Flowers inspite of rain!

This cactus in a pot, adjacent to the car park is a plant with flowers often.  The rain made many flowers in our garden look devoid of their fragrance and freshness. But not the flowers in this cactus. Someone mentioned to me that they are small and have a wax like coat over the petals, which insulate them from the harm of the rain.  

All of us feel battered sometimes by the circumstances in which we live. 

I feel it as a reality!

Th dinner resilience is our protection!

I saw a three years old child holding a white rose flower in his hand in a function. Another child came and forcibly took it away from him. The boy surprised with the loss of he flower, turned to his mother and said, 'It is ok. I had it for a long time'. 

Tha is resilience. To be content in having and not having. 

 I wish I can learn to have a similar spirit of this child!

Children surprise us often with what we can learn from them!

To live holding on to things lightly and mindfully is a message worth pondering upon. What    I have cannot be mine alone...we are not possessors but relayers in this vocation of life!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

  

A home making !

I watched a Magpie Robin gather sticks to build its nest in the main college building. It was gathering the twigs from the lawn of the college adjacent to the canteen area.

I happened to notice the Robin in search for something from its look. Soon it gathered a twig and flew away into the shrub close by and then off to the college building where its waiting.

It made three other sorties to gather twigs. On the fourth time the Robin noticed me and waited for me to move away by staying put on the shrub overlooking the lawn. By then it was 8.35 am and I could not wait any longer! I was already there for 40 minutes.

What a fascinating sight it was! 

A family is formed and a home is being made!

All the six families I met for consultation yesterday had something to tell me about heir home. Four of them of their dysfunctional states and two of them of the resilience and coping process in the midst of adversity of having to stretch themselves, amidst the COVID season to take care of their children who need special care!

A home is a place of formation of a family. I felt overwhelmed by the stories where this formative process is impaired. 

A friend from Bangalore called me at night to tell me how distressed she felt about the way the families bear the burden of having to care for their developmentally challenged children.

Watching the Robin preparing to make its home, was a timely message to me of the process that goes into making a home!

Parenting and home making are two skills and callings, about which I wonder whether young couples are made ready before they embark on these two responsibilities! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A Wag tail with one leg not visible!

Is it a rudimentary leg or the leg folded under the body and concealed by its wings! 

I could not find an answer even after taking fifty photos! I reached ten meters close to it from distance of fifty meters to have closer look! It did not allow me further. It flew away to well beyond hundred meters. 

Whatever it might be, it was a surprising sight. It looked charming with its body wagging with support of only one leg!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A Magpie Robin grooms itself!

It was a sight to watch how a Magpie Robin got rid of some droppings, which fell on its feathers near the neck, by shaking it away. It was determined to get rid of the foreign body from its feathers!

To see it becoming aware and removing the dirt from its well groomed body was an interesting photo shoot opportunity for me. 

The following picture shows how its feathers are bright and shining after the grooming, which is how it looks normally!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)