The Honey bees are back!

Anna and I woke up with clear sky unlike the drizzle and rain almost every day for the last two weeks. 

The flowers in our garden have got damaged in the rain during the last two weeks. Since the roses lasted for only a day due to heavy rain, I started placing the cut roses in vases. The rose flowers have survived for five or six days, fresh and fragrant in the vases. It is an added decoration in our living room along with other indoor plants. 

The butter cups open for about three hours everyday. But with rain, the flowers lasted only for a day. So I tried to keep them fresh in a vase which did not work. For some reason, the flowers droop or do  not open.

I wonder how the bees survive when the flower nectar is denied to them on rainy days. The bees would have their alternatives. 

I found that the butter cups are easy to look after. Plant a twig anywhere, it would sprout and be with a flower in about a month. In that sense, it is an unusual plant with large number of flowers every day.  

It receives least of attention in the garden, but it is the centre of attraction in the garden because of the colourfulness it brings to the garden. 

This brings home a truth worth pondering over!

Usually children interrupt conversation when adults are speaking with some requests or other. Not that they cannot wait, but they do it to assert their presence. 

This grows into multiple different ways of 'seeking attention' during adolescence and youthful years. An adolescent boy pretended to have headaches when he was not given permission to play in the evening. A young man did not want to return to work on Mondays and took leave with a silly excuse. Listening to these stories and connecting with them helped me to realise that when children or adolescents do not receive attention, which they rightfully expected, they sought attention by negative messages. 

I have come across this among siblings of children who have developmental needs. As parents feel compelled to give attention to help a child who is developmentally challenged to make it easy for him or her, a younger or older sibling woeful show forth signs of emotional maladjustment.

Seeking attention is an ego state, which actually ought to fade away in mid childhood when a maturing child would have discovered his or her identity and ability because of which, he or she can move on without having to seek for attention or acceptance. It is when this maturation is hampered because of intrinsic or extrinsic factors, a boy or girl would feel compelled to draw attention sometimes even by failing in an examination.   

There is a lot to learn from the butter cups from what it is and does each day. It fulfils its function no matter what happens around. 

Give attention to children as much as we can. Help them to discover that they are valued and affirmed. 

At the same time allow transition to a state of independence from the props offered in early childhood, to blossom themselves because they are resourceful!  

The butter cups are the source of nectar for honey bees. May we offer our children to be open and resourceful to others, because they felt secure and affirmed in their early years to self giving!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)