It was dusk and the visibility had dropped yesterday. From the study, I heard the bird call of a tree pie from the bush in our courtyard. What I watched was a friendly look of a tree pie, similar to what I watched in the morning on a coconut palm just beyond the bush. As it kept engaging me, I wondered whether it came looking for me, remembering the morning ritual of photographing it!
Whatever it might be, I felt visited. Those ten minutes were like a conversation in silence! It was an affirmation of friendship !
For me it was a message of considerable encouragement at the end of a day, when aloneness in this journey of life gripped me in an unusual way. I spent years from my college days, visiting, writing, enabling, etc. I had an occasional feeling of entitlement to be acknowledged and appreciated! That feeling returned to me yesterday for a while. Later in the day, it occurred to me that giving and forgiving is the calling to live with and not attaching strings to that vocation.
That is when I heard the bird call from our courtyard. No sooner I arrived, the tree pie stopped its call and kept gazing at me with its body in stillness. Its engaging look brought cheer and calm within. To fall into self pity is a sure sign of loosing balance of perspectives. The tree pie with its captivating look in silence calmed me and called my soul to rest.
I felt like receiving a provision that I needed at the end of labouring with my negative feelings! The fear of being forgotten can be a trap that any one call fall into. I was almost there yesterday !
God sent Elijah with bread when he was beside a drying brook; I was sent yesterday a bird with its bird call and calming look !
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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