When green leaves turn yellow!

When green leaves turn yellow, they are ready to become brown and fall off the tree! The leaves  return to the earth that sustained them till then. This is the cycle of life!

This process of green leaves turning yellow, brown and falling off would take several  weeks. Their lives come to an end. 

Life is about changes taking place all the time. 

A family who returned to India from the USA for getting medical attention for their three years old son, told me that their appointment to meet a specialist is now after six months. So they are here to get all the essentials done for their son during their holiday of one month. 

While listening to the story of this family now waiting for one year to get help for their son, I realised how the health care system is insurance centred and controlled. The unfairness it creates is more than what is apparent. If a person is able to get an insurance which involves paying a higher cost, he or she gets better and faster service. The cost factor determines the service one is entitled for! 

Life moves on like the palm leaf in the photo above. Life has its journey path. 

Health care is a provision to make this life journey supportive and restorative. 

But that is not how it is working. Most people find health care expenses unaffordable. 

Thanks to some initiatives by the government of Kerala, the public hospitals are getting upgraded to give comprehensive care for non-communicable diseases. 

Health care is to support people to celebrate life and live productively.  

Every time a child with developmental needs walk in to the consultation room, I like to remember this palm leaf in the picture above. The children and families come weary and worn out showing signs of anxiety and despair!

It is an occasion to be most generous in thought and deed.!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The flowers and fruits in a changing season !

It is the first season since we started living in our cottage here ten years ago, we have noticed this interesting feature in our Bell Fruit tree- the ripe fruits and new flowers at the same time! Usually the tree flowers twice in a year and produces fruits. During the last six months it is the third time, the tree is flowering. 

Yes the climate change is perhaps the reason. We had a short and mild winter, a mild and short summer and a prolonged spell of monsoon season with more rains during summer than what would be usual.  

This experience with one tree led me to look at the other trees and some fruit bearing trees. Some had fruits earlier than the usual time and some are only flowering now. 

The trees adapt to the environment and climate changes, although stressfully!

It is a turning point in the Ukrainian war imposed upon it by Russia. With the USA, Britain, and Germany showing signs of getting involved in the war directly, the Russian intention to create a semblance of a Third world war is at our door step, unless wisdom prevails and world leaders climb down from posturing. 

It was COVID pandemic for two years; now it is the war and its devastating effect in many countries. The Sri Lankan and Pakistani internal turmoils contribute to the uncertainties ahead of us. The traction that China has towards Russia is likely to create another complex situation. India has so far dissociated from taking a stand on the war because of its own compulsions. India has been a traditional ally of Russia. Russia, China and Pakistan are in one block. India is neither an umpire nor an activist in this situation. 

The environment of peace and rights of a sovereign nation cannot be regulated by the United Nations. Its leadership is weak and not inspirational. 

We live in fear of the nuclear button that all these nations have access to!

The Russian premier is considered to have serious debilitating disease as of now. His decision making  abilities are under dispute! His rogue behaviour reminds us of Hitler's! 

In India, the voice of dissent towards a particular minority community is expressed manifestly creating disharmony that I never witnessed in the last fifty years, since I had a sense of political affairs in India. 

The season of peace, harmony and collective journey seems to give way to authoritarian rule.  The Prime Minister is of India is not rising to be a statesman at this critical juncture to offer stability to our federal structure where all communities live and share their experiences equally. The recent announcement of the Home minister that the government is preparing to introduce a uniform Civil Code is adding fuel to suspicion and anxiety! 

The political season is changing in India. It is a season of narrow partisan perspective to control and impose rather than carrying people into a welfare status and wellness for families!

I agonise and feel the pain of this fallen state of democratic Institutions globally. A wrong gets justified because the brute power of majority justifies it. That is different from the Parliamentary democracy of Nehruvian era, where people and values mattered! Now religious fundamentalism rules. The independent institutions such the Courts work under pressure to conform to the political climate of having to give assent to what is politically demanded. Just one example of not fixing responsibility on anyone for demolishing the Babri Masjid unlawfully and violently tells us that the Courts work under compulsions. 

Who are we to be in such a changing scene! To be a light engaged in good works and to receive all people around as our neighbours!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A tree for one Bird!

This Egret on the top pf a tree caught my attention at dawn the other day! It stayed at this site for forty-five minutes. 

