gaelikaa's diary

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay I truly believe we were never meant to die. Most of my opinions are shaped by my Christian faith. In our early years, from our mid-teens onwards, we are biologically equipped to become parents, but at the age of 45 or so, our bodies lose that particular ability. At least the female of our species does. I am sure that there's a reason for that. Looking after children, nurturing them, teaching them and protecting them, takes up a lot of our time. We also need some time for ourselves. This is nature's way, or maybe God's way, of ensuring that this happens. However, in the Bible, there are several stories of women conceiving children late in life. The Biblical matriarch, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, is one such woman. She conceived at the age of 90, according to the Bible.  When I reached India at the age of 30 and got married, I was told by several tactless people that my marriage was 'too late' and that my husband and I would

Image by  Rudy and Peter Skitterians  from  Pixabay   Recently, I was watching Ireland's Late Late Show hosted by Ryan Tubridy. This talk show has been running for over 50 years now. Every aspect of Irish life eventually gets discussed here at some stage. There was a music group featured called 'Irish Women in Harmony'. It was recorded during lockdown by a number of Irish women singers, who put their voices together to create a song for release in aid of domestic violence victims. The song is called 'Dreams' and was originally recorded by an Irish music group, the Cranberries. The line-up of singers includes the wonderful Moya Brennan, a traditional Irish singer, always a favourite singer of mine. She's from my time, that is to say that her career was already in progress when I still lived in Ireland. At the younger end of the spectrum there are singers like the talented singer/songwriter Una Healy and another young singer called Erica Cody, with whose work I

Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay  I began blogging around 2007. My kids were aged between 4 and 12 (they're now between 17 and 24). I was swamped with caring for the children and trying to manage a marriage that was pressurised by a long commute. My husband travelled to the next city every day. I also had a lot of pressure from the in-laws. They had full control of the household. They watched everyone closely.That was difficult for me. The youngest had started school and once a week, I used to visit a friend of mine who lived in the city centre. I always arrived home before the kids came in from school, but my in-laws didn't like that. In their eyes, a good woman stays at home and has no desire to step outside. There was a lack of privacy and personal space which was suffocating. I'm not saying they were intentionally being mean. Because they were from another culture, they were probably caring for me the only way they knew how. But it wasn't easy to adjust with this.

The post title has been turned into a question. I'm back to group blogging, with a group that's like a reformed Loose Blogging Consortium. The LBC is a group with which I blogged for years. I'm glad some of us are still ready to blog and share thoughts on common topics of interest. So here's my take on 'The Sky is the Limit', suggested by group member Sanjana. Many of us are limited by our circumstances. Or rather, many of us think we are limited by our circumstances. Sometimes we are right and sometimes we are not. It all depends. It depends mostly on ourselves if we're honest. We programme ourselves with the idea that 'I can never do that', or 'I can never go there'. In fact, many of us, are our own worst enemies. Whenever I think something is impossible, I find myself thinking of the bumblebee. According to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn't be able to fly. Yet he does. It seems that no-one has come straight out and told it that it