Juggling thoughts

Christmas is often portrayed as a time of joy, peace, and harmony. However, for many, the holiday season can be a difficult and trying time. Perhaps you're struggling with sickness, grief, loneliness, or spiritual turmoil. Whatever your challenge, remember that the first Christmas wasn't a perfect, serene occasion either. In fact, the birth of Jesus began with an interruption. Mary, a young virgin, was engaged to Joseph when an angel appeared, announcing she would miraculously conceive the Son of God (Matthew 1:18). This unexpected news disrupted their plans and raised questions: How would they explain this to others? Would Joseph believe Mary and accept the responsibility? Joseph's initial response was shock and disbelief. He considered divorcing Mary privately, but an angel of the Lord intervened in a dream, affirming Mary's story and revealing the divine nature of Jesus (Matthew 1:20-23). The key to navigating life's challenges and interruptions is seeking God...

Holidays and weekends are my culinary playground. I love experimenting with new flavors and dishes, transforming our kitchen into a haven of excitement and anticipation. My goal? To kindle a passion for food in my sons, fostering a lifelong appreciation for the flavors of love. In our family, food, love, and joy are intricately woven. Our gatherings revolve around the table, where laughter and stories are shared. I believe that a love for food creates lasting bonds, and I'm committed to nurturing this tradition.  The aroma of simmering spices and herbs fills the air, tantalizing our taste buds and stirring our senses. These weekend experiments are more than just cooking; they're opportunities to: -Create lasting memories - Pass down family recipes and traditions - Explore new flavors and cuisines - Strengthen our bond through shared experiences In the warmth of our kitchen, love and food converge, crafting a narrative of togetherness and joy.  As my sons grow, I hope they'l...

Eight years of married life has been an ever growing process of evolving my love for him and for potatoes even! In these years , I've learnt and realized that his enduring love for me is like that of his die-hard dedication towards potatoes. Like the evenings and mornings of the faithful potatoes that finds its way to be in our plates, no matter what, so is love fondly winding its way to our hearts.  I also have known that potatoes can be prepared in varieties each time: boiled, fried, steamed and can be mashed, sliced, chopped and even grinded. But the taste and flavor is never lost and always blends with the correct amount of salt, chilly and other garnishes. Potatoes even go so well with a pinch of plain salt and no one ever gets rid of it even if one complains of it.  Its presence is omnipotent and these potatoes of:  patience, tolerance, respect and faith blends into making married life so simple yet so vital. People say that a man who cook is the best man a wife cou...

We use the phrase “in the meantime” while waiting for something.  When we’re in the waiting room, the “meantime,” waiting for our answers or our miracle, it’s often pretty mean, isn’t it?  So, what do we do in the meantime? How do we keep our faith and trust that God is working when we can’t see it? Everyday we deal tons of what-ifs? Entertaining the what-ifs in life is the first step to being overtaken with worry. Worry is taking responsibility for things we were never intended to handle.  Worry says that we can handle it when many times we simply cannot.  Are you worried that you worry too much? You don't defeat worry by worrying about it.  You defeat worry by redirecting your concerns to Someone who can actually do something about your situation.  It does not mean that you do not take responsibility for the things you are supposed to handle; it just means that you know when you stop and God begins. All of the pain we ar...

We know but not all feel what it takes to be a Woman. To be a Woman and to grow and evolve  is not all easy. We were always taught, almost bombarded, with ideals of what we should be at every age in our lives: This is what you should be at sixteen, This is what you should wear at age twenty, That is how you must act like at age twenty-five. But amidst all these voices. I believe there is no greater comfort and assurance than a woman who believes in Her Ability. No greater success that these things for a woman to be, at any age! Whether you are six or sixteen ,nineteen or ninety! It is always wonderful to be Courageous and Brave. It is always fashionable to have GRACE. It is always glamorous to have Self-respect  , and it is always important to own a delectable perfume of Confidence . Yes, wearing a beautiful perfume both on the outside and inside. Being a Woman is having a believing heart with courage and prayers to make the best use of what has been given to you by God. And f...

She dusted the old shrinked pages of her journal   The dust clouded her mind with thoughts slightly blur Then, love so dear  yet she began to write it like an old story.  Like a phantom in the twisted nightmare of some lost soul, she begin to meander through the never failing memories churning in her heart.  She recalled the once-full spot love inhabited in her heart that lies like a untended vaccum now.  She muttered, "yes, people can change for better, worse, for nothing, never staying the same. Have I not change?"  F or she felt the first love she gave was a test and a test she failed, a test to get over it and move on.  She flips pages after pages, and in it she lives on every moment as fresh as the first time she  told herself  that everything will be fine. Oh...life...she sigh!  Love was the only reason she chose this, in her love lies a true heart.  She gave him all of her heart and now she s...

