The garden of life!

 

A garden has a giving tradition!

The birds come to receive. A butterfly comes to feed on nectar. A bulb of lily buried in the soil springs forth into a plant and a flower following the summer rain. The rose bud sprouts to give new shoots, buds and flower. The soil gives life to both the lily and rose bush. There are multiple other events in the garden taking place each day. 

A jack fruit tree gives new shoots from its trunk in readiness to bear fruits during summer. It bears the memory of fruits born earlier, on the side of the trunk! It is in the habit of bearing fruit once or twice in a year.  

A garden offers its gifts to birds, butterflies, and humans. The soil is nitrogen rich. The oxygen these plants and trees give, sustains life. 

The plants and trees take their nutrition from the soil to give freely and abundantly. 

Taking and giving is the cycle in nature. Often the plants and trees give a lot more than they take from the soil. 

In one parable Jesus of Nazareth spoke to His followers, a rich man decided to build new barns to gather the gather grains from a rich harvest. His was a possessive attitude with personal gain alone in his mind.(Luke.12:16-21) The attitude of the rich man was: 'I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry' (v19). The millionaires of the world are those who have used the produce of the earth to acquire, possess and exploit to live prosperously for themselves. 

The efforts of some millionaires to create charitable trusts is most commendable  as they return part of their wealth to bring welfare to people in need. 

In the presidential debate two days ago, prior to the national election in the USA, the two candidates spoke about their aspiration. Their aspiration was to become the president and everything else appeared secondary. They seem to make giving, conditional to becoming the president of the USA. 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta showed another way of  giving life to the elderly people living in the streets of Calcutta, by giving up her role as the Principal of Loretta school. She lived and served not from a royal position, but from her heart of self giving in love. What I witnessed in the debate between the two presidential candidates was language of arrogance, suspicion, accusation, blaming and not of love and regard!

The giving when is from a lowly position, as it was in the case of Mother Teresa, there is renewal of life and promise of hope ! 

The birds in the garden looked well fed; the plants in the garden thrive, the flowers are vibrant and nectar giving and the jack fruit tree is ready to give forth its fruits! They bloom where they are planted. 

Living for giving! That is the pattern in nature. 

The political leadership in India is focussing on becoming the third largest economy in the world, while the bottom in the pyramid of population subsists with less than what they need! What a contradiction of purpose and intent!

Nature teaches us to give. As humans, I sense a growing tendency to acquire, possess, hoard and live indulgently anaesthetising ourselves from knowing about the needs of millions, for whom, a cooked meal each a day is still out their reach. 

I felt refreshed by the sights in the garden during the walk, because, the giving pattern in nature got reinforced in my thoughts. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)