The buds in rose bush !

What brings a message of hope, while walking on the garden is the buds in the rose bushes. Beyond the blooming flowers, the sight of the buds tells me about the life that shall continue through the buds in the rose bushes. 

There is a despair in the air from the news I gather in the newspaper or the television. The approach of Israel towards the Palestinians, leading to the death of over 29000 people and thousands displaced and living in hunger seems unthinkable to me. The political craftiness that the former president of the United States of America to get renominated for presidential contest is a mixture of unfairness and unethical practices.  The forthcoming election for a new government in India is also a sight of unthinkable dishonouring practices in a democracy. The lame duck that the United Nations Organisation has become, unable to reign in Russia from the ongoing military assault on Ukraine, is an indication of the approval of injustice by civilised nations.  

The future of young people in India with about 25 percent of them not able to find employment and about 20 percent of population living in economically distressing situations, cause distress and anguish to many.

It is this that preoccupies those who are socially conscious of human experiences all around us. 

I went out into the garden with these thoughts and found these bushes with buds. That sight lifted my spirit. Amidst the despair, there is a message of hope. 

It was the mindfulness of a boy, who had five loaves of bread and two fish offering them to Jesus of Nazareth, about which we read in the 6th chapter of the gospel of John in the New Testament, that led to Jesus  feeding five thousand people. The surprise and possibility of a small gesture!

There is something that each of us can do to make a difference to lessen the situations of stress that people go through. 

I received a good will gesture yesterday to remind me of the hope in every difficult situation. A neighbour brought a pumpkin from his kitchen garden and told me that he remembered how my parents used to be thoughtful towards him, when he was through a difficult time in his younger days. When I went to a shop to buy fruits, the shop keeper told me that he was wanting to meet me to tell, how his son had improved after treatment for his sleep disorder.

At the end of the day, as I recalled the events of the day, I realised, that we live in a situation of pain and distress. To be open to listen to the 

stories of people and feel with them, is a small step to revive the spirit of kindness and hope, which is like a balm of healing and comfort!

M.C.Mathew(photo and text)

The red ants !

Next to the cashew nut tree, which is flowering and with and with fruits in their stage, the red ants have made their nest. The red ants feed from the flowers and the cashew nut, when it is in its formative stage. I noticed this in the previous years also. The ant nests are seen near to the cashew tree in the season when cashew tree flowers.

Even the ants know a lot about survival skills!

I have often wondered about the wild animals coming to human habituated areas to find food, and causing damage to harvest ready fields and harm to human beings! Does it not give us a message worth thinking about seriously!  The animals are pushed to be aggressive as they are bereft of their habitat in the forests, which are now getting used for building facilities for humans. 

The question of the environmentalists,  'Are we unmindful of the needs of wild animals' is a resounding question. Humans create edifices for their existential pursuit and leave the environment depleted of the resources of the tribal communities and wild animals. 

This is not a healthy development but exploitation to purse selfish interests at the cost of harming wild life! If the suspicion is true that the ongoing conflict in Manipur is to vacate the hills where one community lives, is for using the hills for mining, then it does not speak well about the policy makers! It is thought that a few private companies are waiting in the wings to buy the land for minig!

Some countries like Australia make an effort to confess to the native occupants of the land, for wrongful possession of their land for development,  depriving them of their habits and patterns. In India, the tribal communities are feeling displaced from the forests, which have been their home for generations!

The ants build their nest where there are cashew fruits. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The noisy visitors

The Common iora above and the Marshall's iora below added to the variety of birds visiting our garden. They are not regular visitors.

 

The Marshall's iora stayed only for a short while. I was not able to get pictures of its movements. 

Both of them look colourful and admirably groomed. They move about too quickly between branches that I found photographing them in poor light conditions, as it was this morning, rather difficult. 