I have notices such composed state in some birds. Their bodily stillness is worth watching. Those practice meditation have some struggle to be bodily still.  But it looks like a second nature for Egrets, Kingfisher, etc.

What was equally striking that this bird had the tree to itself!

It finds such flight stations in all situations. 

It uses what is provided for! 

I took time to think about the space and freedom I have been given at work! It is left for me to make it beneficial to others. 

We are given in order to give away!

Do I give enough space and freedom for others in the department with whom I work! To equip others to live and work with freedom and responsibility is a valuable investment!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The sunrise!

This sun rays falling on the trees early in the morning on the foliage and grass on the ground  in front of our garden is a sight I like to watch! As I watch this often, the sight is most captivating when it is misty in the morning. Sometimes the sight was so dazzling that one can look at it only for a short time. 

However I like to watch this, that glowing sight lasts only for a minute or so. As the sun rises more in the horizon it becomes too bright to give this visual effect. 

Some good and engaging experiences also have a short span. 

It was a good day yesterday both at work and in the home front. But while felling a coconut palm which was showing decay at its roots, it fell on the compound  wall destroying twenty feet of it. The news arrived just before I was to be in a professional meeting. That unsettled me and made me anxious. It took the next three hours or so for me to regain from it! 

When I came home after visiting the site of destruction, I realised that when work is delegated, to others to do, it involves risk. Yet without receiving help from others one cannot carry on normally. 

The glowing sunrise and the destruction of the wall are two events of the same day. One brought enormous sense of cheer and hope. The other disappointment and reaction. 

The memory of the sunrise fades away quickly but he memory of the wall falling lasts longer!

This contrasting consciousness became my theme in the evening to ponder upon. That is when I became aware that the inner ambience determines the way we perceive events in our lives. If the inner orientation is peaceful, even a difficult or disappointment would get subsumed in it!

To carry that interior peace within as the ambience of human soul is an exercise in adult education!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)  

Two trees in this season!

 

As I look at these two trees located not far from each other in our garden, I receive a message to ponder upon! 

One bears fruits and the other not yet. The Mango tree is ten years old and the Rambutan tree is five years old. Both are expected to bear fruits after three years. Even after consultations with people who understand the science of agriculture we have not been able to find a reason for the mango tree to stay barren. Every time the tender leaves come, from January to March, we wait with anticipation for it to flower. 

One tree exists for itself and the other is also for others by sharing its fruits.

This has come as a message to dwell on. 

A tree is self giving. It gives us oxygen, leaves to feed the cattle and to make compost, and offers itself as flight stations to birds. A tree is shade for flora which needs protection from direct sunlight to grow under it. A tree finally at its prime is a timber for fuel or for making furniture out of it.  

The difference between the two trees in this scene is, one tree is yet to yield fruits. 

I have com across many who were colleagues or trainees in different places where I worked. I watched this scenario with some interest. I found some with earnestness to pursue to grow and explore to be fully themselves keeping the calling to become valuable to others. I have come cross some preoccupied with themselves and linger on around their personal interests alone.  

I have also dwelt on an important question: how to prepare professionals to be inclusive in their interests-develop their resources and be available to others beyond the interest of a personal gain alone! 

It is here I have come across road blocks. We are in an environment where, to be successful is driven home from early childhood. To be self-giving and grow in mindfulness of others is not often the outlook to life!

It has come to me at the end of forty years, that staying alive to this call of being mindful of others, independent of their responses or attitudes is what is needed. Whether it is towards colleagues, friends, strangers or critics, the way of living altruistically is to be mindful of all round us. 

I have failed sometimes on this mission; but I keep reviving this calling every time I feel the pressure to be self absorbed! Can I be equally interested in the welfare of others as much as I am occupied with mine and my family!

The second  mile is more demanding than the first mile while walking! And yet it is the second mile which makes us relational and humane in character.

Mr Rajan, the gardener in the hospital before he retired, offered to put a board in my assigned car park, which  was used by others two ore three times in a week to park. Seeing me struggle to find a place to park on those mornings, he offered to put up the car number in the slot and placed two flower pots I can use to block the space, when I leave in the evening. I was touched by his kindness and readiness to help me with his idea. He did all these without me asking for his help.

How to keep others in my orbit of thinking and responses is a question that calls my attention even more now!

