Back from the Beach

So, Jon, you wanted to know something I struggle with being an American convert to Islam? Many of my "struggles" are the same as any Muslim in America really, or just as a Muslim in a non-Muslims country, or as a minority in America. But one particularly unique struggle to being a convert Muslim in America is getting married. I'll write more about it later inshaaAllah because for this post, I just want to post some pictures really.

But think about it, I have to marry a Muslim... but socialization between sexes is really minimal. Not enough to really find a spouse. I interact with men, on the da'wah committee and a little in my Arabic class, on forums and so forth, but honestly, for the da'wah the group is small and most of those men are married anyway, and in Arabic we don't sit together or even study together. We don't go "hang out" and stuff, so where can I find a husband? It's very difficult!! Many American Muslims could still turn to their parents for help, a woman to her father to check for marriageable bachelors who are looking, and a man to his mother for women who are single and suitable, etc. I don't have that advantage, so just finding someone period is hard enough.

Finding not only someone who would want to marry me, but also someone who has good manners, is compatible with me, but more importantly is stable in his deen. Very hard.

But to add to the trouble of finding a suitable spouse, there is the "family" equation. Here my family might very well think I'm marrying a terrorist, and I want to respect their wishes and be nice and all, but when they refuse to accept my decision to embrace Islam, the decision arising therefrom seldom meet ease. Covering, giving up pork... marrying a bushy bearded Arab boy isn't what they really want for their daughter, so discussing things with them is, at times, troubling and tense. We talked a lot about such things these past two days.

I was riding in the car with my parents down to the beach where my brother lives, all-in-all about a 3 hour drive each way, and that's a lot of what we talked about--my getting married, and potential spouse. Not to mention all the time there when I spoke with my brother too and his girlfriend. Dealing with family is always a little bit of trouble, from the perspective of a convert. Especially my family, because some of them do not accept my decision at all. The details of that, however, need not find mention now. Because I have pictures!!

So this first one is the view coming off the boardwalk to get to the public access section of Holden Beach, which is basically an island, one of the barrier islands in North Carolina. The water as you can almost see is very calm. And it was warm too!

And the next picture is of this little girl. She was digging her way to China, I'm sure, with that little shovel. She had on a life preserver. You see, there is no chaperone. That person in red wasn't watching her, she was just digging away... going in to the water. Why the life preserver? Undoubtedly, she could just wade out into the water as she wished. I remember once as a kid I was wearing my friend William's life preserver (we didn't have any) and went out a bit too deep... couldn't find the land again, got carried out into the water, waving for help... oh dear, very scary. But that beach was much rougher than this one was.

This is a post on the pier, covered in barnacles, and rotted out, not very stable I bet! You can see the waves are pretty calm.

You can see in this next picture of the pier how calm the waves are. I really wanted to go running in and swim around, the water was so warm and inviting.... oh! If I had a towel and change of clothes, I'd've been there. Unlike Kitty Hawk (the beach I used to go to when I was a little kid), the waves here are very calm.

The last picture is a crocodile made of sand on the beach. Pretty big, pretty good job! It's about 7 or 8 feet long.