Living as a gift!

The Cashew tree in our garden next to our cottage, offers a fascinating sight! It has different generations of fruits. The season started in December and the tree continues to have flowers even now with tender cashew nuts. This is unlike the earlier years, when the flowering started in February and the fruiting season was over by April. 

It is customary to attribute many changes we see in nature in the recent years to climate change!

Ever since the the United States of America, which was one of the sponsors of the Paris Treaty on Climate, withdrew from that treaty since the new president took over recently, there is an alarm signal in the minds of environmental scientists about further climate distress!

Apart from the sadness caused by the position of the United States of America on climate, what brought to my attention yesterday was a new consciousness about the gifts a tree brings!  Its foliage, flowers, fruits, and the shelter it is to birds and squirrels are just a few of the gifts that the tree brings to the garden. 

A sapling of less than one foot height,  that we planted seven years ago, is now a large tree, which needs pruning every year due to the spreading of its branches in all directions. 

A tree grows and offers its gifts to nature!

A family too is such a gift to society!

Every family brings its goodness to add to the pool of gifts for others. 

When Anna and I got the attic of  our  cottage cleaned yesterday, I came across some vessels which my mother used for various purposes. One was  a vessel, which was used to measure milk to give to those in the neighbourhood. All women in the neighbourhood who were expecting a baby received milk from our home. That was her gift to them with no payment taken. Although it might be one or two every year, she continued the practice till she was well enough to keep cows at home. I come across people in our village, who benefitted from this practice ! 

One gift which my father offered was saplings of coconut to the neighbourhood. He had a nursery of coconut saplings about twenty five every year, which he distributed, up to five to each person. That was how he popularised coconut palms in our village. 

I travelled back in my memory lane to my childhood yesterday, when I was around six years, when it was my activity during the summer months to gather cashew nuts from the trees.  The neighbours received the share of the fruits !

The neighbourhood was the orbit in which people lived. In fact, there were no boundary walls at that time.

The neighbourhood consciousness is vanishing ! The insular living has become the norm. 

The neighbours were gifts to each other!

I ponder over this shift!

The cashew tree in our garden remains as a symbol of gift that it is !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

 

A shared inheritance!

 

Each flower has its own colour and charm !

Some flowers, which have a short life of one or two days might go unnoticed !

The Lilies in three colours in three different parts of the garden almost escaped my attention!

The photos of Pope Francis bidding farewell to his dog, before he passed away, tell a lot about the way every person develops the attachment behaviour in different ways.  The dog refusing to leave his tomb, is a testimony to the bonding that existed!

I listened to a garden enthusiast who described me a lot about  each plant and its flowers and fruits in the garden ! There is an emotional link that  plants bring to his life. 

I looked around in the garden for flowers in clusters! The photos below of two flowers from one stem caught my attention. They arose from the same branch, but there are differences between them! But what is common between them are lot more than the few differences. 

There is a simmering tension in the Indo-Pakistan border brewing into a confrontation now, following the 'shoot at sight' behaviour of a few terrorists in Kashmir, hailing from Pakistan. About 26 tourists were killed. I am  aware of a discriminatory attitude towards one religious community by the political dispensation that governs India at this time.  It is unlike the peaceful orientation between the religious groups since independence. It is a sadness and grief  which people of secular orientation carry within !

Ever since the partition of the two countries about seventy five years ago, the tensions did not settle down. The Kashmir territory, partly under control of Pakistan and the rest with India is the reason for tension. There is also a religious overtone perpetuating this conflict1

I go back to the last two photos above. What is common between the pairs of flowers which dominate and supersede the differences. 

India and Pakistan closed the borders to each other now. Pakistan will not receive water from the river originating in the Indian land space!

I am afraid, that the three international leaders of the USA, Russia and China are also territorially ambitious and aggressive. 

Humans are created to be fraternal. The post World War Two scene was a movement towards shared humanity! Now the Oligarchs and not politicians control the destiny of these three nations!

When we  cannot see in each human face another person similar to us, we have lost most of the humane disposition natural to human beings!

The flowers in the photographs above bring me a message! Each person is like a flower who lives in the earth for a sort while. They are people of beauty and nobility!

Will people return to be fraternal!