I fail to respond to mails, sometimes to telephone calls and skip thinking of others. The mango tree is not complete until it bears fruits. I would live a complete life only when others remain active in my thoughts. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Being Alone in silence!

I have often noticed some Egrets arrive at the marshy field earlier than other water birds. It is their time of being alone!

The solitary times are sacred times. Being alone with oneself is necessary for integrating our outer and inner worlds. 

To be alone with oneself is also a time to reflect, recollect and review one's rhythm life. It is also a time to meditate and pray in whichever way one might do, in order to find coherence and connections. 

The personal quiet times of silence is restorative to say the least! It is during such times one receives inner strength to be giving and forgiving. 

The inner silence is not a reflection of the outer space where we exist. The inner silence is a time of communion with oneself, where the silent God becomes manifest and experiential in our interior space. That is how we return to feel the optic of love and openness to move into the day and outer activities. 

It is during such seasons of silence during the day, we are enabled to receive others soberly and respond to situations with mindfulness. 

The silent times of waterbirds have three features: a place of quietness, still body and inward orientation!

I receive this as their gift to us!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Fullness of presence!

I heard a mother narrate her routine at home yesterday, starting from 4.30 am in the morning with ironing clothes for her husband and two children, getting breakfast and lunch packets ready for her two children and husband. It is after they leave at 8.30 am she sits down to have her breakfast! The day spans in to doing the laundry, cleaning the house, getting dinner ready, and the finishing the several household chores before children return at 4.30 pm. By 6 pm she is with them to help with their home work.  Her husband returns at 6.30 pm she is usually ready to welcome him and have a family time of playing some board games till diner time at 8pm. Children are at bed at 9pm and they go to bed after their usual bed time rituals. It is then there is some conversation time with her husband and they too are ready for bed at 10 pm. It is during the week end they even watch TV; otherwise it is a quick glance of the news alone. 

As I listened to the narration, the sight of the Lillies in our garden at home came to my mind. They are open towards four directions.  That symbolises presence all around where they are rooted. 

A woman rooted in her home spreads her presence by acts of thoughtfulness, kindness and availability. It is to the mother children turn to. It is she who looks after the day today financial transactions and is responsible for weekly shopping and housekeeping. A woman who is also a wife and mother is present to be available and to be used!

At the end of listening to the story of this mother, I got a sense of her  concern for the inattentive behaviour of her second child, which made her backward academically. It is she who brought her daughter three times recently, which is another role she fulfils at home- to be available for special needs.

I wonder whether husbands and wives share equally in the household responsibilities! I agonise over the contrast in many homes, where children are abandoned to viewing TV, Mobile phone or playing computer games, etc as parents find that easier way to occupy their children. When I saw an eleven months old boy taking the phone of her mother and navigate to reach the u-tube, I knew one reason why this child was less sociable a communicative! A failure of parenting!

Let me offer my tribute to all women who take their roles a s wife and mother responsibly! 

M.C.Mathew (text ando photo)

Living and Leaving!

When this bunch of flowers got placed in the vase it had left its normal life in its plant. The bunch of flowers stayed rather fresh for ten days in the vase decorating the meeting room table in the department where I work . When it showed signs of withering, the flowers were allowed to stay in the vase till they began to drop one by one. Even when a new table cloth was spread on the table the flowers were  retained .

When the bunch of flowers were finally replaced with new flowers, I looked back over the two weeks the flowers refreshed us in the room! The candles on either side of the flower vase which were lit during our meeting times brought to the ambience the memory of life and its fullness. But that too would fade away finally.

I reflected on this a lot during this week which was an eventful week. A mother told me that ' I left her confused' at the end of a fifty minutes consultation when she recalled what she did not receive enough. I remembered from earlier experiences that she was used to demanding and insisting to receive what she felt entitled for, most of which reflected her unsettled inner world. 

That helped me to reflect on a lesson from this flower bunch. It was removed from where it belonged to and yet it stayed on in the vase enriching others. It did suffer loss when it was forcefully plucked. Its life was shaken but not shortened. Even with that sense of loss, the flowers did not fold up, but stayed open to share their colour and fragrance. 

Every time a family visits me, I want to offer  role them a flower. I often have flowers in a vase on a table adjacent to my work table to remind me that I have been placed here to be in a self giving role!

