The life in the garden

The dry spell of about an hour yesterday, gave me an opportunity to walk into the different parts of our garden after about two weeks. I was  looking forward to such an occasion. For two weeks now, it was raining and the garden was soaked in water! The vegetation had a new look.

 

The flowers and fruits caught my attention. There was abundance of freshness and newness in all of them. 

We have three custard apple trees, and five mango trees in our garden. I noticed one custard apple and one mango fruit. Usually we have better yield from these trees. 

As I was to return to the cottage, a surprising thought flashed through my mind. I felt grateful to have been able to take photos of these different sights in our garden. 

The first time I saw someone taking an interest in the garden, and the sights all around, was in 1970, when late Dr Frank Garlick visited me in 1970 at Medical College, Nagpur, when I was a third year medical student. Dr Garlick used his camera to take photos. I was intrigued by his keen observational skills and interest to capture them. 

It is now 44 years since I had had my first camera. But it was in 1987, I got familiar with a comment of Dr Garlick: 'We see with our eyes and take photos. Learn to receive the look of the object you take photo of'! 

I got a glimpse of the depth of that statement, when I started taking photos of human faces, particularly of children. Their look was communicative of different moods and truth. Since I moved on to take photos of flowers and birds since 1997, I have been becoming more aware of the message which Dr Garlick left with me. 

Two years ago, when Anna suggested that we publish a book on Bird movements-our responses, we became more familiar with what the look of birds can mean to us. 

The table calendar we publish for ASHIRVAD for three years now, is a tribute to the flowers and birds, from whom we received messages of encouragement and insight.

               

The garden and the trees, plants and the grass on the ground. gave me yesterday, a feeling of being surrounded by life, which enrich our lives. The garden of trees and plants nourish us! They provide shelter to birds. They give us fruits and flowers. The honey bees and butterflies feed on the nectar. The fallen leaves become manure to the soil. The trees make the air oxygen rich. There is enough fruits in our garden for birds, squirrels and ourselves. 

How life is nourished by the environment!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The twilight calls!

On mornings, at day break, this Magpie robin is at its perch on the summit of a coconut tree, with its chorus of bird calls! The only days I did not notice it in the last two weeks was when it was raining heavily. If it was only a drizzle, the Magpie robin was there in the same perch with its bird calls. 

I noticed the bills and the tail during its bird calls. There were different movements in the bills and tail. They corresponded with its varying tone, loudness and duration of the call. Its singing involved the whole body participating. Its emotional state was expressed in its singing. They were not just bird calls but an expression of its language of feeling which it was communicating. 

This is the mating season. I wonder whether it was calling for partner! I am yet to notice another Magpie robin coming to its vicinity or giving reciprocal calls. 

What touched me was its routine almost every day! The tuneful singing is its habit!

We make ourselves known to others by our acts of kindness, thoughtful behaviour, and gestures of mindfulness. 

Our domestic worker came to enquire on Sunday if all was well with us as it was raining through the night! I felt touched by his gesture. A friend sent a message hearing that there was red alert in our area following incessant rain. 

Their sensitive and caring ways brought a surprise. How are we  to others, is the larger question that we skip or forget to consider. The above two examples prompted me to send messages to fifteen friends that I was not in touch with recently. I remember how some friends take care to stay in touch, sharing their joyful and trying experiences! 

The language of the heart is more than the language spoken by the lips. The nearness we feel towards people when expressed intimately and thoughtfully, convey the language of the heart!

The Magpie robin in its bird call carried a language of the heart giving itself to make the calls tuneful and melodious!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

 

Life in nature!

How contrasting the climate has turned out to be in the last two weeks. The day temperature ranged form 36 to 42 degrees celsius in the last two months. 

For two weeks now, the monsoon rain has changed the day time to be pleasant, excepting that there was only short spell of respite from rain. The sunshine is only during short periods. 

The above sights of butterflies feeding on nectar, in our garden in front of our cottage, was a delightful sight. To have the butterflies back in the garden after their migration from the garden during the hot summer months was a delightful feast to the eyes. Their colourful complexion is unique and only when one sees it, one feels the delightful blend of colours, well beyond an artist's creation of colours and design on a canvas!

While moving out in the garden following this, I looked out to the tree top, to the regular bird shelters. 

I found two mina, perched among the foliage ! They were singing to each other. The bird calls were subdued meant only for  each other! A romance in the monsoon time!   

What I experienced during the short time of ten minutes before it started to drizzle again, was the way normal life goes on, around us for butterflies and birds. 

They live because of what they can receive from the provisions in nature! 

There are days, when we forget to fill the bowl with bird food. The Mina birds come searching for food and return not having found the cereals in the bowl.   

