The photos above are the feeding time behaviour of two Bulbuls, while it was drizzling in our garden! They arrived together chirping to each other on to the feeding table and related to each other in a way that they turned the meal time into communion between them!
They chirped to each other, looked at each other, looked around them and took turns to feed from the bowl. They flew away together!
I noticed the attentiveness and nearness they communicated to each other!
They remained present to each other!
Anna and I witnessed the pain and agony of a friend, when she lost her husband in a sudden cardiac event while travelling! When friends gathered at the air port to receive his body and the rest of the family, it was a scene of loss, grief and anguish. The two young children remained in a daze! Rest of us watching the friend in grief kept wondering how she would adjust to the loss of an intimate companionship! They both worked in a rural mission hospital in central India.
The sense of loss of that intimate presence to each other was palpable in the air while we waited at the air port!
The sorrow of loss overtook us, more than the question of 'why' this happened to a person in his early forties!
Someone who knew him from his medical school years described him, as 'one who lived serving God, his family and others'!
Such sorrowful experiences bring back the profound gift we are to each other as husband and wife in our family life!
The sacredness of relationship and intimacy of fellowship in our family life are to be treasured!
Some of us in the air port were those who live our post retirement lives. The conversation among us was the recollections of experiences and memories of this family!
The way the 'farewell' occasion caught this family by surprise was what lingers on in my mind. This doctor had his regular medical check up recently and the results were good.
We are awakened to this reality that we live as a gift to each other and that ought to be a treasured experience! The 'rush or hurry' of pace although can be natural because of work responsibilities, the endearing life experience at home is what gives life the fulfilling dimension to living! This couple lived their lives authentically endearing to each other and nurturing their children. Their lives symbolise a lamp of enlightenment to us! The abrupt disruption causes distress! The lamp lit by their lives shall remain burning to show, how family lives are to be lived!
The Bulbuls brought a window of their experience of communion. This couple leave with us a message of love that creates fullness in family life!
This is graceful living!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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