That is the longing of many !

The  killing of tourists is a gross aberration!

A war or territorial aggression is also a gross aberration!

It is terrible to think that the Indo-Pakistan conflict will get added to the lists of conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and in other places!

The flowers are symbols of peace!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A fruit for all seasons !

Between the flowering of a banana plant and the fruit ripe enough to be gathered, is usually about three months. This season is usually uneventful unless a strong wind uproots the plant or breaks the stem. Its is therefore usual to support the stem with wooden pole to assist the stem to bear the weight of the banana bunch, which can weigh 20 or more kilograms. 

The banana plantation which was the commonest cash crops in most properties in the past is now getting replaced by other vegetables. The cost of production is high and corresponding return is not forthcoming.  The market trends are not in favour of the farmer! 

The banana fruit is rich in calories and vitamins and is an item of food, children are fond of. Every household who has some land around the house would normally have a few banana trees. 

The banana leaf used to be used in restaurants to serve meals, instead of plates. The banana leaf is nourishing food for cattle. The core of the stem is still used to cook to make delicate vegetable stew. The squirrels find nectar from the flower after the banana bunch is fully formed. 

It is one plant that produces several shoots of young banana plants around the main stem. They when transplanted grow to give fruit in about six months. It is easy to cultivate and needs little attention. 

It is the banana fruit that attracts birds to the feeding station in our garden. The Bulbuls would even come to the kitchen to eat from the fruit bowl, if the feeding station does not have banana. 

The banana fruit is an appetising food.

The deep fried banana chips made from raw banana is a favourite snack for many. The ripe banana soaked in dough and deep fried becomes another tasty snack. The ripe banana when dried in sun, can be preserved and used to make banana stew. 

I know that athletes and sportsperson carry banana fruits in their kit as the fruit gives glycemic support instantly! 

Those who have Diabetes can also take this fruit in moderation, although its glycemic index is high!

No wonder banana fruit is considered an ideal fruit !

Each plant is unique, because of the multiple benefits a plant or its flowers or fruits can bring !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Communicating behaviour!

 

The Bulbul birds resident in our garden follow a routine with regard to visiting the flight stations. One routine in the morning, at day break, is to perch in the tallest palm tree in the garden and take a 360 degree view of the land and air space around!

Once that routine is over, there is a long stretch of bird calls. It is occasional when another Bulbul comes in response, but there are reciprocal Bulbul calls from different parts of the garden. 

The Bulbuls are the earliest to start their flight movements at day break. This is the way they connect with the environment each morning. The bird calls when reciprocated to a bird call from a distance, carries a similar tone. Its content is communication!

When I noticed another Bulbul arrive to be perched near the feeding station, I knew that it was a physical presence in response to the bird call of the Bulbul form the palm tree. 

The language of birds has a social appeal to other avians. 

 

Even a pair responded to the bird calls and came to be perched near to the earlier one who arrived.

The avian language of cordiality is an example of communicating behaviour!

A message worth considering! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

The ever giving symbol!

I  noticed a phenomenon in the leaves, flowers and fruits in our garden- they keep bringing forth new leaves, flowers or fruits! It was interesting to watch different generations of leaves, flowers and fruits in each of the plants and a tree. 

They are present in the garden to bring the news of aliveness to give!

When more recollections of how Pope Francis lived are being known, it is refreshing to know how there was a spirit of  aliveness and giving within him, which continued to flow out naturally!

The money that was left with him  time at the time of his home call about 100 dollars. He was eligible for an allowance of about 3.5 lacs Euros every year, which he did not claim. He built a facility for shower in Vatican for people who were homeless. Whenever there was any festive occasion of a banquet, he deliberately included people who were poor, disadvantaged or dispossessed in the guest list. He had an annual get together for such people which were about two thousand or more. 

The more Pope Francis became limited physically, the more he seemed to have been thinking of others who live in difficult situations. Of late, he was trying to find more space for displaced people from other countries to come to Vatican to live!

When he auctioned the  Benz car that was given to him as a gift, at the time of him becoming the Pope, there was resistance from all people around him. He used the proceeds for different charitable work!

When I noticed the new leaves, flowers and fruits in the garden, I felt moved by their giving habits. 