 Involving my sons in the kitchen(without losing my mind) I know! It gets messy at times. I confess that when I get off days from school work, the last and absolute furthest thing in my mind is having my boys helping in the kitchen. Our naturally cautious mind triggers our over protective thoughts: What if they end up slicing their fingers or peeling off skins? But when will they gain confidence if we don't allow them to? At the back of my mind, I've always reminded myself of my roots in food, cooking for loved ones. Kitchen is that one place which helps create bonding, reinforce responsibility, hone creativity and most importantly,kindling  the pure form of love that come through food. My earliest kitchen memories would be from the time around when I was 5Y. Mom and the cassava fries! Tea making was basic. From my first taste of half-fried potatoes at around 12Y to the monumental task of cooking a solid lotha- style pork by the time I was ready to go out of home at 15Y. It ...

There's a life in future with photos of little faces in the frames before our eyes.  Glass frames placed in the reach of little arms because they aren't any, mugs daringly sitting at the edge. There's a free calendar in my diary that isn't packed with reading time,music lessons, swimming lessons and muddy sports shoes. There's a house that's finally clean and spotless and we aren't stepping on legos or breaking our back by the cars tucked beneath the bedsheets. There's a coffee that's warm, and my body will be my own. And we'll get to know each other well for the third time, before them, with them, and then when only two slip-on will stay at the door. There's a clean car with no high-pitched sound and endless questions from the back seat There's a dinner date with no curfew, and my sister's no longer needed to babysitting, a freedom that feels kind of heavy in the heart. There's a life in the future, that's coming for u...

Faith is where we find ourselves after we are dedicated to exercising baby faith step by step. But the truth is, most of us who wants to be perfectly great, don’t want to do anything on a small scale. We often want Moses- parting-the- Red-sea types of results, but do not want to see through ourselves where and what we lack. We only want to be safe on a giant ark in the middle of a flood but do not want splinters from sanding down the wooden planks needed to build it. Than I thought of Noah, for him, cutting down the first tree to build the ark as told by God was the smallest and the first measure of “Faith” and a huge amount of humility that nobody saw except him and God. For us, baby faith might mean surrendering our weakness of being too prideful of our own ability at times.  It might even be that morning prayer claiming peace and protection in Christ and the unexplainable serenity of the day. Or it might simply mean dropping in a furniture store and picking a new design of ...

  An old conversation with friends on marriage and kids during our college days got stuck in my mind lately.  Those days when we were not very keen to get married, and I would joke around saying that, if there is one thing I would consider a good-enough reason to get married and have kids that would be to have sons so that I could raise them up to be a change in the stereotypical patriarchal society of ours. So was it, God gave me two sons, maybe He is convinced  of my idea! Parenting in this generation has taken a paradigm shift, the goals for raising girls have evolved, but those for raising boys have stayed stagnant  somehow. Progressive parents are encouraging their daughters to take the steps necessary to secure an independent, fulfilling life now, more so than ever. This is all well and good, but what we are not doing is preparing our sons for women who possess these values. Now that I am raising two boys in my home, I have been meticulously trying to break awa...

I often write about gender based issues and the stereotypical categorization of male and female roles.  ‘Gender Sensitive Language ‘ is one profound topic to be addressed at present. I had my thoughts more provoked on how the language  we use at home as parents and at school as teachers matters a lot. It matters because words and thoughts are interlinked. We are culturally restricted in balancing gender. We often  get mixed up with gender based and sex-based teaching to our children. Many of us  grew up in the much male-dominated culture which were built on gender basis. And we thought the world and the society is all about what men can do and what women cannot or are not allowed to do.  Some of the most cliched sentences that we still utter to our children without even thinking about the differences we are creating in their understanding about gender are like:  ‘boys don’t cry', ‘girls are nurse, fireman are boys, boys are soldiers', ‘be strong like a...

That morning, the city woke in steady rain I can't really stop to care  about when I saw that boy The  one with a chicken-plucked look across the rail track: his hairs were tufted circle on top  He was that caught my eyes in the madding crowd. He seemed even to know his place as unworthy striver, of the one no one would look away from for long. He lifted his sack to collect rags: a ticket to buy his bread.  The train was on the run but that would not stop him from collecting every bit of rag. People passed by him, pushing, dashing and the other boys smirked before the rain that was dousing and sweeping all of the rags stupidly into the gutter.  I was half in love with his doing.  Five, or maybe six he would be. He then twitched in sublime irritation, cursing, maybe ,the rain. Harder it poured, up again, hard to shelter his soaking head with the sack but he pretty much managed problems, and now came the move that got me staring on still. His twitch becalmed ...