I watched this squirrel perched on this custard apple tree, beside a ripe fruit. I waited for a while to take a photo of it eating the fruit. Before that a crow chased the squirrel away.
I have noticed this territorial competition between birds during my walks. There are many trees with fruits of all sorts for all birds in the campus and yet, parakeets would chase away the sparrows; the warblers the honey suckers; the crows the squirrel; the squirrel the Magpie Robin….
The instinct seems to be a desire to have an exclusive control over its own territory.
Children between one and two years may show this tendency. A new born is born with closed palms and that is the normal position of the fingers of the palm till about six to nine months, before infants open the palms to reach out to manually explore the environment.
This possessive instinct continues through life and all of us are driven by a desire to control our our environment and exert our rights. This is a relational hazard because, it keeps others away from us. Life is all about receiving and giving.
Jesus of Nazareth said: ‘..freely you have received, freely give’. To offer our time, availability, willingness to listen to someone is the least we can offer to others. Most people need listening companions as people get displaced and hurt when a dominant person takes away the rightful place, position and the role of another person. A 'musical chair’ culture prevails in some of our institutions or organisations.'How can I reach the top’! This is so intense that we have a divided leadership in many institutions.
Every organisation needs to have a dispute resolution approach and mechanism in place. People need healing; relationships need reconciliation; and the ambience of the institution needs to be conducive for its optimal impact.
I feel that disharmony is a snare in many institutions. What provides stability in any institution is an open atmosphere of communication. If we communicate and care to trust each other, we would be less manipulative!
Let me suggest that we keep harmony and collegiality as our longing in the places of our work!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
I have noticed this territorial competition between birds during my walks. There are many trees with fruits of all sorts for all birds in the campus and yet, parakeets would chase away the sparrows; the warblers the honey suckers; the crows the squirrel; the squirrel the Magpie Robin….
The instinct seems to be a desire to have an exclusive control over its own territory.
Children between one and two years may show this tendency. A new born is born with closed palms and that is the normal position of the fingers of the palm till about six to nine months, before infants open the palms to reach out to manually explore the environment.
This possessive instinct continues through life and all of us are driven by a desire to control our our environment and exert our rights. This is a relational hazard because, it keeps others away from us. Life is all about receiving and giving.
Jesus of Nazareth said: ‘..freely you have received, freely give’. To offer our time, availability, willingness to listen to someone is the least we can offer to others. Most people need listening companions as people get displaced and hurt when a dominant person takes away the rightful place, position and the role of another person. A 'musical chair’ culture prevails in some of our institutions or organisations.'How can I reach the top’! This is so intense that we have a divided leadership in many institutions.
Every organisation needs to have a dispute resolution approach and mechanism in place. People need healing; relationships need reconciliation; and the ambience of the institution needs to be conducive for its optimal impact.
I feel that disharmony is a snare in many institutions. What provides stability in any institution is an open atmosphere of communication. If we communicate and care to trust each other, we would be less manipulative!
Let me suggest that we keep harmony and collegiality as our longing in the places of our work!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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