The first sight I noticed in the drive way was students returning home at the end of the day. They conveyed a relaxed mood.
The Bulbul perched on the top of a tree looked ready to fly away to its resting place for eh night.
The birds in the lawn caught my attention. They were frolicking or grooming their body or searching for the last feed.
On my way, at the marshy ground the water birds were grooming their body, ready fo three night.
What was my mood then!
I felt I was carrying a load of concerns after a turmoil of several weeks at my work place, when I reached the car park. When I stopped at the driveway and watched these sights in the college campus, I faced a question arising from within, 'Why carry the burdens for tomorrow! By being anxious, can you add a cubit to your height'!
That is when I stopped at the wayside. One one side was the marshy field where I watched the waterbirds grooming their body.
The birds groom their body in the morning and evening. It is a ritual which they practice as a second nature.
They welcome the day and bod farewell to the day with this ritual.
I grew up in a how where prayer was a ritual in the morning and evening. It is still a practice in many homes even today.
What is this ritual for! It is for returning to God, in ' whom we live, move and have our being'.
I needed these students and birds to tell me the better way of living, not carrying the burdens of the day in to the might but resting in the consciousness of God who watches over us, who 'neither slumber nor sleeps'. These are age old beliefs and contemporary realities.
I legitimised my reasons to be anxious in the recent months as I felt an unsettling environment at work place.
But the sight of the students returning home and the birds readying themselves for the stillness of the night gave me a contrary view to my habit of worrying!
I drove home later than the usual time and Anna was waiting wondering how I got late. I shared my thoughts and reflected with her the sights that I saw on the way.
It was then Anna told me that she too was thinking about me and hoping that I would feel freed of the burdens and find a different outlook to face the present circumstances.
Anna pointed out to me the rose bush in bloom with the two buds waiting to open!
This is prayer- to turn from ourselves to beyond of ourselves! It was the creator God who became a symbol to me when I watched this rose bush in bloom.
The silence we make within ourselves is the way to start the habit of prayer!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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