The earth is a home !

A small bug, a Rice ear bug or a Pod-sucking bug according to Google,  survives in the garden often unnoticed! They are plant feeders using their piercing mouth parts to feed on fruits, vegetables and seeds. 

They can cause some stippling or our cosmetic damage on fruits and is considered only as a minor pest. The multiple scarred marks on the cashew fruit above suggests that this bug might have been feeding on the fruit . 

The garden yields flowers and fruits. There are many insects who live on them. 

The strand of web between the two flowers above is another indication of how Spiders use the plants to make their wet to trap insects to feed on them. 

The hospitality of plants towards insects of all sorts, including towards those caterpillars who eat away leaves or petals and damage the plants, is the order in nature! The higher species feed the lower species. 

This is a pointer to understand human behaviour! What dominates the human instinct is caring for others. But there are exceptions of exploiting those who are less able to benefit those who are in a dominating role. 

I read today in the news paper that a forest department is arranging for water basins in the regions, where ponds and lakes are drying up due to summer heat for the benefit of birds. 

We do not harvest the guava and papaya fruits from the tress in our front garden for birds to feed on them! We learned this practice from bird lovers who make their garden bird friendly!

The Magpie robins resident in our garden start their bird calls around 5 am in the morning! The silence of the morning when they are not around is a strange experience! I noticed this Magpie robin this morning, perched on the coconut palm facing our cottage engaged in tuneful long bird calls . 

A bug or a bird has a place in the garden! 

Why deny Palestinians a place of their own! That is a question that does not leave me!

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

Flowers for the peace makers!

The Crepe jasmine flowers (Pinwheel flowers) in our garden withstand the hot day and look elegant in the evening as well as they looked at day break! 

On a day when ceasefire between Iran and the USA ended and Iran abstained from talks that the USA initiated, send gloom over what might happen. The indication is that the USA might extent the cease fire! 

We live in a political climate of multilateralism where the international relationships emerge and grow based on appreciative enquiry and participatory planning! The war strains and reduces this prospects. 

The flowers announce the serenity of peace in a garden! 

I feel reminded of the role of peace seekers, peace initiators and peace makers in troubled times! 

Peace at home, work place, national life and international life spring from active pursuit of wellness for each other! 

This calls for a journey from hostility to fraternity! 

The Crepe jasmine flowers in our garden bring this message to me!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Sight and vision!

 

Often it is what we hear which turn our attention to its source to notice it. But there are some experiences which can only be seen and cannot be heard ! 

A juvenile Magpie robin was aphonic while making a bod call, which is how it is often in its initiation to bird calling practice. There was an Indian Golden Oriole perched hidden in a cluster of branches of a tree in our garden. I noticed it accidentally. Its stillness escaped my attention initially. A cluster of rose buds in the corner of the garden hidden behind the jasmine bush was another sight that I almost missed during the morning walk. Later in the day, the candle in our dining table was subsumed by the brightness of the mid-day, till the electricity went off for a short while, when its luminance stood out !  

Seeing, noticing, observing, beholding and engaging are different stages of seeing. We normally see what we are normally fond of or are familiar with. It is our mind that processes what we see. Our mind connects what we see with our earlier experiences and memory. 

What happens when we see something about which our mind or memory is not tuned to or familiar with! Those sights might escape our attention. The psychoanalysts use a term 'sleep walking' to such a state of being not present to many sights that are visually before us. 

It is the physical sight that gives us vision. The vision is both physical and transcendental. 

In the ebook, Spirituality and the awakening self-the sacred journey of transformation, David G. Benner refers to the body-centred self (p89-90) ! "The body provides such a substantial framework for the self that many never move beyond the body-self that should be simply the first stage of human unfolding. But it is the first stage for all of us, and important residuals of this way of organising self remain in all of us for the rest of our life. To be human is to be embodied... We are our bodies just as we are our minds, souls and spirits. We are not, however reducible to any of these expressions of Self. But if the self is ever to soften its attachment to the body and trust its more ethereal nature, it must first embrace its rootedness in the body". 