The recent choice we made to avoid using insecticides did some good in allowing the butterflies to breed in our garden. The down side is that the rose flowers are invaded by fungus and insects. 

A family told me recently that they enjoy having their two pre-school children immensely. But if the cupboards are kept open, between both of them, they would have pulled out things to engage in make belief play. On one occasion, both parents were in the garden. When they got into the house they were greeted by their daughter with mother's saree around her chest and the rest of the length dragging on the floor. The boy had his father's shirt on him with its length covering him till the feet and the remaining length of the shirt on the floor. 

To their further surprise, they found their clothes scattered all over the floor. They had emptied the wardrobe to search for the colourful clothes, they had watched their parents wear. 

I felt comforted while listening to this experience as they spoke about it not angrily but with a sense of humour. I admired their patience and child friendly disposition!

The joyful experiences of childhood and the down side of coping with their pranks!

To allow the rose flowers to be food for insects or protect the flowers with insecticides and loose the butterflies from breeding in the plants adjacent to the rose bush in the garden ! This is a difficult choice. It is now six months since we have had the usually fresh and blooming rose flowers, since we refrained from using the insecticides. But we have the butterflies of three or four species in the garden!

We loose and gain. That is the rhythm in nature!

To live with a peaceful orientation, is what I discover from these experiences!

M.C.Mathew (text and  photo)

Enduring and receiving care!

The jasmine flowers in our garden look sparkling white and are fragrant for about two to three days before they fall off. The above pictures are of flowers about a week ago, at the beginning of a week- long rain spell.

About two days after the rain fall, without much respite or sunshine during the day, the flowers began to look dull, mildly brown tinged and less fragrant. The absence of honey bees in the garden was unusual.

As the rain progressed for anther three days, the flowers showed different colours and patterns indicating signs of decay of the petals in the absence of sunlight, to dry the water soaked petals. 

It was a sight that surprised me. May be, I had not noticed earlier the effect of incessant rain and the absence of sunlight! 

During the last two days, there is a respite from rain and sunlight during the day. 

The following photos after two days of brighter day, the flowers are returning to their normal appearance. The in between rain was  followed by bright sunlight. 

It occurred to me that too much of rainfall without daytime sunlight harm the jasmine flowers. The other flowers in the garden did not show similar changes during the week long rain spell. 

There is a threshold of tolerance of adverse climatic conditions beyond which, the jasmine flowers show various changes in colour and  signs of decay of the petals. 

I felt glad to see the jasmine flowers back to their usual colourful and fragrant presence in the garden. In fact the aroma is now back in our courtyard. 

There is a threshold of tolerance of adverse situations for all of us. I read the story of a family, whose two pre-school children were admitted in a hospital at the same time with respiratory infection  needing intensive care. The father and mother took turns to take care of them. It was the turn of the motor to fall ill and get admitted in the hospital. 

At this time two neighbourhood families took the responsibility to take care of the two children and their mother in the hospital allowing the father to have break. The two neighbourhood families did this for a week, before the children and mother could return home from the hospital. For another ten days, the neighbourhood families supported the family by sending them food and helping with some housekeeping. 

We hen the neighbourhood families were interviewed by a press reporter, their response was, ' The family had too much of distress in a week and we wanted to support them to endure..'!

I feel moved by this form of neighbourhood care. This form of self-giving might be happening regularly, but I was not aware of it!  I know of usual visits that families might make to enquire when someone is sick or visit them in the hospital. But this way of becoming an extended family brought much cheer and hope!

There are times when each of us can feel burdened by the demands that are far too much to process or endure. Such stories are too many that one tends to accept them as the norm. 

The story above was an exception in 'loving your neighbour as yourself'!

When I passed by a plant nursery yesterday, I noticed netted green sheet, covering the plants kept in the open, to provide a green house effect. The gardener told me that it is a shade to protect the plants from the rainfall damaging the plant! I remembered how strawberry farmers spread cover net over the plants to protect them from frost and snow. 

There is a threshold of endurance. From the stories I hear, many people live enduring hardships, more than they are able to bear !

To care is to feel with others in their need!

That is the message that reaches me as I reflect on what I saw happening to the jasmine flowers in our garden during the rainy week!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Alone and defenceless !

On a cloudy evening, when visibility was not good enough for photography, I captured these pictures of a pair of Bulbuls responding to what they noticed and heard. 

There were a few bird calls in the air. The birds sensing rain, normally look for safe shelters. 

Initially I thought that the frequently changing body behaviour of the two Bulbuls might be linked to the plan for the flight movement before the rain fall. 