The flowers give life to others even when they suffered trauma of separation from their plants. This thought remains with me as a calling as I draw this week to a close. 

Those who leave with us a hurting thought can be messengers,  who call us to plough deep into our soul to find the ground of true consciousness to help us to encompass wholeness in thought, attitude and responses. 

A healed person brings healing to others! A wounded person feels the pain and needs of others. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Fruits of the season!

The Easter morning walk in our garden was a refreshing experience with different fruits getting ready for harvesting. 

The Easter focusses our attention on the  the gift of new life Jesus of Nazareth brought to humankind. 

The gift of provisions for our lives also comes from the Lord of all good gifts!

The gift of God is plentiful and abundant!

A sense of gratitude captured me during this walk!

God is a giver!

We receive in order to give!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

I have had a feeling that ducks are used to be in a flock.

But the following sight roared doubt about clannish feeling sometimes they too demonstrate. 

 

The one duck coming after its swim in water, did not get included with the two who were already grooming after their bath!

The two showed indifference so much so that the third duck appeared to move away form the the  other two.  

The philosophy of excluding others, is so dominant globally that it endangers human worth and value. 

Would Russia have invaded Ukraine except for its desire to dominate and subdue another sovereign nation!

On the eve of the festival of Easter, we remember Jesus of Nazareth who lived to reconcile humans with humans and humans with God!

We belong to each other! 

In the narration of the crucifixion scene of Jesus of Nazareth, the gospels mention about Simon the Cyrene who was asked to carry the cross of Jesus. This passer-by got included to share in the mission of God. 

Who are we to have been invited to consider Jesus of Nazareth and His mission of living to care and redeem! And yet each of us is invited to be in His company to bear witness to His doings in our lives!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A girl child !

 

Having noticed this girl washing the courtyard of a residential cum shopping complex on several occasions, I decided to take some pictures recently!

I felt touched with the sense of responsibility with which she was engaged in what she was doing!

A girl child in early childhood is already a meaningful contributor to life in the family. She was sharing in the work load at home and growing up to be a woman of insight and purpose.  

And yet, I grieve over how a girl child is less than a boy child to some parents. A father left his wife on the day his child was born because she was a girl child!

I have reasons to believe from my experience of forty years in child development that mothers carry memories of how they were differentiated from their brothers at home. The same mothers perpetuate a preferential attitude towards their sons. 

This girl in the photo is a message to us about the richness that girl children bring to our homes in different ways. They earn their right to be received as equal to their brothers. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Children's view of life!

On my way to work two days back, I tracked these children, by slowing the car for about ten minutes for over a kilometre. They kept walking together, unaware of what was happening on the road. They looked engaged in conversation. 

Friendship had an expression of communication in this body gesture in the way they walked shoulder to shoulder.

The role of human touch!

I kept pondering over  this!

A mother receives the baby after he or she is born in to her hands and since then the mother and father are regularly touching the baby! A child grows up with this sense of bodily nearness introduced by the parents from early infancy. A touch is an expression of warmth, tenderness and nearness. 

I have watched such warm expressions by mothers while a child is restless and anxious. The gentle voice of affirming love and embracing act of belonging restore the attachment behaviour between parents and children. 

I feel that many children grow up now a days missing this as most of their time from even one year is spent before the screen of a TV or a mobile phone!

Parents do not think abut the void this creates in the emotional psyche of an infant or does the child want to return to mother's lap when hurt or sad. He or she would want to return to the screen for consolation!

Ours is a generation who is growing up with a big void- loss of nearness to each other! 

I watched these boys discover the sense of nearness and belonging!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Lost the way but found this..!

I was on the road for about two hours last week while returning home ! The usual routes to our village were closed due to fallen trees during the storm. I lost my way while taking the smaller roads. 

At one  corner where just one vehicle alone can go, I spotted this cluster of flowers. Although it was raining, I could not resist the urge to take photos as those Lilies look colourful and vibrant.  They were under a thick canopy of trees that even the rain drops did not seem to have soaked the petals. 

This sight and experience occupied my thoughts for the next half an hour before I could navigate my way back to the route to take me home. 

I was soaked in self pity for loosing my way, when this flowers greeted me and changed my mood and thoughts!

I felt miserable that I was carried away by a difficulty! Thanks to these Lilies, I received another reminder of the purpose of even disappointments!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The sky above us!

