One, Two, Three... and Many!

JJ

Each of us is one among the many!

Each flower is distinctly different, which is evident from the fourth photo!

Humanity is a garden of many, but each distinct. 

It is a journey of this consciousness that determines how well we live in harnessing this richness of being one among the many!

The boy in the miracle of feeding the five thousand, who offered his food pack of five loaves and two fish, because of which a Jesus of Nazareth performed the miracle of multiplying them for five thousand and more, was one different way a boy behaved  from the many, who too had their meal packets with them. The boy made the difference for the many!

Each of us has the prospects of making a difference!

Let each of us find our place of significance by looking beyond ourselves, while living among others!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)    

Meditation on life!

Although I have many pictures of the three flowers from their bud stage, let me present these three that tell us a lot about life itself!

Look at the hope and cheer with which the buds announce their presence! During the next ten days, the flowers withered!

It was a good celebration of life!

All who begin life will have a similar course of life!

What happens during this in between period is what really matters. 

Yesterday, while meeting with a young doctor in training, I realised, how the pressures of life and living is demanding! Soon thereafter I met another young doctor who was effusive and inspriringly cheerful, who told me, 'let me live each day, enjoying what I do and work for creating a smile in the face of patients I look after'. She too is waiting for her post graduate admission!

The joy of living transcends the existential pressures!   Think of life as a calling to live serving others!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The leaves and flowers!

One insight that dawned on me while going over the photographs of the rose flowers I took recently, was that the focus was on the flowers. So the leaves were out of focus in all the photographs. 

Is there something for us to learn from this!

What is visible and impressive invite our attention and others remain unnoticed. 

It occurred to me that it is the leaves which give the flowers their richness and colour contrast. The stem and leaves provide support to the flower and give even shade and protection.

Yesterday during a conversation with a family, what was evident was this truth! How much the family support and adjust to take care of the interests of the children and to let them progress in the diversity of their interests. It was moving to hear the mother share her experiences of the efforts he was making to let her two children develop their talents by giving full attention to their interests. 

We arrive in life where we are, because others give us the support and encouragement!  

So I went back to take some pictures where the leaves are on focus! That is when I realised that the leaves are also under attack from pests!

The care givers too need care and attention lest they get damaged in the process of giving life to others!


M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

When a book shows the way!

I found this book a valuable resource to understand what is going on in China after the Cultural Revolution!

Bishop Ting, who was the Principal of a college at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution had to work in the farm along with other labourers during the Revolution. The college was used as the regional office of the Revolution. 

At the end of the cultural Revolution, he was able to return to restart the college!

The talks which he gave after this experience globally is what is put together in the book.

There is profoundness of charity and tolerance he communicates about his experiences. 

I have read this book at a time, when I have faced a difficult season in my life, when the language of love and forgiveness is what I have been needing in my attitude!

We might suffer! But the suffering becomes vicarious when we become humane with the grace of seeing others as our brothers and sisters!

Yesterday, an office I went to get a help to restore our gas connection surprised me. It took less than five minutes for them to attend to me. I was touched by their goodness. It is goodness which is the antidote to anger or harm!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

All in one morning!

Each of these rose flowers has something different from the other! What makes the garden special is all the differences which add to the richness of diversity!

There is a lot of discussion in the Indian press on 'nationalism', even trying to define it just in one particular way without allowing a diversity!

There is  discussion to define social behaviour to express nationalism!

There was an effort to get the Supreme Court of india to define the way to respect national anthem when it is sung or played!

What a distraction! 

During this winter months, hundreds live in the streets without shelter and warm clothes. The ND TV has a campaign to provide blankets to such families! 

I hope we would accept diversity as the way and turn our thoughts and attention to do good! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A dog lover!

I watched  a child receive the affection of Daffney. He is not used to having a dog at home, but he and his sister are dog lovers from what I could make out from the affectionate responses both of them received from Daffney and Dulcy.

The sequences of pictures would suggest that Daffeny responds to friendship offered and is fondly looking toward his new found friend! 

Is it not a vivid illustration of the impact  of thoughtfulness, care and attention!

Wherever possible share abundance of goodness and it would become a seed that shall sprout to bring returns! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Small things made visible!

This is the macro lens I would have used hundreds of times in the last 20 years since I first procured it. The macro lens magnifies the small things! Some of the photographs I have taken with this lens created new perspectives for my thinking. In fact I was drawn into the different stages of the metamorphosis of butterfly with the use of this lens.

Do small thing matter! Of late I have been following the way the tiny spider weaves its web! It creates a web of about one foot circumference. It is a piece of art to look at!

Small things are beautiful. Small acts of kindness are touching. We need prepared eyes and primed heart to receive them. Our hearts feel and ponder over matters when we feel touched.  

So we need to have our eyes tuned and heart primed to feel the small things of life! 

Many children who come to visit me in my work place reach out to touch me or shake hands ! It is only recently I have begun to feel the warmth in their touch! It is that warmth that stays on to refresh me in a demanding day! We need to let our hearts to feel the small experiences and enlarge the impact of them in daily living! It is one way of developing a contemplative interior to our lives!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Being born..!

As I grow older, I have greater consciousness of the gift of life that begins with birth!

I keep a watch on the plants in the garden to look for buds and follow up on them till they flower and fade away.

During this process, many things happen. Some flowers stay fresh for the season, some get attacked by insects and have their petals eaten and some do not even flower fully as the bud itself was attacked by pest. 

No matter what happens, the honey bees would still come to the flowers looking for honey. 

The flowers would even get plucked for table decoration or other purposes. 

The flowers are for others!

We are born to live open for others to receive something of the goodness we bring to them!

