That jacket

Hi Natty!  Wow, what an awesome snapshot.  I absolutely had to put it in my slideshow.  What a wonderful and sincere smile you have, my darling.  My Natty you are so beautiful, and I love you.  Don't worry so much about not being ready for what is to come.  None of us are ever ready.  It is the way of Allah to test us from directions we do not perceive.  But you are going to do just fine, Natty.  InshaAllah, things will turn out just great for you and for us.  So you hang in there, don't worry so much, have tons of fun, keep safe, and pray.

You've had that furry jacket for a while already, huh?  My guess is that you got it when you started college, so that would make it about 5 years old.  It looks great on you, my Natty.  Take it to a pro who can spruce it up and make it look like new again.  Hang on to yourself.

I found another excellent singer on the Postmodern Jukebox.  This is Aubrey Logan, doing "Beauty and the Beast".  Fitting, right?  She's a mean trombone player, too.  What a great performance.  Don't you just love it when live music sounds like a recording?  Except for the aura.  Yes, live music has an aura about it that separates it from recordings.  Especially when the music comes from human beings, not machines.

Qur'an 20190213

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

71.  Say, "Shall we call upon others besides Allah, things that can do us neither harm nor good, and turn back after receiving guidance from Allah, like one whom the evil ones have made into a fool, wandering bewildered through the earth, his friends calling 'Come to us", guiding him to the path?"  Say, "Allah's guidance is The Guidance, and we have been directed to submit ourselves to the Lord of the worlds."

(The Cattle 6:71)
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Tuesday

Hi Natty!  How are you doing, beautiful girl?  Sorry I'm running late today.  It's Tuesday, and I just got back from the mosque.  I always try to be present to listen to the elderly Qur'an teacher talk, every Tuesday evening.  It's so wonderful to see you again!  Natty, you're so cute!  I love your beautiful smile.  I only drink one cup of coffee every day, which would be about 40 minutes into voice training.  Having that voice bounce around in my head could easily put me to sleep, like it does many other people.  So I drink one cup of coffee at the right time, of the right strength, so that I don't have to take a nap in the middle of my set, which is quite an embarrassing thing to do.  Too much coffee doesn't really keep me awake for some reason (unless it's time to go to sleep), but it does mess with my blood pressure.  So I keep it at just one cup a day, for business purposes.  Anyway, I have to go and prepare tomorrow's outfit.  Have tons of fun my darling, keep safe, and please pray.

Oh by the way, Muslims don't celebrate Valentine's Day, so please don't expect me to post any sort of Valentine's Day wishes.  I want you to know that I love you, and I love you every day, so I guess like the song goes, "every day is Valentine's Day".

Qur'an 20190212

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

63.  Say, "Who is it that delivers you from the dark recesses of land and sea.  When you call upon God in humility and in silent terror, 'If God only delivers us from these, we shall truly show our gratitude'?"

64.  Say, "It is Allah that delivers you from these and all distresses, and yet you worship false gods!"

65.  Say, "God has power to send calamities on you from above and below, or to cover you with confusion in party strife, giving you a taste of mutual vengeance, each from the other."  See how We explain the Signs by various ways, that they may understand.

66.  But your people reject this.  Say, "Not mine is the responsibility for arranging your affairs."

(The Cattle 6:63-66)
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Gunhild Carling is so awesome!

Hi Natty!  What's going on with you today?  I'm happy to see your having fun with your beautiful group of people.  Are you getting ready to go globetrotting again?  It's time to soak up some sunshine on a tropical beach, right?  It's hot here today, but not so hot that I had to nap on a chair this before voice training.  Yes dear, I'm trying to cheer up.  As long as I'm left alone when I'm grumpy, I calm down quite easily.  Plus, it's not that hot today.  I had steamed rice with eggs for lunch.  Simplicity!  Best for a 2 hour set.  Yes, I had my eggs sunny side up as usual.  Almost perfect, except that I broke one yolk when I was plating the eggs.  I didn't ruin them completely, it just leaked out the bottom a little.  Oh well, there's no such thing as perfect in this life anyhow.

I love this crazy lady!  She's so awesome!

Qur'an 20190211

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

56.  Say, "I am forbidden to worship those whom you call upon other than Allah."  Say, "I will not follow your desires.  If I did, I would stray from the path, and be not of the company of those who receive guidance."

57.  Say, "For me, I be on a clear Sign from my Lord, but you reject God.  What you would see hastened is not in my power.  The command rests with none but Allah.  God declares the Truth.  And God is the Best of judges."

58.  Say, "If what you would see hastened were in my power, the matter would be settled at once between you and me.  But Allah knows best those who do wrong."

(The Cattle 6:56-58)
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Angels

Hi Natty!  Aw, I want to browse the art exhibit with you!  😢  That would be so romantic.  We could get some coffee afterwards, then maybe go to a poetry reading.  People do so love to communicate with hidden messages, especially when they don't have the nerve to say what they mean to the face.  I certainly get that a lot, especially for being a musician all these many years.  I suppose you could call it "innuendo" or whatever.  The threats got so numerous, that YouTube posted them as preferred and recommended videos.  And there I thought that Google was the most powerful artificial intelligence...  Hey Google, people do not like threats OK?  That's actually quite a stupid thing to do.  "Artificial Intelligence."

It's either that, or they have humans monitoring me.  Yeah, Rock and Roll is a dangerous business, but Allah has kept me alive for some reason.  Alhamdulillah.  God would never speak directly to humans (Moses being the exception).  God would communicate either by inspiration or through a messenger.  This evening as I was about to turn on the tap to water the plants, I saw a baby python on the grass.  I split its head open with a PVC pipe.