A purple Heron !

 

Having spotted a Purple heron, I waited till it took to flight to get a glimpse of its flying movements. I forgot to change the camera setting to continuous auto setting focus. So what I got was blurred pictures. 

However it gave me a good enough idea of how a large heron uses different flying modes to sore, stay in the air, change direction and descend to land in its next position. 

I was taken a back by its impressive body adaptations while in the air! Although photographically the pictures are of poor quality, the pictures give enough indications of the way the purple heron is able to use its body for bening fully functional!

First our body needs our attention. We are told that diet-exercise-rest imbalance leads to about sixty percent of people being overweight. 

Second, our personal wellness is linked to the health of our body. This starts by attending to the personal discipline of choosing wellness in our body and stay away from indulgence of any sort.  

Third, attention to the body would keep the multiple organs optimally functional. I discovered that a thirty minutes of brisk walking provides optimisation of functions of different organs in our body.

When our body is therefore taken care of, we are likely to be more functional mentally, socially and spiritually. 

A bird is a good example and a demonstration of living well by paying attention to the body. Its application for humans is keeping weight optimal, eating just enough, sleeping enough, staying away from any substance addiction, exercising as a habit, etc.

A purple heron is a heavy bird and its pair of broad wings help it to soar high in the air. Watching this bird gave me an impression that birds are cognitively competent to choose its dynamic equilibrium to live well. 

But highly intelligent human beings, having known the way to live well, so ignore it that about  thirty percent of people in the third decade of life are already taking treatment for life style related illnesses in some places, such as those who live in the state of Kerala. 

I found that some children below five years have high cholesterol level. On enquiry with parents, I found that they are given ghee to make food tastier from the time they start on weaning food from the age of 1 year. I am not sure if hypercholestremia is due to any remote effect of COVID pandemic, when children would have had more than one spell of illness. 

Has the fast food culture reduced the consumption of vegetables and fruits!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)