A flower in 24 hours !

The first photo above a rose is of 10th morning and the next three are of the 11 th November morning around the same time in the day.

Each flower of 11th appears slightly different in hue of colours due to the changes in the light conditions in a cloudy and drizzling morning.  

It is when I noticed this, I became even more aware of how events taking place around us have a bearing on our mood and behaviour. 

I felt this through the last week at work, when some wearisome experiences overtook me and made be feel  heavy. 

I spent the day revisiting this today. The pictures of the rose gave me something substantial to ponder upon. 

The flower is affected by the rain and the cloudy morning. But its colour, texture, fragrance and character remained largely unaltered!

The flower absorbs most of the unfavourable atmosphere without getting subdued by the adversity!

It was this which came home to me while on an online consultation with a family living in another country on Saturday. They had enough and more of woes since they migrated six months ago. But those experiences did not dampen their enthusiasm in finding a way forward for their son. They spoke from an inner composure of resilience. 

The external events at best can offset our orientation for a short while; but eh spirit within us is a spirit of shalom! 

This is what a Godward orientation can bring to us!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

From a seed to a fruit bearing tree!

We had a custard apple tree in our garden which had a life of about forty years. It was planted by my parents.  It suffered partial uprooting in a windy monsoon. It remained flat on the ground and bore fruits for another two years. Then it withered in a hot summer.

Anna  dried the seeds of the fruits and sprouted them. The sapling was planted in the garden two years ago. This year, to our delight, one tree has few fruits. This brown custard apple is different in texture and taste from the green fruits, which grow in bushy plants. 

It was Anna's enthusiasm and efforts which made this a reality. A lesson worth pondering upon. 

Some adverse circumstances give us an opportunity to develop our creative skills.  Any disappointment can have a purpose beyond the first impression. The human ingenuity can overcome the difficulties. Three cheers to Anna and her efforts to restore our garden by her thoughtful ways. Her latest effort was to create multiple compost pits. We have been surprised by the amount of manure they generate. 

To live well would also mean taking care of the environment !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The largeness of the small !

This small rose flower was the only flower in the garden in our courtyard yesterday! But it gave colour to the garden. Amidst the greenery of the garden, it was present there to give its nectar, fragrance and artistic style.

The gift in being small !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

A bird's readiness to fly upward!

I watched this bird getting ready to fly upward to land on the wall that was three feet high! The  readiness to fly is a preparation process to ensure safe landing!

I wonder whether this preparation process is thought about seriously as we make our transitions in life!

I met someone yesterday who is now getting ready to think about marriage. I liked the way he was taking small steps towards this. 

I met a shop keeper who is getting ready to have a branch of his shop in another village. He has been on this process for a year now.

I heard an officer in the institution talk about the preparation for NABH accreditation for two years now. 

I have a sense of launching into another day when I get up early in the morning. As I follow through the routine and rituals of the morning, I get a sense of getting ready for the morning. Sometimes I cut short this preparation process and such days do not have a good closure either. 

Every day is a transition journey, moving from one stage of inward growth to another stage! 

A child who came to visit yesterday, told me that he can cycle now, which he could not do about two months back. I felt delighted by his observation, 'I took time to learn to cycle'. Taking time to be ready is a sign of living with a direction. 

Jesus of Nazareth had a question to his followers: 'Which of you would not count the cost before starting to build'?

The new year 2022 is at our threshold! 

I have been making notes for fifteen days now to summarise the year 2021 and looking into the possible scenarios of 2022. During this process I realised how some things happened in 2021 when I was least ready.

To stay ready calls for attentiveness to the rhythm we want to choose to live by! 

Life is well lived when we stay ready for transitions!

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

 

The burden of surviving!

This coconut palm tree is struggling to survive and bear fruit after it was attacked by Beatles who thrive on the tender shoots of the palm. 

Since noticing the Beatle attack for the first time a few weeks aback, we did what we do normally to protect the tree form being damaged. But the Beatles had an upper hand. There were five tender coconuts and now two are left. The gaping hole in the stem is too large for the coconut tree to survive. This is the seventh young coconut tree that we have lost in the last sixth months.

What does it mean to loose! It is more than just physical loss. All the hours of care, attention and protection offered do not seem to bear fruit. 

A farmer knows the pain of loss. A neighbour lost 200 banana tress in a recent storm. That was his annual source of income. 

Loss of relationships is another dimension that I encountered in the last seven years. People with whom I worked cordially for several years and formed a trustful collaborative approach in evolving a mentoring approach towards young health care professionals collapsed due to conflicts of approach on major issues in health care administration. I felt another shock recently when some others whom I thought I was nurturing turned hostile!

Let me recall, investing in friendships is worth inspite of these hard realities. The Gospel of Jesus would not have been so appealing but for the touching way Jesus held together the contradictions in His followers, especially the 12 disciples. He accompanied them till the last till they left him, denied or betrayed Him. Except the one who betrayed Jesus, who ended his life in remorse, Jesus was able to renew purpose and mission in the eleven who remained. Jesus went after them intently and lovingly. 

I have fainting heart response as I think of taking that path in approach towards broken relationships!

The story of this coconut palm reminds me that living in hostile setting is a call! Its fruits is for others even when it is in a survival struggle. 

The invitation of  Jesus to 'love your neighbour as yourself' is non-negotiable. I live and long to see this becoming a reality my life!  

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The season of Lilies announcing peace !

We have patches of Lillies in different parts of our garden. In our courtyard, the first two flowers appeared on the fourth Sunday of the advent, which is remembered as the Sunday of peace. 

It has been extremely difficult to hear the news of and watch on TV thousands of farmers living in the street for three weeks in Delhi, which is no sign of peace. If the news is correct twenty or more people have already died during this three weeks.

I feel that when violence, enmity, hatred and instinct of control or supremacy reside in the hearts of political leadership, how are they going to bring peace! Peace would symbolise loss of face for the national leadership. The honourable Supreme Court of India gave a suggestion to the government to freeze the three bills from implementation, till the negotiations are over. Even that did not make an appeal to the Central government. 

I get a sense, while watching this ugly scene that human suffering, however wilful it might be as interpreted by the government, is not a casual experience to be trivialised. A responsive government mindful of its citizens, from whom they received the right to govern, ought to reach out even by climbing down from its pedestal.  What is more worthwhile than human life and its dignity and right to live well. Does not the distress of people living as displaced people, in less than ten degree Celsius, move the hearts of our political leadership! Where is the reason of voice! 

The infrequency and the restraint with which the national media report on this crisis situation make me feel that it too is buckling under the governmental pressure to trivialise or ignore it! The is not he time to prove who is right or wrong, it is the time to be moved with compassion!

Let not our farmers live anymore in the streets ! They have a right to live in their homes. Who has pushed them to this plight! Why are we rationalising! First rescue the farmers from the streets and then negotiate. 

When a drunken scooterist is injured, we are obliged to treat him first and wait for an opportune time to engage him in a conversation about his habit of drinking.  

I want to send the first Lily in this blog to the political leadership of In dialogue wishing them to be a means of peace at this difficult time!

I greet the farmers with the second Lily wising peace to abide in them. You have been peaceful in your protest. May you be known as messengers of peace even when you suffer and endure your loss and displacement! It is which make you noble in thought and deed!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)