I noticed that they stayed on even when the drizzling started! 

They looked intently in one direction, which made me scan in the distance anything that might be worrisome for the Bulbuls. There was a large gathering of crows on a palm tree. The cacophony they produced might have been threatening. The tall trees for shelter were located in that direction. 

It was evening and the last flight movement of the Bulbuls was hampered by the crows. 

That alarmed me about the plight of birds. I received a few pictures from a  friend, about predators who search and find nests to consume the eggs in the nest. In one instance, the nest was without the eggs a day later. 

The freedom to live and thrive is denied to many. The thousands who get displaced from their homes on account of natural disasters, war, famine, development work related to building roads, housing complexes or commercial spaces experience stress and distress. 

This came home to me the other day, when a news report suggested that thousands of fish were floating in a river, which might have been contaminated by untreated chemical effluent discharged in to the river by factories close by.  

I was looking for some message of comfort and hope from the prime minister of India, when the unemployment has reached to a monstrous figure, the highest in forty years. When only one out of five youth can find a job, the message of despair is in the air. Instead, during the ongoing election season, I heard the prime minister using divisive or threatening language to gather votes for the political party that he represented. The prime minister has elected himself to be the next prime minister without giving a chance to the members of the parliament elected from his party, to choose a person in a democratic way. 

We live in an environment, when those from whom we expect a conciliatory and encouraging message, disappoint us. 

Do we live in a hostile environment where others with authority dominate and control!

The Bulbuls hesitating to fly to their shelter on account of the predators around, reminded me of the plight of thousands, who suffer and endure without respite or hope to renew their strength!

The quaker movement also referred to as the Religious Society of Friends, which began in the 17th century, focussed on abolition of slavery, granting equal rights for women and for securing global peace. This movement created history as a catalyst for change without violence or aggression. Their passive resistant movements did wonders in England, Ireland and in the USA. 

I remember talking to a senior friend who was active in the above moment and involved in the independence movement in India.  Before his home call about ten years ago, his parting message to me was, 'One can represent and  communicate  truth even if one is alone'!

When I noticed the Bulbuls to be defenceless and forced to stay on in the open when it started raining, I remembered this message of the Quakers- to pursue truth and peace all the time, even if one is alone! Fear of reactions did not stop them from following  that enlightened path

This was what the Bulbuls left with me on that evening!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

 
 

From holding on to staying on!

From the drawing room of our cottage, we have a good view of the fields up to a distance of about five hundred meters. I like watching the sights and scenes in the fields after wind or rain. 

Towards the evening yesterday, when the visibility was fading, I noticed two crows perched on the terminal twigs of a tall teak tree about three hundred meters away. It was windy and  raining, although not so intense!

What struck me was, one crow sitting at the edge of a twig, balancing to stay close to the other crow! The other crow was perched better, as it was protected from both sides by the foliage. The wind did not displace it. 

One crow had chosen to stay while the other was struggling to hold on!

It highlighted the choice a bird can make. One chooses a safer place and the other opts for a vulnerable perch! If the vulnerable perch gave any advantage of any sort, it could be considered worth it. 

Some experienced birders have stories of how a male bird has to impress a female bird during mating season for courtship! This was less likely to be one such instance!

A professor of surgery, late Dr Frank Garlick, once told me about the choices we make in our lives. We are to make choices in life corresponding to our ability to go through the after effects of that choice. He narrated a situation where a young doctor couple was living miserably in a rural area with his family, trapped in an unredeemable situation, where the hospital was dysfunctional in spite of his efforts to revive the hospital for three years. When the family moved to another hospital, the family recovered and their contribution to the hospital made a difference with more patients coming to the hospital. This family had initially chosen to go to a difficult situation in the hope of turning around the situation. The doctor couple got subsumed by the complex situation that their skills were not enough to change a chronic conflicting situation. 

This example has remained with me since then. I come across some who feel carried away by a heroic orientation. It works well for some and not for all. 

Late, Dr George Joseph, a retired professor of Community Medicine from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, became the chairman of the Council of Healing ministry of the Church of South India and was stationed in Chennai. Anna and I had known him well during our time in Chennai from 1983. He after visiting the several church run hospitals found that some doctors were not conditioned to work in rural hospitals for longer periods,  because, their temperament and habits were more suitable for another environment. From the different interventions made to match the environment and the 'calling' of doctors, he demonstrated changes and revivals in the life of the doctors and the hospitals.  He helped me to understand that the needs of the family would also change during the different stages of transitions in a family that we ought to be responsive to address them. His approach was to avoid  making a family stay in a vulnerable situation for too long that they feel exhausted in their endurance and resilience. 