I understand that hey come close to human habitations as they like garden spaces. I suppose they find food in such places. These small birds not more than 15-20 cm in length surprise me about the way they hide between foliage, when larger birds like Bulbuls or Barbets arrive in the same tree. They are also brisk in flying and make an air dash between trees by flying high. 

Small they are, but they adapt well to the environment.  Their instinct to sense danger and act instantly is what is special about them. Their short musical bird calls, two or three types, in a hushed voice is another feature. They sometimes are noisy.It is the movement of the leaves, which alert me about the presence of small birds. They come visiting before the larger birds come in the golden hour. 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Flowers for the weekend!

The summer has set in. Yesterday the mid day temperature had shot up to 37 degree C.

I often wonder how these flowers with fragile petals survive the heat!

I gathered some flowers for our vase this morning. Their look of freshness charmed me. There is something in each flower to overcome the heat of the day! Resilience!

The character of resilience develops even more when exposed to hardships. 

The desperate act of the farmers in north India to reach New Delhi to protest against the neglect of the needs of the farmers by the central government, even when the roads are blocked and they are tear gassed, tells us about the their resilience. They are pushed to protest because their income does not meet the expenses of farming. 

Our inner strength forms our character. No wonder Ruth of the Old Testament went to glean from the barley-harvested field, out of desperation to survive! Her inner strength to support herself and her mother in law Naomi, is a noble example inner strength unfailing! 

The resilient flowers bring back many memories. The Kachwa Christian Hospital, near Varanasi, is celebrating its 125th anniversary. It was at the brink of closure in 2002, but it is now a place with a steady progress in its services to people from several villages. The few who felt committed to revive the hospital made it happen. This is a story of resilience and steadfastness!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

  

A dilemma!

I was in a dilemma whether to use insecticides when the fungus infection had spread in the garden especially affecting the rose bushes. 

It was when I returned to the recent photographs of the roses in our garden below, I sensed how terrible it would be if the new buds are eaten away by fungus. 

 The buds in the photos above are after the spraying of the insecticides!

This the first time during this year I used a spray to weed off the parasitic insects. The more biological option would be to protect the plants by using organic fertilisers. I need to find a way to do this. 

The rose bushes need a distinct care unlike the other plants like Hibiscus, Jasmine, and Lily.

The individualised care according to the needs of each plant is often not done. 

I have a similar experience with parents, who struggle to individualise attention to their children. The common care and attention is not often enough. I remember how, a child told me that he was interested to play drum, but he was forced to play the piano as that was what his older sister was doing!

The parenting attention has to have a flavour of creating an environment, optimal for each child as much as possible!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The change !

Until a few days, the leaves and buds looked covered in dew. 

Now, the bare look as seen below, is a contrast. The leaves and bud seem to have returned to the summer look!

The transition is a change that we can anticipate for which we can even prepare ourselves. The day temperature has been high touching 37 degrees C and the Summer has set in. The nigh temperature is correspondingly high. 

The seasons of weather follow a cycle but the cycle has got disturbed in the last two years with higher temperatures during the day and shortfall of rain. 

The question that is discussed in different fora is the impending drought like conditions in some places and water scarcity. 

Amidst these questions, when I gathered together the photos of the buds of rose bush from our garden, I realised that they weather the climate changes and adapt. 

Their resilience is what comes across to me!

The inner resilience is therefore a matter that is decisive! 

'When I am weak, then am I strong' is a profound statement! In one's vulnerability,  one finds new strength. Ruth of told Testament decided to glean from the barley field to gather food for herself and her mother-n-law, Naomi. The strength of a widow in a place foreign to her!

Amidst the external pressures, the inner strength sustains a person!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

 

The ritual for flight readiness!

I spotted a Kingfisher yesterday, about 200 meters away from our garden, perched in a a tree, having its sunbath. From the view of it through the camera lens that its body was wet. 

During the next thirty five minutes, till it flew away, I watched part of its grooming exercise. 