It gives us a new perspective to life!

M.C.Mathew

During a morning walk !

There is something special for each person in the garden... for me yesterday morning it was am awareness of the resilience of the fragile flowers. During the day the temperature shoots upto 36 degrees C and it drops to 15 at night! Some of these flowers last for ten days!

It is something within the plant which sustains the flowers and preserves the freshness!

It was an invitation to pay even more attention to inner wellness... Pope Francis said in his new year address, 'live from within'! Let not the outer word invade and reside within us! We are the keepers  of our inner world where God abides!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

Carpet of web!

The spiders have created web on the grass to protect themselves from the dew at night and the sun during the day! It is  sight that engaged me for a while yesterday. There is a visible gap in the web created in an angle from the surface to the grass underneath that the dew does not fall into the grass. underneath which is its home. The spider moves between inside and outside of this web through this opening!

The wisdom of a tiny creature! 

I apologise for poor photographs!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A community !

Most things in nature  exist in a cluster or multiples of one!

Humans too are homely only in a community!

What brings us together is an inherent bonding that brings us together.

There is an ongoing tension between the nations of Palestine and Israel. In India, there are tensions between communities.

What we see in nature is togetherness.

A medical student who came to chat told me that others influence the decision making! Even human behaviour is conditioned by what happens in our neighbourhood!

Who are these 'others'. They are our neighbours! Even the one who offends us is our neighbour. It is  a theme that has engaged me after a few instances of difficulties in relationships!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Loss and mourning!

The plants experience loss and gain all the time. 

They loose their leaves, flowers and even stem during pruning! But they sprout again and the cycle of life events go on..

During the time of loss and mourning, what is important to stay aware of the hope of life beyond the loss! 

Yesterday, a family of three children with neuro-develomental needs told me that they are about to take a holiday to have a refreshing time. They live damaged lives, but they live in hope!

This springs within me a message of much encouragement!

MC..mathew(text and photo)

Living and ageing!

One flower has aged!

Ageing is a process. there have physical, emotional, social and relational implications while ageing.

What seems important is to recognise the story of life which precedes the ageing.

There is a memory of service each of  us leaves behind as we grow older!

Those memories are treasures that we ought to regard!

I find that the best way to acknowledge others is by fondly remembering their legacy!

Those older ones among us are people who can make us stay connected with history!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A wounded plant!

It is awful to see this rose plant attacked by pest that consumed its leaves! But that did not stop the plant to give away its flower! It suffers, but is self giving!

One of the lessons of significance of 2017 has been this growing awareness that wounded people are more gracious in self giving! 

A grandmother, who visited us with her grand daughter is staying away from her family to provide some help for the grand daughter for her special needs. She lives in a room and cooks her own food and takes the child for therapy. Her daughter in law is almost bedridden with a chronic illness. The grandmother has Chronic backache following her illness!   

There was grace in her words when she spoke about her experience of how a close relative refused any help to her!

Wounded, but not hurt! 

What a message! It is a call not to withhold goodness whenever possible!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

In two days!

The difference in two days!

The difference is because the a bud has opened! From being hidden, the flower emerges! This is the self disclosure that takes place in nature all the time!

We planted the seeds of beans, and after ten days, the seedlings sprouted!

I pause to think, how much more all of us can make self disclosure of humanity through kindness, thoughtfulness, charity and forgiveness!

Yesterday, a nine year child returned to say, 'Thank you for speaking some kind words about me to my father' !

Some of us live choked, because we do not experience the kindness that is spoken by Jesus of Nazareth in the parable of the 'Good Samaritan', when a man stops to attend to the wounds of a wounded person!

It calls for self disclosure of kindness whenever possible!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Strangers becoming friends!

I was amazed at the way Daffney, who takes a while to play with strangers became tamed in no time with two children who visited us for the first time! It is unusual for children to be so spontaneous to make a dog feel cared for and for the dog to reciprocate admirably!

Humans are destined for affirming communication! When that happens, resistance fades away!

While being involved with a group of students recently, I realised how occupied they were to be possessive and defensive of their behaviour! When I received messages from three friends who sent me Pope Francis's new year appeal, I realised how powerful is the transforming effect of the two word phrase, 'I am sorry'! And yet, it is the last thought that comes to me in difficult circumstances!

I summarised recently my involvement with an organisation for four years, which made me aware of how much I owe to say 'sorry' or 'thank you' to some people. When I sent out seventy or  so mails, I felt a new experience of wellness dawning on me! 

Fellowship in friendship is the natural way to live in mutuality !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The season of plenty!

Our garden is plentiful with Lilies now. It is  a season of plenty. We might have another season of plenty in summer all being well. Between the two occasions there are only leaves or only bulbs in the soil! So there are seasons of rejoicing and seasons of 'drought'. Together they make life full, content and complete!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

Feeling at home!

As Anna and I watched this sight yesterday, we were amazed at the silent communication taking place! To be present to each other in silence is often endearing! The in between silences give birth to words when spoken become seeds of love and hope, and displace the usual chatter effect!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Look at the birds..!

The birds are provided for  for their daily needs although they do not sow or reap! This is  a certainty with which the birds live! This sight brings hope.

This is an antidote to anxiety! I keep this sight in view as I begin the new year! Jesus of Nazareth referring to the birds said, 'the Heavenly Father provides for them' !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Becoming open!

Between the bud and flower there is a journey to become open! Being open to God and to each other is the way of finding fullness of life while living!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Greetings of peace!

I do not have a white pigeon to send out, but I share these white flowers  from our garden as symbol of peace in 2018! Blessed are those who are peace makers and peace givers!

M.C.Mathew(photo and text)