I was woken up this morning by the worst smell ever. Words cant describe it enough. It smells like some rotten, spoiled, faul smelling, decomposing pile of rubbish. I thought it was a combination of the hot weather and our rubbish bin, so the first thing I did was went to the kitchen to empty my rubbish bin. However, my bin was not full and the smell didnt come from there. So I started opening up the pantry and all of my cupboards in search for the source of this faul smell. I thought there must be some rotten food somewhere in my pantry that needs to be thrown out, but I could not find anything. The smell persists.
I then sat outside with my dad and as we were chatting over our morning coffees, I could smell whatever it is and it seems to be coming from my next door neighbour's backyard which is right next to our fence. So I drew a conclusion that my neighbour must be lazy and has not rolled out their green bin for tomorrow's rubbish collection. I thought they must've thrown out a lot of excess or leftover food from the NY eve party and the heat must've created such faul odour in and around my house. So I told hubby my theory, and he agreed that our neighbour is lazy, and that the smell is their fault!
We went out the whole day and when we came back at 6 pm, our house was still smelly! V walked around the whole house thinking there might be a dead mouse somewhere, causing such an odour. Dilligently he went to every bedroom, sniffing here and there, in search of the source of this smell. When I went upstairs, the smell was particularly strong in our toilet, which had a small ventilation window facing our neighbour's backyard. So we were bitching, moaning and complaining about how lazy they are, and how they have not emptied their bin yet, and even had the idea of knocking on their door asking if they need help rolling their smelly bin outside so the odour doesnt travel to our house anymore, but we didnt think it was appropriate :)
At about 10 pm, V all of a sudden jumped up and out of the bed, and he looked at me like something very very very bad is about to happen. I was so scared that my heart must've stopped beating for a second. Then he said, "OMG... there's bag of seasoned fish fillet that I completely forgot to BBQ on Friday (NY eve). I left it outside and it's been sitting next to the fence since Friday!"
So I said, "So that's where the smell comes from!" It makes sense! We quickly went outside with 2 big rubbish bags and a pair of gloves. When V put the two bags of smelly fish in the bag, we nearly threw up from the smell. There were 2 layers of bags and even that didnt stop the bad odour from escaping into the air. We had to then hose the paving and pour this really strong floor cleaning chemical (industrial grade) to help ease the smell. It was so stupidly funny.
This reminds me of one of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7:1-5
1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Everytime we smell the rotten fish, we blamed our neighbour. The whole day we were bitching and moaning about them, not realising that the foul odour comes from our own backyard, from our own mistake, from our own carelessness!
It reminds me of how easy it is for us to point fingers at others without first looking into ourselves to check our own behaviour and attitude. That's why Jesus said in verse 3, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"
Funny as it is... there's a valuable lesson to learn for all of us: make sure you have no rotten fish in your backyard!!! Oh.. and do not be quick to judge others :) GBU
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