The aphonic Magpie robin, the silent Golden Oriole, the cluster of rose buds and a lighted candle were all physical realities, were seen and noticed. They have a physical dimension and expression. It is the sight of the eyes that brought those realities into a plane of awareness of the happenings in the environment. My body processed it physically and emotionally. 

What might be the  transcendental dimension of these realities?  A juvenile Magpie robin is on its developmental journey! The Golden Oriole is on its journey for courtship. The rose buds would bring colour, fragrance and nectar  when flowers are formed. The lighted candle brings us to an awareness of the eternal light, God, who is present with us to show us the path!

Our body processes the signals that we receive through what we see, hear and sense. The fashion world focusses on the material body projecting costumes, appearance, style, and body embodiment of self! This happens through the fusion of mind and body, disregarding the aspirations and longing of human spirit and soul !

The body provides the gateway to enter into the true self which is an integration of mind, spirit and soul! 

What we see or hear or sense have a larger purpose than their physical presence but an inner resonance of meaning or a metaphor! 

This is what would make human life sacred because life is larger than just the physical body! 

Our human experiences are all about discovering the depth of our being (Self), through finding meaning of life lived individually and collectively!  

Each of us is called to spend our life time on earth as pathfinders of living integrated lives in our body housing our mind, spirit and soul! 

M.C.Mathew ( text and photo)

Yes to life and No to what harms others!

The birds of Sunbird family are the smallest of birds that visit our garden on most days although their visits are less frequent during the hot days. They visit the flowers for nectar. Their arrivals and departures are quiet without bird calls. They feed quickly and fly out to the next station. That is the usual pattern. The above Loten's sunbird is iridescent and attractively colourful with an elegant look and behaviour! 

At another corner of the garden, a female Purple-rumped Sunbird was gathering its nectar ! 

The flowers received an adorable look with the colourful presence of the Sunbirds. In fact, the above flowers get noticed even more, when Sunbirds come to feed nectar. 

It is the nectar that brings the sunbirds to the flowers. The Sunbirds pollinate the flowers to continue the life beyond ! The small Sunbirds sustain the plant life by visiting the flowers. 

In the book, The Time is Now-a call to uncommon courage, Joan Chittister, begins the book, with  questions: 'How do we really get out of the swamp we're in. What else are required, to fix this muddled world?' 

In the chapter on, A word about prophets, Joan asks: "The only question is, Will we take up what we know is our moral and spiritual responsibility: to make the world a better place for all, to bring to life the fullness of creation for all? To help bring about equality, safety, security, and compassion for all? That is where the prophets come in. The prophet is the person who says no to everything that is not of God.

No to the abuse of women

No to the rejection of the stranger.

No to crimes against immigrants.

No to the rape of trees.

No to the pollution of the skies. 

No to the poisoning of oceans. 

No to the despicable destruction of humankind for the sake of more wealth, more power, more control for a few.

No to death.....

The prophet is a one who speaks the truth to a culture of lies. 

And while saying no, the prophet also says yes. 

Yes to equal rights for all.

Yes to alleviating suffering.

Yes to embracing the different.

Yes to who God made you.

Yes to life.

This book is about prophetic spirituality...

It is the spirituality of awareness, of choice, of risk, of transformation. It is about the embrace of life, the pursuit of wholeness, the acceptance of others, the call to co-creation" ( quote ends).

Yes, the Sunbirds were engaged in sustaining the plant life from which they received their nectar! 

This is in contrast to the current painful pursuit of war, destruction and  attempting to subdue others who are different from us. We need political leaders and rulers of nations who are bathed in prophetic spirituality! 

I was reminded while watching the Sunbirds, how they continue the cycle of receiving and giving to sustain the garden life, a prophetic mission indeed ! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

The colours of the morning !

The plants offer their colourful presence in the garden! The parents offer their colourful presence in a home by their thoughtful and endearing habits. The workplace becomes a colourful place when the mindful behaviour towards each other is the way of relating! The life in the neighbourhood of every home becomes colourful because there is a caring ambience towards each other! 

Every morning, as I welcome the flowers in our garden, what occurs to me is that the plants give spontaneously and habitually! Its giving comes from receiving. The soil and sunshine nourish them to give ! 

