Rhythm and cycle

This was the first flower bunch of lilies we noticed in our garden after we planted the bulbs about six months prior to this. 

Most lilies will flower once  year and a few of them twice a year. The shoots and leaves spring from the ground after the monsoon showers. The flowers would appear a few months later. The stalks and the leaves last for two to three months. There will be no trace of them for another three to four months. For more than half of the year bulbs are buried in the ground.

This annul rhythm and cycles year after year suggest an interesting phenomenon about life itself. The lilies can be present above the ground only for a season. They require an equal amount of time to remain underground. This is essential to its survival. It follows its pattern undeterred by circumstances. I noticed that even when the monsoon showers were sparse, they would still send out their shoots.

We are conditioned for a rhythm in our lives. The systole and diastole of the beating heart has a rhythm. We have a sleep and wake rhythm. We have a rhythm of work and leisure. We have a rhythm of activity and rest.

Why such a rhythm and cycles of them! This rhythm is to preserve our sanity, well being and health.

What is most disrupted by the life style changes is this inbuilt rhythm. Humans almost fight this rhythm. The average sleep hours has declined to about five hours for most professionals, from the physiological need of seven hours. Most professionals live with chronic sleep debt. Some live chronically tired. Some live driven by work and land in a burn out state. This destroys their personal health and offsets the well being in the family. This paves the way for an early onset of life style related diseases. 

'There is rhythm to life. Find it and live by it', this was the advice given at a conference of Paediatricians, by a life-style specialist! 

M.C.Mathew(text an photo)