Pope Francis who was laid to rest yesterday, was one of such self-giving persons, for whom others mattered. It was by doing good to others, he lived his vocation!

I remember Pope Francis as a shepherd, who lived being himself, always giving!

What an example to all the followers of Jesus of Nazareth!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Barbets without nest !

The two Barbets perched close to each other at day break in a Teak tree in our garden, came to my attention only because of the movement in the leaves. Their colour of the feathers so merge with the foliage that I would have normally missed them, but for the slow bird movements that caused the leaves to move.

I have recently noticed two Barbets together in our garden and occasionally visiting the feeding station. They live without a nest now! The garden is their home. I remember noticing Barbets flying out from the Teak tree after a spell of rain, which might suggest that the large broad leaves of the Teak tree offer protection to the birds in the rain!

Another hiding place for Sunbirds and Bulbuls are the thick foliage of the tall nutmeg trees. 

The coconut palms are the residents for the wood peckers. The parakeets look for gaping holes in the trees and hide in them. Sometimes the holes in the trunks of trees become their nests. 

When Israel invades Gaza and the American President encourages it or the Russian president receives approval from the Chinese premier and the American president for continuing to bomb Ukraine,  one wonders whether they have frozen their kindred feeling towards other nations!

In this wide world that offers space for all to live, we hear the American president talking about grabbing the Greenland! The president even talked about Canada becoming another state of the United States of America !

The birds in the photographs above remind us that we use what need and allow others to do the same!

I came across a passage in the second epistle of Peter in the New Testament of the Bible  that presents a road map for human behaviour:

'Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self control; and in your self-control, perseverance; and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness, love...For he who lacks  these qualities is blind or short sighted....' (2 Peter. 1: 5-9). 

The above text is wisdom literature for living hospitably and mindfully!

I felt moved while reading the above passage at a time when a value based living is displaced by aggressive spirit and acquisitive attitude!

I stay pondering over this !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A tearful Rose flower!

 

The news of 28 tourists killed in Kashmir by terrorists, shooting at them from a close range, shocked all of us. Even children were not spared! A strong suspicion that a people from one community was targeted! The shooters were armed intruders from the neighbouring country. The enmity lasting between the two countries, since independence, erupts in ugly form regularly!

There is a family near us who lost their loved one, whose body arrived yesterday!

I saw a weeping rose flower in our garden yesterday! Its 'tear drop' spoke to me of the shed tears of the families and the concealed tears in their heart that would last for long! A loss and grief is intensely personal! And yet, such distressing news, makes us feel the sorrow of others!

We are travellers through a myriad of experiences! 

I had not thought that even flowers can feel our sorrow ! 

I wish human beings will feel for each other and violence will leave us for ever!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Given to remember!

A Drongo perched on a tall tree in our garden at day break was in its chorus of bird calls. The long bird calls, unusual in their tone drew my attention! I found out that anything other than the usual bird calls can be due to some perception of danger around or resonance of its mood. 

I was visiting all the flowers in our garden when I was drawn by the bird calls of this Drongo. The sky was looking bright and the sun rays gave adorable look to the foliage and flower trees.  The Drongo was perched in a taller tree than the Teak tree next to it, that was in full bloom. 

Each tree or plant brings out in season what it is endowed with. 

Yesterday at the end of the walk with the collection of flowers above, it dawned on me that each flower with its distinct features of shape, size, colour, aroma and appearance makes the garden colourful and a home for the featured hosts who come for nectar or fruit or seed!

It was when I spotted the flowering of the dragon fruit plant in our garden yesterday, it dawned on to me, how a flower of that size, colour and appearance springs from a slender stem of the plant! What each plant gives as its flower or its fruit ,is the best it can offer!

The  garden which surrounds our cottage gives us this message: we live to give!

Whether it is the bird call of a Drongo, or the flowers above, they are giving plentifully and liberally! 

I felt fascinated by the shades of green in the foliage and the spectrum of colours in the flower!

Today as we remember our daughter Anita, who moved on from our midst on 24 April, 1981 at the age of three months,  many memories flash into our mind. It was her presence with us for three months, which led us to find our vocation professionally and created within us a longing for an integrated living. Hers was a sudden departure following a short illness. She survived a stormy illness as a newborn. As we look back, Anita came to be with us to bring a flavour of fullness to our lives. Her graceful  presence blessed us in many ways. 