It is after about two weeks we could sight the blue sky form our green! The summer rain lasted leaving some damage to property around us.  The thunder and lightning caused damage to electrical installations. Th rose bushes wee drooping and the flowers were soaked in rain water without their aroma and lively look. Dulcie and Daffney were annoyed for having been confined to their limited spaces. The garden looks overgrown with grass and weeds!

To have bright the sunshine and the day temperature rising to 32 degree celsius brought some cheer to us. 

The sunshine of the morning and of the day is cheer giving!

Later in the morning, I noticed a pair of ducks in the wild moving towards the stream below. They were not the usual visitors to our neighbourhood. They were sunbathing for a while, a sight I thought was worth watching!

The sunshine after a long spell of cloudy weather lifts our spirit!

M.XC.Mathew(text and photo)

A mission through its presence!

The jasmine flowers have a short life just a few days. We have a row of jasmine plants along ugh edge of our courtyard that we can see and sense the fragrance in the air each morning. 

As I watch a bunch of these flowers usually there are buds, fully open flowers and fading flowers with brownish tinge.

This reminds me of the life events. Wee are born, given a span of life and later fade into away form sight!

The richness of the jasmine flowers is in the fragrance they give away to the space all round it. Each flower is self giving in that sense!

The mission of these flowers is to be open and share its richness of brilliant white colour and aroma all around. 

It was yesterday while on an on line consultation with a family form overseas I got a sense of what it mens to be available to others! This family who has a limited resource with only one person working, find even a medical consultation unaffordable to them. While thanking me for this on line facility with a cost of about ten dollars for a consultation as against 150 or more, they mentioned how medical expenses become far too much for them to bear. 

We live among people who feel the strain and pain of coping with their circumstances. I felt moved by a reminder from this family of how much more health care professionals ought to be mindful of the burdens people carry and struggle to live decently!

It was a big relief to know  that the government of India reduced the cost of COVID protective  vaccination to rupees 250 from rupees 750. 

I wish the there would be more provisions for low income group to have an affordable insurance package and a rational approach to pricing. I keep wondering why the cost of vitamin D estimation has to be nearly two thousand rupees! Some of the commonly used tests, procedures, and services can sustain financially because of the volume which brings more income underwriting the cost of materials used!

Just a bunch of Jasmine which lasts for four or five days! But it gives us a message of openness and being a gift to  others!

 M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

In appreciation of the gardener, Rajan

Almost every available garden space in the MOSC MCH campus has ornamental trees, fruit bearing trees, shrubs, flowering plants, lawns, etc. 

The person who contributed to the culture of caring for the environment was Mr Rajan who through his sixteen years of association with MOSC MCH made the campus eco-friendly. 

We in the Developmental Paediatrics department got to know Mr Rajan, when we wanted to have a lawn with a lawn and plants around the building which was given to the department six years ago for developing it into the Early Learning Centre. Let me present to you a side view of the garden which Mr Rajan helped to develop around this building during the last five years! 

All of us feel grateful for all the help he provided to plant and take care of plants and shrubs in the garden space around the Early Learn Centre. Recently he mad provisions for having indoor plants at the Child Development Centre.

As you retire Mr Rajan form the MOSC MCH, you leave with us many memories of friendship, love for gardening, environmental friendliness and thoughtful ways of caring. It was you Mr Rajan who created lawns and gardens in the medical college campus and Nursing college campuses. Amidst your rather stretched day, you found time to stay in touch with us in Developmental Paediatrics department and visit us almost daily when you were getting the indoor plants ready for us.

It was more than coincidental that the flower vase Shalini arranged with flowers from her garden at home in the morning, was ready to greet you when we had tea together on your last day working day at MOSC MCH.

Now let me close with the image of the Magpie Robin whom I noticed in the evening of your last working day at MOSC MCH. It was perched in the garden near the college canteen, which you helped to design and was tunefully singing! I felt that even the birds in the garden were moved to sing for you as we bid farewell to you!

During the last ten year of my association with MOSC MCH, I have had many occations to meet and interact with you. They are memories of goodwill and kindness. I am still a novice in gardening. It was you who guided and clarified for me some fundamentals of gardening! You cared for plants and reached out to all of us with your friendship! 

You remain in our thoughts!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)