The mystery of a drop !

One drop, hanging on the nut of a ripe  cashew! As I watched in the twilight, I wondered if it was the dew of the night. But the leaves and other fruits felt dry, when I felt them! Was the the fruit dripping its juice? 

As soon as the earlier stop fell off another drop was being formed. I waited for a while to see if it became bigger and fell off the like the earlier one! That did not happen ! 

As the drop looked brilliant evidence of rain drop  in the morning sun, it became even more mysterious. There was no evidence of rain drops on the grass or leaves to thin of an earlier drizzle! 

It was then it occurred to me that I was carried away by reason and logic instead of being surprised by a mystery! My mind took over my thoughts ! What I needed was to behold it and receive a soulful view of a surprising sight from within! 

I did not need to know the source or  content of a drop! 

But behold the sense of surprise a hanging drop brings till it fell off! 

It brought a contrast between the way my mind works and soul waiting for its message to be received! 

That way of soulful living is an inward experience which brings larger meaning in small happenings. 

Anna and I along with our friends were at the end of our birding walk on one morning last week. The guide noticed a fluttering movement in the foliage a little distance away. He slowly walked towards it and spotted a kingfisher with a feed in its beaks!

In a conversation he talked about an urge within to go to inspect the site of the moving leaves! He had an intuitive sense! He did not allow the tiredness to subdue his inner prompting! That is one fruit of soulful living! 

The soulful living is an experience of feeling within to sense the depth of a reality beneath reason and logic! 

A childhood habit is a sense of wonder and surprise! 

As adults it involves a journey to restore this childhood sense of wonder and surprise! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

The enabling vocation!

I noticed how some Lilies thrive even when their stems are leaning and  looking precarious! The buds bloom and live the normal season. The Lilies appears to be wounded, but shows no sign of it in the way it is flowering! 

Flowers are fragile, but the photo above gives the message of strength!

To have a developmentally challenged child at home is a hurting experience for parents and for the child. I have several recollections of families and their children who did not stay wounded or reduced the prospects of exploring to live well and fulfilled. 

I remember a young man walking towards me in the air port whom I did not recognise. He introduced himself as one who was a visitor to the child development centre at Chennai in the nineteen eighties for getting help for his hemiparesis. His last visit was when he was eight years before his parents relocated at New Delhi. Since then he went on to complete his schooling and computer engineering course. He was well employed in a multinational company heading the software team. He recollected the conversations during his regular visits with his parents during consultation about improving mobility and learning skills. He recalled how regular swimming as suggested then and using a computer to write made him functional over period of time. He still had minimal asymmetry while walking but showed no other indications of limitations. I enquired of him as to what enabled him to overcome his earlier limitations! He said, that his parents gave him all the opportunities and encouraged him to do what all other children would do at school. He was a member of the adventure group at school, who learned skating, trekking, and boating! He was enabled to look beyond his limitations! 

This conversation brought into focus as to how we can look at our opportunities in different seasons in our life. Every time I feel the pain caused by arthritis, I remember stories of children like that of the boy above, who saw the future and its possibilities! 

Fallen but not frail- that is the message I picked up from these Lilies that thrived against the odds! 

This brought into focus something I read recently- visionary living! We become what we choose to become! 

I met a family recently who had difficulties with their son due to dyslexia and attention deficit. They were regular visitors to the child Development Unit where I worked. He had musical abilities and interest in creative art. Using those interests they developed his skills. Currently he is a vocational counsellor having completed his post graduation! Listening to the way they looked at the possibilities and used the opportunities to upbuild him amazed me! 

This family demonstrated the fruits of visionary living! 

I find that mid life is a time of challenges and opportunities! That is the time to engage with life even more earnestly! The generative outcome of mid life is dependent on how one attends to the process of formation and transition in life! 

It is a way of living when we do not yield to the weight of circumstances, but rely on the inner resilience we are endowed with! We are to be an overcomer because that is our calling! 