It is when I water them, deseed the plant bed and provide the nutrients, I realise how our giving yields their giving! 

All relationships grow and fruity by giving and receiving! 

We had an overseas visitor a few days ago, who while visiting India included in his itinerary, meeting us in our home! What a symbol of giving. A brief contact with him about thirty years ago was what made him think of us. He came to recall and refresh memories of that time! 

We receive such surprises by way of visits, messages and telephone calls. Thais is what  makes us feel touched by kindness and regards which arise from practice of giving and receiving. This is  central to all relationships. 

We add goodness and kindness through our being and doing to people that we relate to. 

That is the message from the colourful presence of plants in the garden!

The two flower vases with colourful flowers in our living room make us feel refreshed, because of their gentle and silent presence! The flowers offer colour, fragrance and nectar. They fade away into oblivion, leaving memories that last for a while!

Every home is a garden of life where lives blossom when giving and receiving become the way of relating!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

A communication time!

The above photos of two Bulbuls in our garden, while feeding together   turned a meal time into a communicating time!

The Bulbul who arrived at the feeding station first turned to different directions with bird calls to invite its pair for the meal. From feeding separately from two bowls, they came to tether to feed from the same fruit, taking turns. 

Yesterday, during a conversation time with a family, I was disturbed to hear that the meal time at the home was a TV viewing time. Their child who was three years old had poor expressive language skills. As early as from six months of age, the chid was introduced to feed watching TV. After a while it became a family behaviour. 

Sharing a meal together creates an occasion to be present to each other and to create a communicating time. That was what I noticed with these two Bulbuls. 

The 'machine language' might appear to be entertaining. The 'language of the heart' brings endearing experiences. For children, the endearing experiences are formative and foundational to develop trustful and intimate relationships. For children, such family times offer to experience the family times around a meal as fellowship times. 

A child drifts to be occupied to play alone by two to three years of age, if he or she is not introduced to the experiences of togetherness. This is one of the serious disadvantages of offering children to be occupied with TV viewing or playing with mobile phone. Their social world regresses to an animated world where interaction is replaced with passive entertainment. 

The Bulbuls demonstrated a contrary experience. They turned to each other in between feeding. They chirped to each other and found pleasure in that communicative ambience. The visual, auditory, emotional and social experiences play a large role in the first three years for the social formation of a child! 

The sounds, colours and animations of a visual screen are not what a  child's brain is conditioned for in the pre-school years. But human presence, voice, face, touch and interactive play! 

The Bulbuls above demonstrated that communicative intent during their meal time! The meal  time, becomes a fulfilling time, when it becomes a fellowship time !

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

A morning ritual !

The bird visits to our feeding table have decreased considerably since March due to warm weather. Most birds are no more in the garden during the day. The absence of birds visiting the feeding station from fifty or more to just a few had not occurred in the previous summer months. It is thought that birds sense the forthcoming weather ambience even before the weathermen forecast the weather. 

I noticed that birds spend time more time bathing than at the feeding table. A few of them return to the water bath during the day. 

The existential needs of birds are a few. The heat of the day in summer is hard on some birds !  

We leave at least one banana bunch and a few papaya fruits without  harvesting them during this season for birds to stay in the garden. That too is not helping during this season. 

The climate change has come to stay. It is for us to acknowledge and act on it. The few acts such as suspending the USAID activities and appealing to return to fossil oil instead of populating electric vehicles which President Trump did, as soon as he was in the office, made us wonder about their effects and outcome! 

Now that we lived in a war dominant climate for about two years, and threat of a third world war, I wonder if we treat the 'mother earth' and its inhabitants without any regard! 

It was the habit of Dulcie and Daphne to watch t birds at the feeding station each morning. Now they wait for birds to come. It is their barking which alert me about the arrival of birds.

When I see such fraternal behaviour, I feel awakened to sense the  feelings with which dogs welcome birds. Our dogs were companions to me while photographing the birds! 

I wondered if this Bulbul above was looking stressed yesterday! Its look and posture were different! If, so, it is disturbing!

We would need to shift the feeding station in our garden to a shady place where birds would feel sheltered and comfortable! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)