Looking to see !

Looking to see !

The way the Bulbul bird quickly abandoned body grooming because it spotted a sunbird in the adjacent tree caught my attention. 

It was after seeing the purple Sunbird, the Bulbul kept its gaze on it and tracked its movement between the branches. 

When the Sunbird started its bird calls, the Bulbul turned in that direction with a listening body posture !

The seeing, hearing and feeling made a Bulbul engage visually!

Looking is an engagement at different levels. 

When what one sees holds attention then seeing becomes beholding !

In a conversation seeing and hearing are qualified by attention and interest.

I noticed in the Bulbul's behaviour a sense of engagement at a beholding level, when the bird calls became frequent and tuneful. 

How much I am drawn by what I see ?

The flower and its elegance and brilliance masked the sight of the buds initially. It was little later, I began to notice the buds to see ! 

Seeing is a qualitative experience. One can see in part or fragmentally or in full!

A visitor who returned from a visit to a hospital in rural India, after seeing the plight of patients coming to the hospital needing subsidised care, returned feeling that he could postpone to upgrade his car to the next level. He saw and allowed himself to feel touched. His contribution to the hospital month after month made a difference to the hospital in taking care of people who had limited resources to attend to their health needs. I thought that he looked to see and allowed him self to be moved !

Looking to see, feel and respond is an opportunity !

That is a way of living, that shall make us regard others as our neighbours!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

 

Grounding in wellness !

How birds use their legs to perch and support themselves! The legs support the body even during sleep. They hop with their legs and scratch the ground to look for feed. They securely ground themselves with their legs. That provides safety and security!

I noticed a Pond Heron perched asymmetrically on a coconut palm in our garden. It was only when I watched the photographs while editing, I noticed that it has missing toes on the right limb. That limits the versatile perching that birds are used to!  

This sight raised some thoughts for me to ponder upon!

The asymmetry in Pond Heron's posture and behaviour arose out of a wound it suffered. 

I remember coming across people who are disproportionately irritable, biased, critical out imposing! I thought of situations when I carried a tendency towards such a behaviour. They were occasions when I suffered hurts and wounds, because of which I experienced transient seasons of 'asymmetry' in my behaviour. 

What one looses most, when one is emotionally wounded is the sense of equanimity, consideration and resilience. 

How do we prepare ourselves to recover from our emotional wounds? I find one process helpful. Just as a physical hurt would need care, bandaging, medicines or actions to restore function, the emotional hurt would also need a healing touch. 

The healing touch begins by being truthful to oneself by accepting one's own role in causing the hurt. An emotional hurt is the outcome  of a process. That process was also in our domain just as it was also in the domain of others involved in a conflict. 

It is this consciousness that can initiate us to be confessing and forgiving. It is when we confess and take steps to forgive, we foster readiness to be accepting and accommodating! The unilateral openness is good enough to begin with !

The self care, the psychologists propose comes to be significant to initiate healing process in every discordant situation!

Do I have a bag of healed memories or hurting memories !

When I ask this question at the end of each month during a personal debriefing, I receive inspiration to be proactive to facilitate healing of emotional hurts! 

Life when lived with such a sense of wellness, we free ourselves of entanglements and free others from our imprisoning thoughts towards them.

It is a good practice to find ways to feel well and share that sense of wellness to others to help them experience healing of their emotional hurts!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

The desire for freedom!

 

The Bird calls of a purple Sunbird start with a body posture of moving the neck and bills and upwards ! The whole body moves with the bird call. It is a progressive movement which ends in a bird call. 

A bird call is therefore intentional and is a progression of an inner and outer movements!

The morning calls of different birds perched in the trees around our cottage sometimes are reciprocal from the same species of birds and others. Even the birds have a communal connection apart from species affinity. 

As we listen to the morning choral singing of birds, there is a sense of freedom that birds treasure and exercise! They can be and are themselves.  Each bird follows its native habits and practices. 

The recent street protests in Ladakh is a resistance movement against disregarding the ethnic culture and practices and imposing  pressure to convert the region to be an international tourist spot for commercial gain. 

We are loosing the native customs and life style by an enforcement of a culture that is post modern. People feel threatened by being uprooted from what is truly their heritage. The commercial value of hills is huge as such places are considered to be a treasure of minerals which when excavated would bring enormous financial gain to the corporate sector. The down side is that people loose their land, familiar surroundings and get displaced to other regions which are alien to their way of life! 

The human settlement in Lakshadweep island is getting threatened by the commercial plan the government proposes for tourism. Although eco-tourism is a jargon used to appease people, beneath lies the strong traction for commercial tourism. 

The economics of these efforts favour those who invest to develop the places for commercial gain! The participatory planning or transition is not pursued in most instances. 

Even a Sunbird has its place in the garden for privacy and practicing its ritual!

I wish people and their interests and wellness would remain at the heart of every development plan rather than the gain for the investors! 

The melody of bird call is uplifting and comforting, for which they need trees and garden!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Revising impressions !

My first impression of this jasmine blossom was what is in the first photograph, when I viewed it from one angle. I moved closer and viewed it from another angle. That was when I noticed the petals better and saw two buds instead of one as in the first photograph. 

This initiated me to look at my inward impressions on many matters. How often I take a rounded view of a situation?

Yesterday, the peace conversation between Israel and Hamas entered the second day after two years of devastating confrontation. 

If only they changed their positions and viewed each other as neighbours, the hostility could have been overcome ! 

I did an exercise of recalling a few difficult situations I have been part of in the last five years at work and involvements ! I received a new perspective about conflicting situation. 

On one difficult situation, what helped was negotiation. I noticed that both engaging in the negotiating conversation had a flexible position which created space for lateral thinking. They arrived at a consensus which suited both groups which was different from their earlier position or expectations. I felt encouraged to hear from both groups that what they arrived at looked better than what each was insisting for!

