The Necklace

So I thought i'd take a break from the pictures for awhile and just put up some random thoughts. I'll put up the India pics later on. Lets work backwords, today is Sunday, went out with Noah, Lisa, Anojan to this Middle Eastern place which was pretty good. The rest of the day I did squat all. I was suppose to go visit the Ipod store but I found out pretty much all I needed to already, I tried out skype and its not bad. I can call ppl in canada with it! For free! And they can call me! ...but they wont....those punks...grr.... Saturday, I met up with Romana and Romana and we went to Hairspray. It was good. Songs were good and it was funny. But its still middle of the road compared to the other shows I've seen. Avenue Q is still my favourite for sure. So yeah did that, and then Romana, Mr. Romana (I don't know his name), and their niece and I went to go see Cars. That was good too. Very good, though didn't have the magic feeling of a classic. Still good. I'm thinking of buying an Ipod. Thoughts ppl? The Video Ipod w/ 60gigs is what i'm thinking. A lot of people, they go on trips to 'find themselves'. Say a trip to europe perhaps sometime after graduation. haha, but no my trip was not about that. I wasn't looking for that. And frankly, I don't entirely know what that means. Or do I.... I didn't realy learn anything new about myself. I just kinda remembered who I am and who I want to be. A few things came up, situations or possibilities, or whatever. Where you can choose to do 1 thing or another, or well infinite choices I suppose. And I don't know what I'm saying. I guess its easy to get away from who you are sometimes. But I like who I am and I'm not going to forget that. During the week, nothing much happened. Work is work. Last weekend, hmm...what did I do. Oh yes. Saturday I met up with Romana, Romana, and Sadaf for dinner. The place was near Park Slope I think, it was good but nothing too memorable. And then we went to The Chocolate Room, mmm! The chocolate cake! soo good! Its suppose to be one of the best cakes in NY and yeah, it was really good! I'm going to have to go again sometimes. Maybe try the brownie on ice cream as well. Sunday, Nadeem was chairing this Islamic Seminar about relationships between men and women. So I met up with the Romana's in Queens and drove down from there. The 2 speakers were young guys near my age and they did a good job connecting to the audience as well. I like the approach they took as well. Lots of time people question why, or how come, or other questoins because they don't want to follow something. This holds true for my friends in any religion. But basicaly, for the other muslims, the guy was saying. Question if you believe in God, question if you believe in the prophet, question if you believe the Quran to be from God. If you accept those things, you can't question the rest. Who are you to think you know more than god? And basically, saying that while no one is perfect, realize that you are making choices that are right or wrong, Don't rationalize things and try to make wrong things right. You can not. And thats not to say dont question, but question to understand, not to determine if right. Anyways, thats enough religion talk. What else? hmm...i need to lose weight. i'm fat. :( But I feel like some ice cream...i was good though i didn'tget any...and now its too late. I can't think of what else I want to write, so I'm just going to leave with this story I cam across. Til later, take care ppl. The Necklace. The cheerful little girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them, a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. "Oh mommy please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?" Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face. "A dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma." As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday,Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere, Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green. Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. One night as he finished the story, he asked Jenny, "Do you love me?" "Oh yes, daddy. You know that I love you." "Then give me your pearls." "Oh, daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess, the white horse from my collection, the one with the pink tail. Remember, daddy? The one you gave me. She's my very favorite." "That's okay, Honey, daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss. About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?" "Daddy, you know I love you." "Then give me your pearls." "Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper." "That's okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you." And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss. A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek. "What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?" Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, "Here, daddy; this is for you." With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny's daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny. He had them all the time.. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her the genuine treasure. So it is, with God. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasures. Are you holding onto things that God wants you to let go of? Are you holding on to harmful or unnecessary partners, relationships, habits and activities that you have come so attached to that it seems impossible to let go? Sometimes it is so hard to see what is in the other hand but do believe this one thing. God will never take away something without giving you something better in its place.