Is It Prayer Time?

Meshari was the first to join our family. I remember the day he came to our home with his American friend, Ashley. They were paired together as conversation partners, a partnership coordinated by the Intensive English Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and it looked like it was a good match. Ashley spoke Arabic. Hey, that was pretty cool.

I remember walking out the front door and seeing an older model silver Honda sedan. From the driver's side there emerged a slim young man with a bright smile and an outstretched right hand poised to shake mine. Gee, I thought. He looks so happy!

We shook hands and entered the house where Meshari was greeted by our small dog, Charlie, and our large dog, Jake. Jake always makes a big first impression, and this was no exception. We tried to reassure Meshari that Jake was gentle even though he was big. It was clear that Meshari had some misgivings about Jake. Apparently, having a large dog as a pet is not very common in Saudi Arabia. When he asked to see the room, we went upstairs and showed Meshari a nice size bedroom that had a large window facing south. He seemed to think it would be fine, especially if Jake would be staying mostly downstairs.

It's nice looking back at that day and seeing how we have blended our lives together.
While moving in, Meshari helped me put some finishing touches on the bathroom he would use. He spoke of his father having tools, as together we figured out how to use a drill and install some cabinet hardware and towel hooks. I wanted to make sure there were enough wall hooks for towels and robes and things...maybe even put a nice picture over the toilet. But Meshari joked that there was enough to look at in the bathroom. It didn't have to look "like a museum." Ah, I thought, a young man of simple tastes.

During one of our first conversations, I asked Meshari when he had prayer time. I wanted to let him know that George and I knew there were certain times set aside for prayer in the Islamic faith tradition...and that we wanted to be aware of when those times were so we could be quiet and respectful. He explained that there are windows of prayer time that have some flexibility...and that the evening prayer time changes as the sun sets later. So we try to be mindful of prayer time and openly include it on our list of "to do's" if we are planning an outing or something. It's become very common place, like, "Don't forget to lock the door when you leave."

What I've come to experience over the last few months is an admiration for Meshari's prayer discipline. Even though I know that millions of people from various faith traditions have daily prayer time, it hasn't been part of my own experience, at least not as an adult. I am a former Christian who currently calls herself sort of a theistic Buddhist, because at this point in my life the philosophy and psychology of Buddhism makes more sense to me than anything else. So when Meshari has prayer time, I remind myself to pause...and be...and give thanks...and ask forgiveness.