The steps involved, drying the body in the sunshine, preening to disentangles feathers, searching ectoparasites over the plumage, rubbing the beaks against the body, inspecting the feet, and spreading the feathers... I noticed this Kingfisher repeating this cycle a few times in the same order. Its orderly preparation for the flight of the day was interesting to watch. 

When I returned to read about the bathing ritual form a few on line sites of zoological information, I found that a lot is known about the bathing practices of the Kingfisher. That helped me to recall seeing the dip bath of the Kingfishers, although I do not have it photographed as yet. 

The king fisher might have been there at its perch, for a while before I spotted it. To spend a forty five minutes or more attending to its body to remain flight ready sparked an interest in me to look into its flight habits. They are known to be fast, cover short flight distances at one stretch and are brisk to dip into water, when sighting movement of a fish in water. The feathers have a protective coating to keep it away from being soaked, while dipping into water to fetch a fish to feed on. 

I wonder Kingfisher is a prototype for humans for healthy living. Its daily attention to its body and staying flight ready is a message for humans, who live indulgently with least attention to the body. About fifty percent of men and women in the third decade of life end up being obese, which then make them vulnerable to non communicable diseases. 

We live our life in our body. Our body is our home. I remember I had early signs of exercise induced breathlessness in my early fifties and needed attention to stay aware of the risk for coronary heart disease.  I needed a coronary surgical care 12 years later. Looking back, between forty-five and fifty-five years of age I lived working 16 hours, six days a week,  ignoring any form of daily rhythm of body relaxing exercises. 

As I turn back to those years, I find that a respectful and dutiful attitude towards the wellness of the body, got subsumed by the thrill of overworking to draw fulfilment from work. It was a disorderly way of living. 

I wish I was a bird watcher then! 

Ever since I took more interest in watching bird behaviour in the last fifteen years, I find the habits of birds giving some messages about attentive living!

Live well and feel well- that is a message birds leave with me now!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Colours and colourfulness!

 

The colours of Hydrangeas hold our attention as they have shades of colours of blue, violet, white and pink! It is a challenge to reproduce this in a painting. The nature's gift of colours and colourfulness are striking and refreshing !

It is when we have plants in the garden, we create colours to surround us. 

The colourfulness creates an ornamental look. In fact, poets suggest that colours around us affect our mood. A poetry may spring within us  to express the inner response and reflection of sights, scenes and colours, we see around us.

In the poem, I wandered Lonely as a cloud, by William Wordsworth, the last stanza is : 

'For oft, when on my couch I lie, 

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with daffodils'.

The colour and movement of flowers in the wind bring an experience that has a bearing on our inner ambience. 

We can create an environment with plants inside our homes and out in the garden, which can bring an experience of solitude by watching the plants remain silently present wherever they are planted or placed. Experience of solitude brings solace to add to our inner well being. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Flowers and trees!

Flowers feed the bees with honey. The trees provide shelter and food for the birds of the air. Both plants and trees are rooted in the soil which feed them. The sunshine gives the means and energy to survive through photosynthesis. 

This is the way of interdependence in nature, each supporting the other. 

I wish humans too would value and follow this way of living by relating to each other ! 

I wonder whether we, as humans have become distant from each other! 

The political climate in India is one of divisiveness. I wonder whether we loose our humaneness for the sake of promoting a particular political ideology! Both main line parties have fallen into this trap. 

An elderly gentleman whom I met for the first time yesterday in a shop, told me that 'he is getting used to a new form of selfishness- to use others for one's own advantage'! He summarised it well. 

The flowers and trees have a giving habit. They give unreservedly. The oxygen the trees bring to the atmosphere, sustains human life. 

When I saw these flowers while visiting two homes yesterday and noticing the large tree stretching itself in the heart of a town over a lake, aroused within me this consciousness of the gift of  'silent giving' of nature for our wellness!

The flowers and trees exist for others!

What a calling for humans to consider!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)