On Being, Becoming and Doing !

The above four texts were quotations, Anna and I found when we were getting ready for starting the ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai in 1983. We were searching for an ethos for our life and work. 

These four quotations remained in the Bulletin board opposite to my desk in all the rooms I occupied while working at Chennai, Vellore, Pondichery and Kolanchery and now since 2012 in the garage from where I work currently. 

Anna was thoughtful to update the texts from a handwritten text to a computer black and white print out when we were given the first computer in 1987. Since we had the colour printer in 1997, Anna took  print outs periodically to have them replaced with new designs. The current print out on the bulletin board were taken in 2012. They look fresh as they are laminated. 

Let me say something about the heart language we received from these quotations. 

1. The text on Attitude touched us because it brought an awakening within us the way we were to welcome Neuro-developmentally challenged children and their family. We felt drawn by the call of this message, as it was a value statement about the way we are to relate to others.

2.The second text on Giving became a calling to pursue, while we were engaged with people in all spheres of our involvement. It brought into our lives an awareness about how much we were given and are being given! It had a resonating message to the way we are to view our lives relationally. 

3. The third text on Parenting made us aware of the pressures on parents in becoming present to their children because of which their presence got substituted by material gifts to children. This message formed our thought processes in parenting of our own children. The desire to support other parents to choose this path grew from this. 

4. The fourth text on Mistake had a profound influence during the last forty two years in our lives. We gradually experienced that mistakes are formative experiences that would upbuild us. The vulnerability to make mistakes is so real that apologising, pardoning and forgiving became a pathway to follow.

After forty two years, when I look back, I realise that these pointers to the way of being, becoming and doing were a light in our lives. 

Even now Anna and I feel like being only at the threshold of a long journey ahead in living these truths in our daily living!

We rejoice in the joy of these truths that gave a road map for our journey thus far. 

The ethos of living is a personal value with dimension of an in-look and out-look. We allow ourselves to formed into what we choose for ourselves and become a means of encouragement and support to others guided by the inward light. 

The above texts continue to form our ethos in our lives. Anna and I feel grateful for what we receive from others as guideposts!

The photo above of a Barbet looking ahead at day break, before starting its flight pathways for the day is a symbol. The bird chooses its pathway by discretion. 

Each of us can choose the ethos of our being, becoming and doing!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)