The crow could have chosen a safer perch like the other crow. Even if it wanted the pleasure of an adventure to stay afloat in the strong wind, it does not have to perpetuate the habit to end up struggling to stay. There is a choice without stretching to a state of exhaustion to exist!

It is from an inner state of readiness and wellness, one can be optimally present in a given situation! To live is a calling just as serving is a calling!

I wish all those who are in a profession, where 'giving and caring' is habitual, they would have a formative appraisal of their wellness, in body, mind, spirit, family life, relationships, communication process and emotional quotient! I had an experience of being involved with professionals who go through mid life, where such a personal integrated appraisal three times in a year seemed to have helped some to monitor the quality of their integrative living! Some are still in touch to share how they align their lives to live at a wellness level they chose of themselves.  

We are human and our personal humanity is unfolding as we go along the journey in life! There is a journey from being, to becoming, belonging and befriending life! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Amidst the wind and rain!

The teak tree in our garden, has multiple branches with their flowers, swaying in the wind, giving a dancing appearance!  It was a cloudy afternoon yesterday, while I sat watching this sight. 

The bunch of flowers in the tallest branch, the two photos above, kept changing the shape and size of the blossoms, depending on the direction of the wind. 

As I sat watching this delightful dancing movements of a branch, the wind became stronger, along with heavy down pour. The visibility of the branch and its flowering twigs decreased in the rain. 

What followed was another sight of surprise. A cattle Egret came flying into the bunch of flowers, trying to steady itself, when the wind swayed the bunch of flowering twigs. 

During the next ten minutes, what I noticed was something unusual. The cattle Egret seemed to steady itself effortfully, while the strong wind was swaying the flowering twigs. It could not succeed in steadying itself and flew away from my sight. 

Following this, a racket-tailed Drongo, arrived to perch on a stem and seemed to stay comfortably while the wind was still strong.The rain was less heavy by then and the visibility had improved.  But the Drongo did not last to hold on, beyond a few minutes. It too flew away!

As I watched a cattle Egret and a racket-tailed Drongo effortfully steadying themselves, to be perched while it was windy, my thoughts went to times in my life, when Anna and I felt swayed by some adverse circumstances.  

One such experience came to my mind when Anna and I felt pressured about thirty five years ago, to change our direction from being involved with developmentally challenged children. Some well meaning friends, who were associated with us, not having found the initiative for child development showing sufficient momentum or visibility, dissuaded us from continuing. We felt disturbed and swayed. 

The invitation to associate with the Institute of Neurology at Chennai for post doctoral research came at that time and opened the door of opportunities beyond all expectations. It was after this, ASHIRVAD received the invitation from the Christian Medical College, Vellore to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to start the Developmental Paediatrics Unit, and introduce the speciality of Developmental Paediatrics in India. 

Now looking back to those years of doubt, faltering support from friends, and pressure to change course, the message that I draw from that experience, is the gift of staying power that Anna and I received during that time. We want to recall the support of Dr William Cutting of Edinburgh and Dr V.I.Mathen of CMC Vellore,  who walked with us while on a slippery path. 

While watching the cattle Egret and a racket-tailed Drongo, getting swayed in the wind and having to fly away to safety, the above experience of how we felt steadied when our strength to hold on was failing, warmed my heart and filled me with gratefulness. 

It was this experience in our lives, which was a turning point, which made us aware of similar vulnerable situations that people go through life. We feel near to a few who stay in touch with us. To affirm their ability to endure and be steadfast to continue in their vocation is an opportunity that Anna and I currently feel called to!

A boat sways in wind and storm. Jesus of Nazareth, while being alone in the mountain, felt how His disciples whom He sent away in the boat, were straining at the oars with the wind and storm, in the fourth watch of the night. Jesus came towards them walking on the water announcing, 'Take courage, it is I do not be afraid' (Mark 6:45-52). The boat got steadied, once Jesus joined them in the boat. 

Life is not a linear journey! It is a journey through experiences that form us and upbuild us to be steadfast. The wind and storm can be enabling experiences, provided there are people around, caring enough to be supportive! 

One person who regularly visited and accompanied us during our turbulent times was late Dr Rachel Chacko. Another person who affirmed us to continue our involvement with developmentally challenged children was late sister Mary Theodore. The highlight of each week during several months of doubt and despair, was meeting both of them. Dr Hans Burke offering Anna and me to join in for the month long retreat that he arranged, gave us a formative environment to process our experiences and move forward taking small steps in hope. They cared to love and give themselves to us!

It was while watching an Egret and Drongo in their struggle to steady themselves in the wind and rain, these memories returned to me!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)