Shades of Green

Travelling with a baby can be challenging, especially when visiting our hometown in India for festivals and family events. With a little one, we have to bring along extra stuff like a bath chair, high chair, toys, and books. Normally, we try to make things convenient by assuming we'll be staying for a while. However, it gets tough because every time we visit, we have to do without these conveniences. On top of that, I recently started working, and it's hard to find a proper space with a table and chair to get my job done. I like being in a comfortable space where everything I need is available. The problem is, we're not super wealthy, so we can't buy everything we need for every place we go. Also, there's not much storage space in our homes—both mine and my husband's are already full. We end up living out of our luggage bags, which is inconvenient, especially for longer stays. So, our rooms are always cluttered, and it can be a bit overwhelming. In the first few

  The story of a woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder for several years and who believed that if she could just touch the garment of Jesus she would be healed is described in Mark 5:25-34. When the woman touches Jesus' cloak, she is healed immediately and Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her. This story drew my thoughts to the verse where Jesus talks about having faith like a mustard seed. I pondered over how one could have faith like a mustard seed and why did Jesus choose a mustard seed to depict faith. A mustard seed is so small that if you were to hold it and accidentally drop it somewhere, you wouldn't be able to find it so easily. Yet, Jesus took the example of a mustard seed because Matthew 13:31-32 says, " The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its bran

As a child, I always thought that to hear God's voice meant to hear God's voice in its literal sense! I recall pleading, complaining, and praying to God to just speak to me like he spoke to little Samuel in the bible. At some point, I remember losing my faith in God because he never spoke to me. And it's astonishingly true that it took me several years to understand that God's voice spoke through our minds, through the people and objects around us, and through symbols and signs. The Bible stories we are taught when we were kids depict stories where God actually spoke with his voice. Some stories I vividly remember are when God spoke to Moses on the mountain, when God spoke to Daniel in the lion's den, to Samuel when he was just lying down at night, and so on. In all these instances, God's voice is pictured as just thundering out from heaven and the earth-shaking. As a kid, I believed that God would speak to me the same way he did to them. When I grew up and star

 I love having quotes stuck on the walls of my home. Sometimes when I read a catchy line or verse from the book I'm reading, I just can't resist my urge to write it down and stick it on the wall. During times of distress or even happiness, some lines can give our hearts the courage, hope, and humility we require at that time. Our minds can't always think straight in this crazy little world. Sometimes we need words of encouragement to keep our boats afloat. Having quotes on the walls gives quick and easy access to what we may need. One verse that even Jesus encourages us to stick on the doors or walls of our homes is from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NIV), which says "The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." To love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength, we must use the time, talents, energy and resources he bestowed upon us to serve him and do good in his name. Think about how

 It's not always so easy as it looks! Before I had my baby, I thought breastfeeding was super easy. I never really saw the nitty-gritties, the loud ear-aching cries, the sleepless nights, all the craziness! All I saw was moms handling babies like a pro, walking into a feeding room and coming back just as happy in a matter of few minutes. My breastfeeding journey was hard. Yesterday night, once again, my baby took me back to the crazy memories of my first two months learning to breastfeed my baby. Upon googling I learnt that what happened yesterday is also called as a 'nursing strike' or 'breast refusal.'  I delivered my tiny feet on 2nd April 2023, exactly on the same day as my birthday. I know it's so wow. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a baby on my birthday! But he's here now in this beautiful little world.  Everything in my world has changed ever since he came into my life. Before my delivery, I thought I would lose my physical appearan

My three and a half month old baby is sleeping as I write this blog. I want to be done with his daily bath routine and sit down to type and so I made all the noise I could to wake him up, but he ignored me and is sleeping soundly oblivious to the noise. On other days when I want to be as quiet as a mouse he's alert to even the tiniest sounds I make. Anyways, it looks like with a baby you've got to work around the little time you get here and there. The topic I'm writing about today is a random thought I had one week back which I later researched and obtained some eye-opening lessons. I really wanted to make sure that I jotted it down so I kept the outline for this blog earlier. Today I'm completing it with the free time I got. The Diderot effect described by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits is a very interesting concept. It revolves around how the philosopher Diderot bought a new scarlet robe with the gift money he got and then ended up buying more and more things

 Just the other day, I learned something about myself. I got up early this particular morning and let my dog out for his morning stroll and then went back inside the house to make myself a cup of tea. As the milk boiled, I thought to myself about the unusual silence this morning. It wasn't very much like my dog to not bark into the dead silence of dawn or to run inside the house, sniffing around, wagging his tail. I took my cup of tea and strolled out to check on him. He was there indeed, but with something that looked like a dirty black cloth to me held in his mouth. I walked towards him to get a closer look. Such are times when I strongly wished I wasn't myopic. As I got closer, he took his cloth and ran further away from me. I got a glimpse of something hanging that looked very much like a rat's tail. To prove my suspicion true, I called my father to check and confirm what he was seeing. And then, the horror began! It was a dead black rat, indeed! I began to shiver and s