A red whiskered Bulbul

I heard a soft bird song from the tree that I was walking pass. When I looked up I could not spot a bird. I heard the soft bird song a second time. That is how I spotted this Red whiskered Bulbul hidden behind a thick foliage, giving me very little window of exposure with bright sunlight all around, but falling unevenly. 

It was perched on a vertically hanging dry branch! 

I looked at the branch. It looked strong enough to hold a bird. 

However how is that this bird was on a dry branch! Probably looking for insects.

Also the tree invited host of birds on its tall branches and flowers, displacing small birds from the tall branches. 

A dry branch also can provide shelter and daily bread.

When one feels dry and exhausted, the tendency is to feel helpless. But being in that situation is also step in the way forward. It is when 'we come to the end of our hoarded resources, God's full giving has just begun' according to Annie Johnson Flint. 

I feel like having been in a dry branch for a while now, when I think of my work place situation. It is exhausting when I think of it. To hold on also needs energy and resolve. I am not sure if I have all of that!

Seeing the Bulbul in a dry branch was a consolation and hope giving! Feeling weak and vulnerable or not feeling regarded is also an experience!

If what one expects from others is what one ought to offer to them, I feel that I have not done my part enough! It is a feeling of being in a strange place where ambience of trust and cordiality have evaporated. 

Although a tree would also have dry branches, it is just only one among the many alive branches. To grow around a dry branch is perhaps possible. A work place need not be free of doubts, anger, disregard, etc. but when they occur the attention has to turn to the tree- the purpose of work and the calling to be faithful in it. One unfortunate way to make the alive branches dry is by withdrawing attention from the tree and making it desolate!

I wonder whether my attention has been too much on the dry and desert experience for the last few months!

The bulbul was still singing from a dry branch! Its beaks were just open to singly feebly! How can I spread that measure of goodness, from a dry and parched inner ambience! That is where I am and I suffer from exhaustion thinking about it! I feel my strength failing me even to show small acts of kindness! I live with a feeling all expectations collapsing and the way forward looking densely dark!

It is at the top of this tree the flowers are blooming! So there is a direction to pursue- to move towards a direction where flowers can still bloom!

I have frequently watched this Magpie Robin in our garden perched on a coconut palm tree opposite our cottage lustily singing its bird song! That is when I am overcome by sorrow as well as a longing to experience this joyfulness within!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)