The  flowers above from our garden become gifts of love as we still feel the loss of Anita from our lives!

The brilliance and the radiance of the flower in the Dragon fruit plant reminds me of the richness of the gift that Anita was to us and remains to be so now! The bird call of the Drongo was to remind Anna and me of the prophetic mission Anita brought to us during her short presence with us!

Anita is present with us even in her absence!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The presence of memories!

It is seldom a withered flower stays on in the blossom! Seeing the dry petals, hidden under the bright flowers, telling the story of the first flower in this bunch, I stopped to think!

For the last two days, a lot is talked about and written about Pope Francis, following his home call! He has physically moved on from our midst. 

A plant keeps giving its blossoms. 

Pope Francis was one such person radiating the grace of God !

He paid for his hotel room when He came to Vatican 12 years ago, to be in the conclave with other cardinals, where he was chosen to the Pope. He left money to cover the expenses for his funeral and burial. The Optometrist recollects of occasions when he personally came to the shop to  get his spectacles repaired. He had his living space in a block where cardinals lived and did not occupy the usual residence. He has had a habit of talking to the parish priest in Gaza every day, since the Israeli occupancy, until two days before his home call, to bring encouragement and hope to him !

He brought a refreshing touch through his friendship, humility, stewardship, simple living, and mindfulness towards others. He effused mercy and shepherding flavour in his relationships. 

What would live on would be memories about a Pope, who lived taking little for himself, but giving bountifully to others! 

Pope Francis brought a taste of the kingdom God on earth through his being and doing!

His body has 'withered' away, but the memories of him will live on...!

M.C.Mathew.(Text and Photo)

The morning ritual!

Almost everyday, I find some sun birds in its nectar gathering tour of the garden! 

What is outstanding is that it is done hastily ! It is swift and precise. 

Sometimes it flutters to stabilise itself in the air while siphoning the honey with its long beaks!

A small bird, but it makes me ponder over its habits and practices!

A pointer to the rich heritage in our environment! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

 

A movement Inward!

 

A purpose driven tree pie!

The third photo above of the Tree pie hopping, having noticed a twig, it wanted to gather for nesting, is a move I noticed only when I saw the photos in sequence at the time of editing!

Birds are known to be purpose driven for they have to find food, water, shelter, protection and a nesting place when the season has come!

I remember an earlier reflection on the behaviour of the Tree pie for its nesting. It was while revisiting the series of photographs yesterday, I noticed a precise planning and execution in its approach!

There was determination and effort in its behaviour!

Now the dialogue is active in the media about how much we depend on the Artificial Intelligence ! The Artificial Intelligence offers a lot. Even while I write this, there is an oft repeated pop up message in the screen, 'help for writing' ?

I paused to consider this issue! I felt awakened to appreciate the planning and executive skills of a Tree pie! It enthused me. I experienced a sense of wonder and marvel seeing this! It is about that personal experience, I write this reflection. 

I have an intelligent alternative to describe it effectively with the Artificial Intelligence tool! But that would not have given me the delight of a sense of wonder I experienced by pondering on the movements of a bird, bringing a new awareness of its purpose driven action!

It is when we allow ourselves to feel or reflect on an event to be touched, we discover the language of our own soul within! The human soul is aspirational for depth, meaning and wholeness!

What we encounter now in our situation is an inclination towards a fragmented or tangential or distorted view of life and situations! When the President of the United States of America is focussing to displace the immigrants and 'restore America for Americans', this distorted view is the driving force!

Humans are those who feel touched by the needs and state of affairs of others! Now the advocacy is, 'think about yourself first and last'!

The last message which Pope Francis publicly gave before his home call was, 'Think of the people of Gaza; they need a home and peace'!

I fear that the machine language which is going to dominate all walks of life might make humans distant from each other, task oriented and achievement driven!

The relational dimension of 'loving our neighbour as ourselves' is at a peril! 

We need prophets among us to show us the way of living as human beings with an heightened awareness of life and its fullness, arising from our grounding in relationships !

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)