All in one afternoon!

With the water stream getting depleted of water, there are lesser number of dragonflies in our vicinity now. 

So it was a visual feast to watch three dragonflies, in different hues of black and white. It was a sight that refreshed me. They are beautiful and elegant in appearance! They exist quietly in the edge of our property and fly about escaping the attention of Daffny and Dulcie, who normally notice every intruder in and around our house and announce their disapproval by their reciprocal barking! Tiers is a quiet existence.

Anna and I have had longer working hours in the last six weeks often returning home only after dusk. Our Sundays too have also been away form our home in the recent weeks. So we have not been so much in touch with birds, butterflies, dragon flies, etc in our property.

There is a place for quiet existence. I reflected over how I lived for five years till 2017. I was driven by my responsibilities at CMC Vellore in its governing board, which took me to Vellore 102 times in five years. Every visit was centred around important happenings. At the end of the five years, I felt depleted and reduced. It is one instance in my life when I indulged in giving without planning to do so in measured away. After the stressful period of broken relationships and a miserable feeling of having to consent to some choices which lacked a wholesome approach, when I relinquished my responsibility, there was a sense of return to living normally. It is now one year since I relinquished the responsibility. 

I received a letter from the institution of relieving me of my responsibility after one year of my request. I felt unsettled that it took such a long time to send me a courteous letter of gratitude!

I share this to make us aware that, it is a virtue to grow in graciousness, forgiveness and politeness, even in intimidating circumstances. So the year 2018 is a year of significance in my life, when I turned 70 years and needed recovery and healing from huts and wounds. I took time to send my note of gratitude and confession to most people, except one person, to whom I shall send such a letter shortly! 

There is so much which happen outside of us as well us inside of us! 

When I decide to take walk in the property around the house, I met with three dragonflies. I felt refreshed in sighting them.

When we decide to walk 'within' we shall come across all that got submerged in the subconscious and  conscious levels of our being! They too can bring us refreshment and renewal as we process them and facilitate them to be 'integrated' into the wider expanse of our being!  

Life is for living and learning!

We live grounded in the goodness of God, whose abode within us makes our inner being a sacred place where we view others through the optic of others being companions in the journey, for whom we create space for them to be themselves! 

We arrive to be true to ourselves and others, when we let others live in tier space and honour them for who they are! When I feel trespassed by others unsettling me, I am learning to move away to find a new space. 

'Let go and Let it be'- this is how I summarise the personal discovery I am making about relating in difficult times. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)