell Kiel! That's "his cereal.") and now I'm trying to chug my second bottle of water this morning so I won't be dehydrated throughout the day. For some reason my tongue already feels scratchy, like when you are really thirsty. I have 6 minutes until the Fajr call to prayer and then it will be considered dawn and the fasting of Ramadan starts. Now  5 minutes. I got this app on my phone so I can get the "call to prayer" throughout the day (gotta love technology). Now 4 minutes.

Kiel really doesn't want me to do this, but I feel if I don't, I would be lessening the entire point of my doing this search for God over the past year. Now 3 minutes. Ramadan is considered the holiest month to Islam and so I have to take advantage of something considered so holy when I am trying to further my understanding and personal relationship with God. Now 2 minutes. If it doesm't work out, it doesn't work out, but the point is that I TRY.

So I hope that I don't completely botch this whole prayer thing. I thought it was just bowing down and praying like what we see on TV, but there seems to be an entire ritual to it and I only googled it last night. 1 minute left. I'm sure God will be compassionate with me on this though. I have only started reading the Koran and so I am really just taking that and EVERY single conflicting thing I find (because they are all different!) and doing what I can. Maybe I will visit one of the Mosques around here for further insight.

And there is my call to prayer. Time to nut up or shut up.

Praise be to Allah!

So I'm not sure if I did that right. I started but then had to stop because you are supposed to wash your hands, feet, face and head before coming to Allah for prayer. Thankfully I happened to have some baby wipes nearby (seriously, those things can be used for so much!) so I had to pause for a bit to do that. I stood up and faced Mecca (using my app to make sure I was in the right direction), lifted my hands up and silently said my praises and then fell to my knees and asked Allah for forgiveness and strength and then bowed to Allah and gave more personal prayers (which are between myself and God thank you very much). I'm sure I will be able to fine tune it a bit over the next month.

The fasting has started.

Nothing to eat or drink until Maghrib prayer which will be at 7:46 tonight.

Time to truely devote myself to getting to know God, as I am expected (for Ramadan) to read the entire Koran over the next 30 days.

And now back to bed!