Laying It Down

These days American fast foods are reigning in Trinidad and Tobago.  Since I have young colleagues, I am now oh, so aware of all the fast food joints and am always told how delicious McDonalds or Wendy’s or Burger King hamburgers are and "Jin, you would not believe how tasty the French fries can be"!  You’ve got to realize that burgers from these franchises cost lots of money - $TT30 and up!  Way too much for my budget.   Now I love a hamburger and every once in a while I MUST HAVE BEEF!  If I don’t have BEEF, every once in a while, well then I keep on thinking about beef until… I have it.   My research shows that having such strong urges for the cow means that I lack Vitamin B and this can be obtained by eating a banana or a bit of chocolate.  I am here to testify that it does not work!  When I need beef, I need it and the quickest way to get it is through a steak or a hamburger.  Steak needs a baked potato with yoghurt, corn and a green salad but that takes a while to

Today was one of my “make a joyful noise” mornings.  Sometimes I awaken with a song to the Lord on my mind.  It may be a hymn or it may be words and a tune that my mind makes up.  One of my “noises” just had one word “thank-you” and I sung that to the Lord for weeks.  I would wake up with my lips mouthing those two words in a rather tuneless tone.  I’m no musician so the tunes are really bad, yet often, the mind states ‘this is what you must sing’.  I frequently cannot remember the tunes after but I would recall the words (shall I dare to call them lyrics?).  Today a few new words and a tune came to me.  Guess what?  As I write this I have completely forgotten the music.  This morning, these are the lyrics which I prayed to Spirit.  Am fired by Jesus All my dross burnt away A new clay is formed today Burnt in the fire of love Burnt in the fire of peace Burnt in the fire of joy I feel that these lyrics are lacking and there should be more before the “burnt” start

In this lousy, stinking job that I have there is no vacation, no kind of leave at all, no money equivalent to the work performance and definitely no power.  I have absolutely no power nor do I get a great deal of respect from my superiors.  That part I understand since old style human resource management is still practised  in this realm.  I am just one of the working poor who work to survive and any change in the future is a far-off goal.  I work, I feel tired and unhappy and most of all I never see the result of my input in any output or outcome. Frustration can set in.  Often the output takes so long to achieve that I feel as if I am carrying the weight of the clients passion, especially when they have lost hope in truly getting good service from the public sector.  I feel badly at times when another Fiscal quarter comes along and no significant output can be recorded, not due to any lack on my part.   Today, I visited a site and after the bidders left the client insisted on s

Today is the birthday of my parents.  Yes, my parents were born on the same day but different years.  My father used to tell me that he wished I had been born on the same day as they.  Nah, I choose to come 11 days earlier: in the old year.  Today my mother celebrates her 80 th birthday while if Daddy were alive it would have been his 81 st .  I would always dream that as my parents approached their latter years I would be giving back to them.    My father once gave me a book of poetry and I remember that one of the poems had a few lines that read as “Grow old along with me”.  “The best is yet to be”.  I would imagine that yes indeed, with the pressures of work and fatherhood over, we would become friends and delight in the pleasures that an adult child enjoys with its parent.  As a young woman I would picture us having celebrations with my family, and the ‘grands’ just loving it.  Those dreams were not to be.  I still cannot give back to my mother and my dear father