Pilgrim's Ponderings

In the morning O Lord, in the morning You show your love to me. Your unfailing love opens my eyes And your inexplicable peace is what grants them sleep. You fill my heart with songs, You saturate my mind with awe at your work. Each ray of light reminds me of Your presence, And the warmth of them reminds me of Your love. You have ordained this day and all that it will bring Therefore I will praise You, And I will rejoice in the moments to come. In the presence of my troubles O Lord You have given me great joy. In the companionship of struggles You have lifted my head and filled me with peace. You are my refuge, my strength and shield Truly O Lord You are my salvation and my greatest reward. - Sandeep

A few months ago we decided we needed to shift house. Various reasons precipitated this decision and we put the word out among friends and agents alike. What followed was a frustrating few months wherein we encountered the reality of inflation within the property sector of our economy. What we needed seemed to hover just outside our budget and what we could afford hovered just outside our needs. The whole time though (because we seemed so agonizingly close to finding a new home) we left things at home go unrepaired or not dealt with. After a few weeks of inspecting houses and meeting landlords we were mentally prepared for a new place. We stopped really caring too much about our house and were thinking of the new place. Furniture needed to be bought, things needed painting or repair but everything and every investment was put off till we moved to our new place. It’s the 4 th month running and we've not yet moved!!! Before this becomes a rant let me share a les...

Every morning somewhere after 11am the Kooda man arrives. For those who don’t know what I am talking about – kooda man is the colloquial term for the garbage disposal man. He rings our doorbell and collects the bag or bags of garbage we may have. Now our garbage can range between left over food, fruit skins and seeds, random weird dirt from the house and quite regularly a couple of rather nasty smelly nappies (diapers). They usually sit in the bin through the night waiting to be collected the next morning when the “kooda man” comes. There have been days however when either he did not come or we went out and forgot to leave the garbage out for him to collect. I will confess that it is more often the latter and very few times the former that occurs. On unfortunate days like this, there’s a subtle stench that begins to waft from that corner of the kitchen and we are reminded of how important a task it is to meet the kooda man and give him that bag of assorted smells and substances eve...