Juggling thoughts

Ayo I will not be home for Christmas again But all I want for Christmas is you My emotions rekindles when I think of … The  fireplace with all of us circled around, dipping jaggery into a hot red tea If I have red-tea now, my low blood pressure don’t let me The never ending discussions and laughters Ah ! Nothing like your chicken stew and your sweet milk tea Eight years …look what it has done to me. You said it true, when I go to another house; I will have to make that my home Like you said, we are taking turns and caring each other here but where do I find love like yours anywhere? My mother-in law who you said would make me her daughter and love me like you do left us too soon. She never called me by name but took me to be her daughter but… She’s not around anymore to remind me of the love you gave. Where do I find that hands that’s placed on my forehead and that voice praying for me? I am a mother now, I try to do you but I need that warm hands runnin...

  Christmas comes every year, but the true message of Love, Peace, Charity and Kindness gets lost and hidden in the glamour of seasonal materialisms. It’s no wonder we have very little time to think what meaning and changes it have brought about in our life. I love it when people take time to buy gifts in which they have put some thought behind because such gifts remind me of the greatest gift of God. We have immense expectations of Christmas, with pictures of children playing, church choirs singing, smiling faces and people happily getting along with the season of joy.  But of times, it is not that of the outlook; of what it is suppose to be, as the song says, “the wonderful time of the year”.  Maybe not for all but for many, it may be a very difficult phase because something might have inflicted the Joy: maybe sickness, or death, or loneliness, or spiritual struggles. We look to Christmas season to be a perfect time of peace, harmony and joy. But the first Christmas nev...

Moms … you will not be perfect at parenting. No one is... Boom!!! I am yet to meet a perfect mother, just don’t worry about the opinions—the thousands of millions of opinions. Everyone has an opinion about raising kids. Children are simpler than you think. All they want is to be loved, fed and be safe. Matching socks and clothes brands are not that high on their list. Moms, you are irreplaceable!  Keep showing up, love your best, and apologize for your worst. Sometimes you will break their hearts. It won’t be because you don’t love them, it will be because you won’t put a band aid on their tongue, which to them is exactly the same thing. You'd dream of ‘Peace’ like you would dream of a tropical vacation where people do not repeat your name 16 times in every sentence. Sometimes you might lose it: after a rough day, you might call your husband to let him know you will be resigning your position, and he may want to start looking for replacements. He may not understand you ri...

 The Bible is the best book for our children Having said that, the best of Bibles will eventually just sit on a dusty shelf if our children don’t see us reading our own Bibles enthusiastically, and joyfully. When we think about the generation  we live in now - its too virtual a world. We get very busy, and to get away with the  ear-bursting  noise of our kids: smartphones and TVs , we thought are the best to keep them quiet. I often wonder if and how the future of our children be? What if they will get to see the changes in  the next fifty years of life on earth? The changes that may confuse them to question more on their identity, their faith, their culture and their thoughts. What if they will be flying  Autobots or go for a picnic to Mars? But would eventually have no idea of their own culture and traditions. Living in a mixed community, my son has been exposed to many language and although I like the fact that my son is growing up to be multi-lingual. I...

  This morning, my son got up as early as 5Am to confirm if he had school today. I asked him why he was so curious about school. The menu in today’s lunch provided at school was one of his motivations. That makes me think the amazing benefits of nutritious lunch provided at school. Many of us doting parents are very concern about the diets of our children especially for those of us who have fuzzy eater at home. Most of the children leave aside greens on their plates and are picky eaters. My son is no exception in it but when the lunch program got introduced at school, I was so at ease. Undeniably, my worries about my son not eating like the way I let him eat at home or letting food go waste were still hovering my mind. But above everything else, first, I want him to learn adaptability: school is that place where grooming of a child’s personality takes place. Preparing a child to be as flexible as a rubber-band in adapting food habits from early age is the best way of prepar...

We live in a society where there is a high expectation on people that we look up to, thinking and taking them to be someone who should be faultless: just perfect. The pressure is more for those actively involved in church ministries, social works and public leaders and therefore,  many a times we put on mask, a façade of perfection: a perfect relation, a perfect leader and one  having it all packed together a life of no flaws. Yet underneath it all, we might be walking around all broken in soul and spirit, burdened with our failures and struggles and ashamed to show it to the world. I believe it is fine to not be perfect; it is only when we admit our brokenness, our faults and our frailties, that we not only heal, but give courage to others to heal as well. The pebbles we might have in our shoe right now—may be strained relationships, financial hardship, sickness, exhaustion, anxiety, death of a loved one. Pebbles hurt especially when we have to wear it for a ve...

 As I sit to write about my mother. It take me to the valley of memories echoing with reminders of life’s values she taught me. Of the many role she played in my life, I am deeply inspired by her role as a Teacher: professionally as well as being a mother-teacher at home. Ayo,  your words still resonate in me even today. I grew up seeing you transforming life of your students, and the sense of satisfaction and achievement that lit up your face when your students still calls you up to say ‘hi’ wherever they meet you. I hear them say ‘you were their best teacher’, I feel as much gratified as they are to be the daughter of the world’s best teacher. You always have had a subtle way of teaching me from my bad handwriting to how to deal with my mean friends. You have always being the mom who would be friends with my school teachers: coming out of the P-T meet with more information about their life as a teacher than my academic grades. You made me appreciate what it means to be an ed...