This Week, Right Here — Issue #5
Week of July 20 — 26, 2026 • A quiet collection of stories, reflections and discoveries.
✍️ From My Desk
Kerala has its own calendar. According to it, Karkidakam is the last month of the year. Traditionally, this was a difficult season. For a state that relied heavily on farming, food and money often ran short before the next harvest. It was also a time of heavy rains and illness.
Maybe that is why our ancestors encouraged simpler living during this month—eating food like medicine, reading the Ramayanam, gathering for prayer and looking inward
As I reflected on Karkidakam this year, I thought maybe this was the time to reflect more on Grace.
.📖 This Week’s Stories
Maybe That's Grace
The other day, I read a Note by Dr. Amy See, PhD that Debbie Giannioti had restacked. It was about how children often long for connection more than structured activities or elaborate experiences.
The Unseen Hand
It's Karkidakam in Kerala, the last month of the Malayalam calendar. A month of living simply, eating food like medicine, and drawing closer to God.
The Names We Never Knew
We were on our way back from our baby’s choru kodukkal—the beginning of his weaning journey. His first morsel of solid food, blessed by Lord Guruvayurappan at the Guruvayur temple.
🌾 A Line to Carry Into the Week
Grace is not a promise that life will be free from suffering. It is the assurance that we will not walk through it alone.
📚 From Another Writer
Every week, I’ll share one piece I couldn’t quite stop thinking about.
This week, its I sleep-trained my firstborn by Dr. Amy See, PhD . In this very personal essay, Dr. Amy opens up about guilt, changing our minds, and extending grace to ourselves when we realize we didn't know then what we know now.
💬 Over to You
Where have you noticed grace this week?
It doesn't have to be extraordinary. Sometimes it is a helping hand, a patient word, an unexpected kindness, or simply someone who stayed with you.
☕ Until Next Week...
Thank you for spending a little time right here.
Keep a little room this week for grace.
Until next Sunday ❤️,
This, Right Here.
If someone came to mind while you were reading, I’d be honoured if you shared this week’s issue with them.
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Sheeba, your account of Karkidakam turns a difficult season into a communal discipline of simplification, nourishment, prayer, and inward attention. That seasonal wisdom gives the issue its shape, allowing grace to appear across parenting, spiritual memory, inherited ritual, and the humility of revising what we once believed. The assurance that we will never walk through suffering alone becomes the thread connecting every piece you chose to place beside it. Grateful for the care with which you made a weekly collection feel like a place readers can enter, breathe, and notice who has been carrying them.
I gave myself grace this week when I had a long day and left the kitchen dirty. But I know that nobody is judging me except for myself. So I told myself it’s ok to put rest first, in fact, it’s not only ok, it’s a must do.