Flowering plants !

My memory goes back to about sixty years when I became aware of the special place flowers have had in my parent's home. I accompanied a family friend for a visit to Malampuzha dam when I was  ten years old and was startled by the sight I saw in the garden at the dam site. It was full of flower bearing plants, mostly roses. It was on my return, I noticed that we too had rose plants in the garden. We still have some rose plants in the garden which my parents planted. They still give flowers during most of the year. 

What has been more rewarding is the interest Anna has in flowering plants. Ever since Aswathy brought a few twigs of butter cup plants and planted them in our garden, Anna has taken considerable interest in the flowering plants. The butter cups open when the sun rays fall in the garden and close up by mid day. We have hundreds of butter cup flowers along the hedge in the front portion of our garden facing the driveway. Anna misses the flowers when the plants are trimmed!

Anna has other flowering plants as well in pots. The orchids are special to her. We have six varieties of them in the porch. When they flower, it is a sight that calls us to behold!

Flowers are real with freshness, fragrance and fragility! Flowers are also symbolic.  A bud is hope generating!

Yesterday, a colleague mentioned to me about her daughter, who came back from her school immensely happy about her performance in her class. Each day is different. Some days are not so easy. 

The bud is a suspense till it opens up!

I return to my early memories of my school years. I remember starting my school by sitting on the floor and beginning lessons in writing, using fingers to write alphabets on sand spread on the floor. During those three hours class, most of the time was spent reciting alphabets and writing them. The teacher who organised this gave us milk to drink during that time. He did not charge a fees for this or for the tuition. Parents gave him a gift that they could afford in kind or cash. The teacher was interested in our wellness and even visited our homes to tell parents about how we performed. 

As it was half a day school, I went back to my mother's school in the afternoon till she finished her teaching for the day and walk back with me about 2 kilometres. It was about three kilometres of walking each day from the age of five years. After a while, a family friend, late Mr and Mrs V.V.Abraham whose son was also was with me in the class, welcomed me to their home in the afternoon till my mother came and picked me up in the evening. This friend, Varghese was a companion and friend all through the next 12 years at school. He went on to learn engineering and I went to medical school. We met briefly during holidays and stayed in touch. It was the first friendship of meaning and purpose of my early years of life, which I cherish even now. During a monsoon rain, Varghese was struck with lightning while taking out the clothes from the line in the veranda, and died instantly. I remember visiting his home and see him lie on the bed cold and clammy and lifeless! It was a trauma that did disturb me for several months. My recovery form this was not complete for a few years, till, I was graced with a perspective of life being eternal, and not just temporal.  

Friendship with Verghese was a blossoming bud, but it lasted only for a while!

Recently, I have been through a difficult phase of going through some strained and broken relationships! It is a new experience for me as most other friendships which I have had a blossoming effect.  When friendships do not blossom, it unnerves and unsettles us. 

However, hope endures beyond set backs and mishaps in our lives. Yesterday, I heard a moving story of a neighbour who narrated me the agony of his family who have had to endure the hardship following the recent flood. His sister lost most of the household things as her house had six feet of water for three days. He along with some neighbours had to spend five days to clean the house to make it habitable. Although his sister is back in her own home, the trauma of the experience is still haunting them, waking them up at night from sleep! When awake they are absorbed by the recollections of having had to vacate the house when water gathered in their home around midnight! I got  a sense of this the other day, when we visited some areas near our village which was inundated with houses submerged. There were piles of mattresses, clothes, furnitures, books, etc in damaged condition abandoned in form of the houses for the trash van to come and gather them for incineration. 

Hundreds of people have been shattered of their hope due to the devastating impact following the flood. As wells were also submerged, the disinfection of water is a laborious and long process. 

In the midst of that, I hear the story of ordinary people who keep the hope alive by their self giving. A family who came to visit us yesterday told us that they offer meals to their neighbour whose house collapsed in the rain. They are ready to do it as long as it is necessary, till they find an alternate accommodation. 

We live amidst difficult circumstances. But stories of love, hope and abiding goodwill are life giving reminders that we belong to each other and no matter what adversity strikes us, we are together in sharing them. 

I read this morning the words of Jesus of Nazareth, 'Love your enemies'! It begins with us. I realise that I am sometimes my own enemy. When I give permission to be dominated by discouragement or despair, I become my own enemy. Th calling is to be loving to ourselves and others, who cause pain to us! That is the way of growing up from being impulsive and short sighted and embrace an enduring way of living!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)