Hidden living !

A wasp in our garden gave me some lessons in living two days ago!

I noticed a neatly made rounded hole in a dry wooden support, provided for a creeper plant growing in a flower pot in our courtyard. Seeing the neat edge of the hole I knew that it was frequently used by an insect. 

I decided to wait at the spot watching if an insect would come out or go in. I noticed a head appearing at the mouth of the hole and later watched the wasp moving out and flying away. It returned in a few minutes and disappeared into the hole. I waited to wait for it to appear again but that did not happen till I was able to endure the waiting. 

Although I looked for the wasp since then, I have not been able to spot it. 

A wasp lives hidden in a dry stem!

In a conversation with a person of considerable achievements, he narrated me many of his accomplishments, till I had an opportunity to ask him a question for which I took an appointment to call him on the phone. He lived publicly by making known all that he was after in his life!

It was the following that conversation, I happened to watch the habit of this wasp, which lives hidden and flies around unnoticed. 

What is this dimension of living hidden! 

Jesus of Nazareth had a way of living which looked rather strange to people at that time. In the narration of a meeting between Jesus and His followers in John.9:10, His followers 'had come to report to him all that they and done'. We are told in that passage that 'Jesus withdrew himself to a city called Bethsaida' after this. Although people found out his hiding place and reached out to him, the gesture of 'withdrawing' calls for contemplation. 

It is when we can live withdrawn regularly, we can have the inner wellness to be with people to make our presence  a value for others and ourselves. Our lives are deeply rooted in the recess of our soul, where treasures of wisdom, insights and truth reside. The times of staying hidden is to break away form the rhythm of living impulsively by the dictates of the circumstances and sense the guidance from within to live responsively, intuitively and thoughtfully. 

If the work we do alone becomes an expression of ourselves, we would feel driven to do more and more in pursuit of fulfilment. If we are used to find strength in our role of 'being' ourselves, we would long to become more complete in being ourselves. Then, being would take precedence over doing! We are 'human beings' and not 'human doings'!

It is the depth of a person which permits him to choose hidden. In that hiddenness he or she grows to be a treasure house of wellness and abundance of kindness towards others!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)