I noticed an elderly couple on a morning walk in a hospital campus, silent and looking gloomy! I stayed watching their walk because their body language conveyed the heaviness they were carrying!
The sun was shining on them from behind!
A mango tree beside them was with its tender leaves announcing the season of its bloom.
A Eurasian tree sparrow with one leg on the ground, was watching the couple pass by and kept gazing at them for a while.
This scene stayed with me during the day about the journey in life most people encounter at some time or other!
The experience of illness is a difficult season in one's life!
The sparrow with one leg seemed to notice the couple and visually followed them!
I was intrigued by the sparrow's searching look! All that it could do was to stay watching the elderly couple with attention. It offered its gift of looking to see !
It became a silent message to me!
Looking to see!
Seeing is a prelude to feeling!
It is when we allow ourselves to feel, we enter the next inner experience of being moved!
Those who are moved are the ones who respond to care!
Was the sparrow injured that lost one leg? Or was the leg folded under its body. I do not know.
This added to the mystery of that road side scene! If it was an injured sparrow, then, it symbolised a behaviour of mindfulness even when hurt! Some withdraw to be self absorbed when hurt! But this sparrow was attentive to look and see, while staying hurt with a loss of a limb!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment