Making a loss into an opportunity

Jack Andrada, at 15 years of age, discovered a dipstick method to detect pancreatic cancer. He felt challenged to find a simple and reliable early detection test following the death of his uncle from pancreatic cancer. The encouragement came from one professor form among 200 whom he contacted for help to design the test.

I have been gathering stories and biographies of people, who following a painful experience got engaged in pursuing a mission, in response to a  call they felt, arising out of their experience of enduring the difficulty or distress. 

One common thread in most of these stories I have gathered, is a personal mission that many felt through an inner awakening to a new reality that moved them.

One family recently decided to be befriend adolescent boys and girls in the neighbourhood through the experience of their son struggling to cope academically during his college days. When he received help through counselling and mentoring, he recovered gradually and became well placed in a comfortable job. He now has a family and has stable relationships. 

In gratitude for what they received from well wishers, this elderly couple is now engaged in befriending adolescent children. They invite them home and accompany them. This has developed into  a valuable support for five adolescents, who have found them, as their confidants and source of encouragement.

One adolescent boy, narrated his personal story to me recently and referred to the critical support this couple offered him, when he was at cross roads and breaking points. He is now moving on pursuing his learning career with hope and fortitude.

All of us have come across distressing or disturbing times in our lives. They are  pathfinders for us by drawing lessons from  them to share the gains for the advantages of others.

We can become  providers of goodwill and gains for others, when we attend to the call that springs from a difficult experience.


M.C.Mathew(text and photo)              

Angling from a busy bridge.

I stopped on my way back from Calicut two days back, to watch few men angling from a bridge with fast moving traffic on both directions. 

One of them had just caught a fish when I arrived at the spot. It was the first catch of the afternoon, after having been there for about an  hour.  

The last occasion I went for an angling expedition was twenty five years back, with Arpit and Anandit  and Anna's father. We returned with no catch at that time. So it was refreshing to watch these men patiently wait with their angling thread in the water below the bridge. They innovated by attaching a lead weight to the thread at the end, to help the thread reach the water surface by gravity,when they dropped it into the water form the bridge.

What made this meeting special was what, one of them said to me. 'I do not catch enough fish for a meal, but I still do it because it gives me time to relax and be in the nature's lap for couple of hours. I return home with peace whether I had a catch or not.'

Those words held my attention while driving back. These men were standing on the bridge that overlooked this scenic sight, with birds flying over to dip into the water to catch fish, fish diving on the water surface and the evening sun making the water glitter with its rays. What a sight it was to behold!

What fascinated me was that there are  some who admire nature's bounty and find time  to take in its insights and revelation. 

We live in  a driven society and we  seem to invest on what brings us return materially and financially. 

Four our soul to be alive to the realities of love, truth, peace and goodness, we need to create space and opportunity for its nurture. It is this Jesus referred to, when he said to his faithful followers, 'come away to a quiet place and rest for awhile'.

M.C. Mathew (text and photo)      

Visitor and the visited

One of the regular happenings at our home, when we lived in Chennai, Vellore or Pondichery, was visitors at our home. Of course students were the regular ones.

Visitors bring a new content and ambience to our lives. 

Rev. Peter Miller, the vicar of St. Mary's church at Chennai was someone whom we got to know, when we lived at Chennai. One rainy evening, when the cyclone had hit the coast,  we were sitting around a candle light in our home. With no electricity for the whole day and the rain still incessant, and the streets flooded, that was not a pleasant evening at all. 

We heard a knock at our door around 8pm with a familiar voice, asking, 'can I have some food'. When we opened the door, we saw Peter standing on the verandah fully drenched in rain and looking exhausted. On hearing that, someone he knew well, a gardener, had lost his house in the rain and wind, he had set out to go to Ambattur in the morning. As the area was flooded, he had to leave his car and walk about two kilometers on foot waddling through knee deep water. He spent the whole day walking between the public shelter, where the family had come to live temporarily and different provision shops, to get them food, clothes, cooking vessels, etc. He returned only after he made share that they had enough to mange for the next three days, after which he had planned to return. 

As he sat down after changing into borrowed clothes and ate bread, fruits and pudding, sipping black coffee in between, we felt drawn by his loving self giving response to human need. Peter felt good that he knew us  well enough, to drop in before he proceeded to his home, which was another ten kilometres away. 

A visitor often returns having been touched by welcome and hospitality. A visitor coms calling when he has something to offer or needs something.  The visited can receive much refreshment and cheer or feel quickened to some realities and consciousness. We were able to get involved in helping Peter's initiative to build a few thatched houses, for those who lost their houses. This was another gain from the visit. 

One casualty in a technology driven world is personal visit, as telephone calls, SMSs and e-mails seem to have become the main links for staying connected. A personal visit has many advantages for the visitor and the visited.  

Now that we do not live in the hospital campus, we have far less visitors at our cottage. We take more efforts now to visit, which is one way of adjusting to this new environment.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)