Safa means tranquil, serene, calm…I try

Upon reflection, where you may have thought you were being quick and clever, you were really thinking inside a box. Case in point: Once a week I work in a government building. As many of you know living in a city, parking is at a premium. Therefore, when I got to work this morning and found a spot 3-4 spaces from the front door….masha’Allah I just had to thank Allah.

All morning I’m looking out of the window down at my money spot…looking at all of those unfortunates relegated to the netherregions of the parking lot as they faced the cutting wind to walk to the building…..then…lunchtime.

There’s a shopping center right across the street from the building. Well..it’s not a street, more like a mini-highway. You know, 4 lanes running east and west with a median separating. Driving to the shopping center takes 2 minutes. As I watched the clock slowly inch towards 1pm, I was getting hungrier. However, I couldn’t bare to think that as soon as I pulled out, my beautiful space would be taken in seconds (no exaggeration). So what did I decide? Of course I decided to walk.

OK…so I jaywalked so that I could make sure to have a median to step on. The wind was cutting and I felt real foolish. But I made it! There were one or two migrant/day laborers crossing as well. I got my lunch (sesame chicken thank you), and prepared to walk back to work. Now here was the challenge ; I am now walking into the wind with my hijab blowing up in my face, people looking at me from their warm cars with pity and amusement as I waited for the other light to change. Oh, it’s not just a stop/go light. I am fighting the left turn lights, u-turners, etc. UGGHHHH. My nose was running, eyes just tearing, lips all dry, shoes untied, face getting real ashy…However, alhamdulilah (praise God) I made it back to the office in one piece.

I looked out of the window at my car with pride. Then it hit me. I used up 35 minutes of my lunch walking across a highway to avoid loosing a space that if I HAD lost it, I still would not have had to walk as far as I did for my lunch!!!! What a moron I am.