I noticed these birds making the wood apple tree in our garden as their flight stations almost every day since the winter season has started. Sometimes two or three birds are found together in the tree at the same time.
A tree welcomes all birds to host them!
Yesterday at work I was helped to find a new meaning to hosting families when they come with the needs of their children. A grandmother expressed her annoyance for having had to wait for about an hour to be called in for consultation. Having been told about her reactive comments, I wondered how I would be able to be a host to her beyond just a conversation about her grandchild. During the half an hour I spent with her, I sensed how I struggled within to be courteous and thoughtful.
A host cannot choose his or her guests. A host exists for the guests, which is the vocation if we choose to make work place a place of hospitality. While I struggled with this initially with discomfort for her unreasonableness especially when I had not taken a break from 9 am when I started, till 3. 45 pm, I had a transient feeling of justifying myself as most of the families till them were visiting us for the first time, out of which two families needed extra time, which delayed the subsequent consultations. This grandmother had lost her patience when her grandchild was all over the place whom she had to restrain to which he reacted by screaming.
That is when the picture of the tree in our garden where I noticed the above birds came to my consciousness. Through the day this tree would have about thirty birds visiting and even plucking its fruit and feeding on nectar in the flowers.
The tree is in a permanent giving and hosting mission!
I am glad that this thought guided me to settle down emotionally and offer the grandmother support after which she left smiling and asking time for the next appointment.
Our first thoughts in any difficult situation are thoughts of defence and self righteousness. But beneath that layer is the subconscious layer of our processed attitudes to life and living exist. One would have reflected on similar situations in the past and would have chosen the path to be mindful even in difficult circumstances. It is by welcoming those resident thoughts and acting in resonance with that mission, which would allow the personal growth of inner awakening and transformation to continue.
The practice of medicine is to offer altruistic benefits to others. We are not in a position to choose our guests; but to be a host with an attitude of hospitality is the way we can make others return home fulfilled!
A tree and birds gave me the instruction to be a host in a difficult situation!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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