The above Arctic snow flower belongs to the family of Jasmine according to some descriptions I found in my search. This has been in our garden for two years now.
This plant has flowers during all the seasons of the year. It is one plant which has a few flowers almost every day!
Its nature is to bear flowers!
One parable that Jesus of Nazareth spoke had a reference to the land yielding a rich harvest. The rich man, who owned the land, thought to himself, 'What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops' (Luke12: 13-21).
The land yielded a rich harvest!
The land is the ground which gives us our food !
This brought an awareness about the inner landscape which grounds my being!
How fertile is it to bring forth acts of thoughtfulness and kindness!
I remember visiting a senior friend's home whom I knew for about twenty-five years. I noticed a small table in his study which had a stack of flash cards. I was curious to know why he kept those cards on the table. He was hesitant to talk about it. But later in the day he told me that he wrote on the card the names of any person whom he remembered, to whom he owed an apology or forgiveness.
He called my attention to two verses in the book of Romans in the New Testament of the Bible: ' If possible so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men' (Romans 12:180; 'So let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another' (Romans 13:19).
He having been a teacher and a surgeon, he was in the habit of recalling situations where he felt that he was not kind enough. It was from him I heard for the first time a phrase, 'soulful living'. For him the soulful living was living with inner freedom, kindness and thoughtfulness for which he needed to be at peace with others. He attended to the inner landscape of his life to remain fertile and sober to live gracefully, thankfully and altruistically. He lived revising the fabric of his inner landscape. Every time he remembered anything that needed attention to keep his inner landscape of memories or thoughts wholesome, he acted on it by getting in touch people for reconnecting.
The nature of the Arctic snow plant is to bear flowers all the time.
Listening to this senior friend who wanted to live relationally with others, brought a new consciousness about attending to the inner landscape to make it a fertile place of wholesome thoughts and relational outlook.
A surgical colleague of him recalled in a conversation about receiving a letter from this senior friend, expressing apology for a trivial event that he remembered only when he was reminded about it.
I realise that the inner landscape is a panorama of joys and delights of life as well as memories of hurts and disappointments.
No wonder that Jesus of Nazareth was able to confess publicly that, 'My soul is deeply grieved...' (Matthew 26:34) in the garden of Gethsemane. He was overwhelmed by events He was going through. It was this consciousness of His need, that turned Him to prayer, on three occasions in the garden.
That was how He redeemed His inner landscape to remain as a source of healing for others. He prayed from the cross, 'Father, forgive them, because they do now know what they are doing' (Luke 23.34).
If we can turn the inner landscape into an ambience of healing for ourselves and for living peacefully with others as much as possible, then the 'soil' of our soul is fertile to bring forth goodness.
That is soulful living!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment