Seeing these fruits, a two years old child told his mother, 'Corona Virus on the tree, Mummy'! He spoke this in a hushed voice and clung on to his mother.
Let me suggest that the conversations at home, media presentations, meetings, etc are mostly about the corona virus infection and the pandemic it has caused. No wonder that even a two years old has a permanent visual impression of the virus, from scores of times he might have seen it in the newspapers or in the TV during the last fifteen months.
Is not fear which drives even a child that a fruit reminds him of corona virus!
What are we doing with fear that resides in each of us as we come to the second wave of the infection in India!
There is fear of illness, fear of not getting a bed in a hospital if infected, not getting oxygen if needed, living in quarantine even after the illness for a while, infecting others who were in physical contact... the reasons for fear are too many!
Fear makes us anxious and unsettled. All behaviour when fear prone are different from the usual.
I liked the way the mother interacted with her son, 'Darling, you are wearing a mask; I cleaned your hands with sanitiser; there are not many people around us; we are in the open space; Mummy took vaccination'! The boy let go off his tight hold of his mothers and ran towards the gate, seeing a cat!
Doing what is possible and necessary would ally a lot of fears.
Fear is a burden we invite on ourselves. I wonder whether the news ion the way it is presented is fear generating!
I like an anchor in a national channel who says, it is only ten percent who might need an admission to a hospital, and most of them recover. The way to escape infection is to do all that we are told to break the chain. He allays fear. He reinforces good practices. He makes the statements realistic. He draws us away from fear to prevent contracting infection.
Fear is our first defence! A better defence is hope! That is what I learned from a two years old boy! His mother's voice comforted him and restored his hope!
The voice from within can be a voice of hope even in difficult situation! That becomes possible when we live looking beyond ourselves. I heard an incident of a woman with 1.5 mg Haemoglobin, who needed a surgery for ectopic pregnancy. The operating surgeon mentioned that the team turned their fear to prayer. The patient recovered, although now struggling with COVID infection.
The way to tame fear is to grow in consciousness about the dampening effect of fear upon many possibilities that remain open but hidden to us. Amidst the stress of fear, we miss to see the doors inviting us to move on!
Aunt Ida Scudder, the Founder of CMC Vellore in her prayer, which is often remembered during this difficult time, summarised this vision of living without anxiety:
'Father, whose life is within me, and whose love is ever about me, grant that this life may be maintained in my life today and everyday, that with gladness of heart, without haste or confusion of thought, I may go about my daily tasks, conscious of my ability to meet every rightful demand, seeing the larger meaning of little things and finding beauty and love everywhere. And in the sense of Thy presence may I walk through the hours breathing the atmosphere of love, rather than anxious striving'
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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