One sight that captivated my attention while visiting a garden was the four views of the canopy of a tree , which were distinctly different from each our.
The front view was a contrast from the rear. The two side views were also different. I did not get the message that it was conveying till, I happened to pass by this canopy while returning after having been in the garden for a while.
It is a green where nature is made to be a messenger of thoughts, values and insights.
While taking photographs by moving around tis fascinating sight, it struck me that with change of the angle of view, the appearance of the canopy changed.
There is a lot of news in the media about political events in India, USA, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, etc. The political polarisation has reached an unparalleled confrontation. The oppositional views have emerged to divide leading to confrontation, so much we read the position of challenging each other to fight!
Let me present these photos of this tree in a garden that instantly diffuses the folly of polarisation and confrontation. How silly it is for humans to limit to one's own perspective as authentic and wholesome! That is bordering to be megalomania!
Close by to the place where I live, a conflict has gone on for a several months now whether the priest ought to face the altar or the people while conducting a worship service! It has divided the congregation vertically and each group is insistent on having their way!
If God is a gracious God, which is what we find when we recall the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, remembered worldwide during this Holy Week, why are we quarrelling about non-issues!
The truth is larger than what we can comprehend from our initial impression.
Whether in a family or at work places, what disturbs peace is differences of opinion. The difference is because we confine ourselves to our favourite thought-line and do not meander around to explore a larger truth or perspective.
I had a reminder of this the other day. A child was picking up a flower from the ground. While she continued gathering more flowers from the ground, a passerby offered to break a twig of fresh flowers from the tree whose branches were hanging over the pedestrian path. This lady, commenting that, 'it is time to trim the branches' broke a twig to give to this girl. She thought laterally and creatively! She did what would have happened during the trimming of the tree which was overdue! The legality of whether it was right for the lady to break a twig was not what mattered. What engaged the lady was the girl's fancy for flowers. She discerned it and responded to it! The twigs should not have been there obstructing the pedestrian path. The tree should have been trimmed earlier!
One can be immersed in a hair splitting legality of whether what the lady did in breaking the twig of flowers was right or not! Or one can be delighted in the thoughtfulness of a lady towards a school girl, whose interest in flowers, the lady was able to acknowledge and affirm in a thoughtful way! Which house owner would any way mind if a twig of a tree with full of blossoms is broken to bring cheer to a pre-school child!
Our life needs a revision of perspectives. There is so much of insistence in our private life that we exclude others from their shades of thinking and perspectives!
I remind myself that the tree I noticed in the garden is a symbol of diversity and the richness of that diversity! The tree is a symbol of fullness and wholeness! That is the journey into which I felt drawn one more time!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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