SoulFood

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As above, so below

As within, so without.

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Family Ties

“God made me to love Him true

To pray to Him, and well He knew

That I needed someone to love me too;

So before me, He made my parents two.”

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Indeed, God created the world, created the animals, the plants, made the Sun, the Moon, the rainbow, the multitude of stars, and finally our first parents – Adam and Eve. He gave to them the Garden of Eden, and the rest of the Universe, in its entirety. There began what the layman would call the journey of life. However, the goodness of life did not last for long, for the heinous sin committed by Adam and Eve was reason enough for God to turn His wrath upon them, and henceforth, upon their generations to come.

They soon found themselves toiling and suffering in a big bad world, earning the fruit they required for mere existence, by the sweat of their brow. This was the dawn to what has now evolved into the bonds of life, the forces that compel us to struggle through the trysts of birth and death – family ties.

Coincidental or symbolic - call it what you will, an individual’s bonds with his family begin from the moment he is conceived in the womb of his mother, and is thus bound to her by the umbilical cord. This is only the beginning of the family ties. As he is born, and his father takes him in his arms for the very first time, there develops a second tie. The newborn is soon visited by brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles and aunties – a few hours in this world, and a long list of ties the little infant is hardly aware of. He grows up, and slowly but surely, the bonds grow stronger. He then reaches the age of adolescence – a stage in life as undecided and unstable as sand banks. Speaking from personal experience, this is a rather difficult phase in the life of an individual, primarily because it is a transition between childhood and adulthood. One has to decide whether to remain innocent, bubbly and playful, just as children do, or whether to act mature and level-headed, and assume an air of profound wisdom and gravity. It is at this time too, that one tends to drift away from one’s parents, become secretive, and confide in friends, rather than share his thoughts with the loveliest people in the world. We forget the endless hours they had spent in grooming us, sleepless nights passed in rocking us to sleep, and the days they coaxed and cajoled us each time we cried at the cutting of a tooth. However, life is but a mere circle, and so, in true prodigal style, we soon veer close to our family in our late teens - the phase when a girl’s best friend is her mother and a boy’s best friend – his father.

As a girl comes of age, marries and leaves her parental lodging for her husband’s home, she weeps bitterly, at the very thought of living without her family. Yet, when she adjusts to her new home, she seldom visits her parental home, and even when she does, she would go on babbling, “My mother-in-law is very accommodating, my father-in-law is just like dad" - blah blah blah! Nevertheless, this does not mean that she has broken away from her former family ties. That is inevitable! The tie is eternal, and to break it is beyond the impossible. However, she has, in the process of matrimonial vows, been bound by further family ties, and made life more meaningful... death, all the more dreadful!

The fact remains that we are born into family ties, we live with family ties, and we die with family ties. Perhaps, that is the reason a tear drop rolls down the cheek when one breathes his last.

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“We live in this world,

We share in its joy,

Just as if

We were God’s own toy.

The heart cannot reason,

Nor can the mind,

The eternal bonds of love,

The ties that bind.”

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Away with thee! O misery!

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Away with thee! O misery!

That clencheth my heart in agony;

Thou hath no bottom nor no cause,

Dost thou not find a home but in me?

Away with thee! O misery!

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Away with thee! O misery!

What would'st thou rather have of me,

Than mental peace and harmony;

I know not why thou choseth me,

Away with thee! O misery!

✿

I'd rather have thee dwell in me,

Than in my brother have thee be;

I'd rather bear thee silently,

And tell to none, the tale of thee;

How sweet! How sharp! O misery!

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Give me some sunshine, give me some rain...

::: September 12, 2010 :::

Long drive by the mystic river at dawn, even as the almost-misty morning gave in to a spectacular sunrise at NSD... Soul Food at Mother House - rejuvenated, new, improved... yummy breakfast at The Park, courtesy my Supermom... hazy Sunday afternoon spent opening pressiez... cloudy skies with the rays of Helius pushing Westward... an evening drive through the urban drizzle to Sector V, scrumptious din-din at Bbq Nation... zoomed back home to that warm fuzzy orange pillow, with the raindrops singing me a lullaby as if to say we gave you sunshine, we gave you rain... a day well-spent... i feel special, loved, blessed...

Thank you Mama, Thank you Universe, Thank you God... all thanks to you, i feel brand new ❤

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