What surprise it was to have Rejit, Sowmya and Caleb visit us yesterday to greet Anna for her birthday with a home made cake! It was a delightful evening of being present to each other in remembering happy experiences.
Anna has had greetings from friends from different parts of world, going back as early as her student days at CMC Vellore. There were some who wrote in detail about some experiences which made us relive years of association with them.
It was an accidental meeting with Rejit in 2012 when Anna and I joined MOSC Medical College, which has enlarged into this friendship. To know them as a family and stay in touch with them has been a delight to us.
I pondered over the way relationships evolve over years. Some remain as colleagues at work, some as acquaintances, some others as social friends, few others as companions and a few as confidants with interest in each other's lives and experiences. Whatever might be the level of relationships, what is significant is to keep the relationship alive by being mindful and honourable in giving and receiving.
It is this consciousness, which made Anna and I feel touched when we had this surprise visit from Rejit, Sowmya and Caleb. We were reminded about the value of keeping in touch with others to bring small encouragements whenever possible.
To me this visit from them revived me, as our contacts and relationships with others have been less alive recently. It need not be so even if we become older and less visible.
In an attempt to remember about three hundred people who have been actively involved in our lives over the last forty-five years, I was able to reach out to about hundred of them through personal letters in the last one year. As I continue to reach out to the rest, I realise how relationships have been most formative in our lives! To remember gratefully even those who turned indifferent is one way of forgiving and freeing in order to celebrate 'all experiences'! Can there be a mountain without a valley!
Life is for celebration of living and learning!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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