The truth has an expansive dimension in depth and breadth. It is openness to revise our initial impressions which gives us a chance to appreciate matters beyond our filtered view!

I sense that fear of loss of 'control' or loss of 'importance' are filters which alter perception! 

All of us from childhood sleep with our palms open ! In fact, if the fist is closed it is considered to be different from the usual pattern in children. That is the subconscious state of our inner intent! To be open! If  we are open, then letting go is a natural attitude! 

In an experiment with children while picking up marbles from the table, I noticed that some children picked up one by one and some others picked up an handful of them. Children who picked one or a few started playing with them. But those who took a handful of them in each palm held on to the marbles and lost the pleasure of playing with them as they refused to 'let go'! 

My impression of the jasmine blossom was not complete till I let go of first impression to explore if there was something more to see !

The journey to revise our impression or opinion,  if taken voluntarily most of the times, we enlarge our perception! That is a way to embrace the whole truth!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Beyond materiality !

A Lynx spider on jasmine flowers in our garden!  

I was surprised to find out that these spiders have keen eye sight and active hunting abilities. They do not weave a web to catch the prey. They hide in plants mostly on flowers where they can ambush the prey! The green ones can spit venom as a defence mechanism. They are speedy runners and leapers although they tend to be ambush hunters most of the times.  

So much is known about this spider and its behaviour which is only one cm in size. 

The striped Lynx spider is attributed to be a biological control agent, protecting the plant! But they are predators of pollinators. 

They are known to be tolerant of the other spiders of their species. 

I notice the lynx spider only when I edit the phots taken. As photos are taken often from a distance, one can miss seeing them with naked eyes. 

The red striped Lynx spider is the common one in our garden!

Pardon me for returning to Gaza and the war of the two years. Now sense has dawned on most leaders about the wisdom of seeking for peace! Many cynics consider this a tactic of the current president of the USA to compel the Nobel committee to consider him for the Nobel peace prize. That is politics and let me leave it to those who are political in behaviour!

The outcome of the war is a devastated Gaza and traumatised residents! An environmental enthusiast commented that it would take fifty years or more to have the flora and fauna of the region restored. Loss of 60, 000 lives, hundreds of residential facilities, schools, hospitals, water and electric supply...... !

The Gaza is a devastated territory! 

This is the 80 the year of the formation of the UNO, when nations pledged to live in peace! 

The material view of life is what is dominant in global engagement! Humanity is more than materiality!

Humans are people of relationships and altruism! 

Have we lost this heart of the humanity ! 

The volunteers who sent ships with provisions to Gaza recently tell us that humanity is still alive !

In that sense it is both a lamentation and celebration time!

The lynx spider is only a symbol of the least of the life around us! 

We behave in a civilised and responsible manner only when we treasure the earth and protect the terrain with its inhabitants ! 

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

The foraging at day break!

 

A Myna was on the lawn at day break, the morning after the grass was mowed. With the trimmed grass, birds can find caterpillars and worms easily. 

The Myna above, walked slowly and diligently on the grass.  It suddenly turned in the opposite direction seeing a movement in the grass. It was quick to pick up the caterpillar between its bills. 

The slow and silent walk with attentive search was what I noticed in the Myna's behaviour. 

It did not look effortful from a distance of several meters. Its belief in its behaviour fetched it its prey. It conditioned its movements to favour successful foraging!

That was worth watching. Its intensity of attention struck me. 

The voyage in life is through different situations and terrains. To make the journey purposeful one needs to live attentively and vigilantly. 

A friend's example comes to my mind. This person involved in home schooling of two children, fetches information from parents who are involved in home schooling of their children. Recently a community of children in different stages of home schooling came into being through a collaborative planning. Children now have other children from other families to jointly engage in home schooling with different parents taking turns to instruct them. Most of the activities are experience oriented with diverse activities.  

I felt inspired by their insight to make the learning journey of children even more fascinating!

This is acting purposefully and intentionally to get the best out of the chosen path!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A plant bears its past !

I listened to a recollection of events that a friend shared, some of which were distressing at the time they occurred ! I felt moved how that person turned those difficulties, misunderstanding and humiliation into upbuilding blocks ! That person carries the past gracefully and gratefully!

Evey rose bush in our garden has the above profile as in the photo. They flower in due season and their flowers fade away. The stalk of the dried flower remains as a memory for a while till that stem grows further to bear another bud !

I listened to another person who told me of disappointments which now turn to be resources for endurance and resilience!

Most of us remember hurting or painful events for a while. They settle to stay in our subconscious level and appear as dreams metaphorically or symbolically if the events have not been processed and integrated to move forward. 

Paying attention to our dreams is one way to discern if we have processed the difficult times and received the message of hope and direction or we are yet to process to move on!

The rose flower appears in a stem which has thorns. 

To experience some difficult or distressing times is normal, but what needs attention is the recovery process. Do we recover with bitterness still lingering or with peace and comfort to move on with malice towards none and openness towards all including those who caused hurt or pain ?

The plant above is giving in habit. In that process even when it is pruned, it sprouts to give shoots, stems and flowers!

In every dispute or conflict prone situation, the attitude of giving and forgiving is the solemn experience bilaterally!

I revisit situations where there were difficulties in relationship, and send messages of confession and cordiality whenever possible, although sometimes such an act of response was delayed.  Whenever there was reciprocity, I found the relationship liberating and not burdensome!

We live with our past. We have pleasant and unpleasant experiences. Both have a formative and creative effect upon our lives! I heard a friend say once: 'Free all those you imprisoned in your thoughts' ! What a call to live freely, thoughtfully and cordially!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)