For that to happen, we need enablers to support those who become weary while on their journey ! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

 

A hungry Sunbird !

The last photo of the sunbird after feeding on the nectar from underneath the calyx, searching for more elsewhere in the flower caught my attention. It is unlikely that the bird will find nectar there. 

This happened after I read the editorial today in the Times of India newspaper in its Kochi edition, something that was disturbing! Under the title, 'Just Collateral Damage' the editorial pointed out some alarming and painful statistics. Let me quote: "In Ukraine, residential blocks are attacked with drones and missiles regularly. Russia allegedly took away 20,000 Ukrainian children. It has knocked out Ukrainian power infra every winter, to make non-combatants suffer. In Gaza, 2 million people-90% of population-are displaced or homeless. Did they have a hand in the Oct 2023 Hamas attack in Israel ? No, but they are "collateral damage". So are a million Lebanese....Trump and Bibi's excursion in Iran started with a 'mistaken' missile strike on a girl's school. Since then Iran has picked soft targets across West Asia, in Dubai, Quatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia. In our immediate neighbourhood, the open war between Pakistan and Afghanistan has killed hundreds of civilians, including patients at a Kabul hospital". 

Following the World War 2,  the awakened collective conscience of the nations established a Geneva Convention in 1949, specifying the do's and don'ts during war. Not to harm civilians was part of that provision in the convention. But it is breached habitually by several nations with no sense of caution, inhibition or regret! 

The Sunbird searching for nectar reminded me of thousands in the war zones, living hungry and homeless! They live searching for safety and  food! 

I wonder if the leaders who advocate and pursue war have had their conscience frozen by selfish pursuit to get what they want and take away from others their freedom, resources and rights! 

The editorial concluded with a caution and an appeal: "On current evidence, international humanitarian laws exist only on paper and countries that pushed them once-US and Russia as part of USSR - show cynical disregard for them now. But this absence of restraint in war should bother countries that are watching from sidelines. India, China, Japan, all of Europe, S.Africa, Canada, Brazil, should speak up. All is not fair in war. Not anymore".

Yes, I sense a call for response in that editorial!

A hymn by Fred Kaan came to my mind:

" For the healing of the nations, 

Lord we pray with one accord,

For a just and equal sharing,

Of the things that earth affords;

To a life of love in action 

Help us to rise and pledge our word.

Lead us forward into freedom

From despair Your world release,

That, redeemed from war and hatred,

All may come and go in peace. 

Show us how through care and goodness

Fear will die and hope increase.

All that kills abundant living,

Let it from earth be banned,

Pride of state, race or schooling,

Dogmas that obscure Your plan. 

In our common quest for justice 

May we hallow life's brief span..."

It was sighting the hungry Sunbird searching for nectar and not finding it as seen in the last photo, which awakened me to sense the thoughts within that were waiting to be born! 

Remembering the hungry and homeless in the war zone is not enough...more is needed! 

I wish that the cicil society awakens to protest against the dehumanisation caused by war! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

 

Presence of purpose !

A spider Lily blessed the garden with its blossom for longer than a week. Even after ten days, some flowers thrive ! As I followed its biological biography during the last ten days, I was surprised by its fragile presence ! Its slender and hollow stem and long petals radiating from the centre withstood heat, humidity and strong winds! 

Its presence was a message of resilience! 

When the students of Occupational and Physiotherapy led the evening chapel service yesterday at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, the leader said: 'We are a small group of twenty students selected every year to study at CMC. We have a sense of belonging to the community even though we are a small group' ! 

I heard words of identity and purposefulness in those words. They did not feel subsumed by the large groups of students in different streams of learning. They felt a space for themselves! 

To know the purpose of being is an awareness that shall sustain all of us while enduring circumstances! That is resilience! 

The spider Lily lived its mission fully before beginning to fade away!

When a group of people came to visit us to campaign for the forthcoming state assembly election, three of them stayed a longer time petting Dulcie. She responded to them warmly! That was a delightful sight to watch as they made efforts to connect with us! They conveyed a sense of presence, which is a fruit of resilient spirit! 

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

A family of Sunbirds !

The bird visits to our garden seemed to have decreased with the summer heat making birds to move to cooler places. 

The Sun bird family was therefore a surprise sight with the mother feed feeding the juvenile bird, while the father bird was watching it delightfully! 

These are signs of hope in a war driven world, where fraternal feelings and vision for wellness of each other need a rediscovery! 

I wish those who rule over the affairs of the USA, Israel and Iran would pause to think, 'how much more we can offer to hungry lives, if we can turn our attention from aggression to mindfulness' ! 

The Sunbirds are weak and powerless, but they bring a powerful and appealing message! 

This is the season of lent- a time we ought to be thinking about our neighbours, whom we are called to love as ourselves, according to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, whose passion and suffering we would remember two weeks from now during the Holy Week! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

 

The sunshine of parenting !

The above sequence of a purple water Lily in our garden, from dawn to sunrise, was worth watching to follow the way a bud emerges from its hiddenness to visibility each morning for the last five days. By early afternoon the flower closes and returns to be a bud till the next day at dawn and blossom for the next day!

The Pink pair of the Lily is a younger bud, which is yet to open fully!

It occurred to me, while I kept watching the above water Lilies, that they symbolise the way a child blossoms from the time he or she is born in the ambience of a home ! 

                   

Anna and I want to offer the above book to share our thoughts on how parents can be involved in the blossoming of their child by engaging them through a play based formative process at home! 

A home is a place where all children can feel enabled to blossom!

The parents are the sunshine upon their lives! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

 

Meeting two inspiring Men !

During a visit to an eco-tourism project and a bird sanctuary a few days ago with our friends, Anna and I met two people who live pursuing their passion! They walked the less travelled path to bring something useful for others to experience. 

The first person was Mr Rajappn, who developed a farm  near the  Kodanad elephant training centre,  to give an experience to the visitors about the way of living close to nature from the produce of the land. It is a farm where agriculture, fishery, poultry, and floriculture co-exist. It has a museum of farm implements that takes us back to the farming practices which existed about seventy five years ago. The children's park created in the natural setting of trees and plants is a pleasant place to be in. A steam meandering in the five acre property feeds the plants and trees. A home stay facility with a swimming pool is an attraction to tourists. Mr. Rajappan developed this facility in memory of his parents who owned the land at the edge of a reserved forest. For him, trained in agricultural science, it is an opportunity to show forth the heritage we have in nature.  He views his garden as a place to experience living peacefully and mindfully. He had a beaming look, when he showed us the corner where there is a butterfly farm and a stretch of flowers that feed nectar to  honey bees. 

The second person whom we met, was Mr Joemon in the bird sanctuary at Thattecad. Having been trained in hospitality industry, he had an interest in being a friendly host to the visitors. Since he lived close to the bird sanctuary, he accompanied tourists for bird watching. That initiated an interest in birds and their habitat that he became an avid student of different species of migratory and endemic birds in south India. He came to accompany us with three binoculars and a lacer beam, which was more than an illustration of his interest to get the tourists to experience sighting birds. He is well informed about bird sanctuaries in the southern states.  He took us deep into the forest where some birds spend the day time. That is how Anna and I had an experience of seeing some birds which we had not so far seen! During the four hours of morning walk of about six kilometres through the forest, we noticed how Mr Joemon had an eye to sight and track birds and an interest to make visitors bird friendly! He is widely travelled in south India with insightful information about bird habitats in the bird sanctuaries. He conducts guided tours to these places. 

A the end of these two visits, Anna and I returned with warm thoughts about the two men, who found a way of living by bringing cheer and insights to others ! They did not appear to be doing a job, but enthusiasts and messengers of their areas of interests! They had an inspirational dimension and relational attitude! 

Both of them were pursuing a less travelled path, in response to a deeper call of living !

Such experiences bring refreshment and renewal of hope about the goodness of people around us!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)