4. Finding
5. Rejoicing
6. Home coming
Anna and I had an opportunity to be at a beach couple of months ago, where we met a pair of Gulls engaged in their rhythm of life. In the pictures above the seven movements they made between the sea and beach land were:
1. Going
2. Staying
3.Returning
4.Finding
5.Rejoicing
6. Home coming
7. Integrating
1. Going
The sea Gulls live between the beach land and sea most of the times. This was one occasion when we could take time to watch their movements between the beach and sea. I was surprised that they followed a rhythm that is common to humans.
The Gulls go into the water, because it is their habit and they belong to the sea. The humans by virtue of having been told: 'By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...' (Genesis 3:19), spend long hours of their life time at a work place. We go to our work place with our skills and readiness to be fruitful.
2. Staying
The Gulls are used to staying long in the edge of the water! The water waves and the tides do not change their habit. The staying power is their second nature. At work places, we often have pleasant and unpleasant experiences. There is a tendency to look back or look around when faced with difficulties. Some are so desperate that they add sorrow to their difficulties by reactive and resentful behaviour. Instead the strength for staying power is endowed within us. Jesus of Nazareth said once, that having put the hands to the plough, there is no turning back. The work place stress or transition is for our growth in fortitude and purposefulness. The convenience of quitting ought to be the last option, when work ethics is replaced by situational ethics and compromises and conveniences are the only option.
3. Returning
The Gulls returned after having been in the sea for a while. It is difficult to stay, when the currents of water come from two directions all the time. It is an effort to be in that situation when faced with pulls and tractions. I suppose that is what is common at our work place. There is so much we carry on our shoulders and mind that they would have cumulative effect on our interior life.
That is why all organisations founded on the ethics of wellness for their staff give regular holidays and vacations for them to have time of recovery and renewal. At the governing council meeting of the Christian Medical College, Vellore in January 1985, I participated in a discussion, when the institution was considering to extent one year sabbatical leave to two years for the faculty. What was expressed was that, considering the long hours of work and the pressure under which the faculty work, they would be eligible for sabbatical of two years and study leave of two years, which they can take on one occasion or split between three occasions, during their term of service. The study leave was made available to those who were confirmed faculty and the sabbatical, for those who finished seven years of service after confirmation. Now there is a provision to go on a one year Junior academic fellowship for study, apart from these provisions.
The habit of returning from work each day is to renew ourselves by resting and recuperating! The week end is a time to practice this, even better if the institutions have only five day work schedule. The annual leave is another occasion to experience of returning to ourselves and restore inward wellness. Isaiah has a word for us to this effect: 'In rerun and rest you shall be saved...' (Isa.30:15).
4. Finding
The Gulls found crab on the beach and relished them. That reminded me of the breakfast Jesus of Nazareth had prepared with fish and bread after His resurrection, for his disciples at the beach, when the disciples returned after a night of toil in the sea without any fish caught (John. 21: 1-11). I feel inclined to look at reward for our work place engagement as not earned but given. This to me has been a dilemma.
The work place has become a place, where professionals negotiate with the management for their compensation so much so, two professionals with similar qualifications and experience can be on two different compensation package. I like the way the Christian Medical College, Vellore compensates professionals based on a salary scale of criteria, made known to the faculty. This enabled the professionals to receive their compensation as a reward and not as a salary entitled for their job. They are honoured for their presence and being in the college and hospital, which is why they are given houses to stay in the institution campus. What we get is given and not acquired. It is not our performance that earns us our reward, but our availability and faithfulness.
Jesus of Nazareth made this as His call to all those who employ labourers in the parable of the vineyard: 'I wish to give the last man the same as you' (Mat 29: 14). This was His statement to those who bargained with the landlord for paying the same wage to those who came in the morning hours and the evening hours to work in the vineyard. What we have is given!
5. Rejoicing
The next move of the sea Gulls was rejoicing. One sea gull in the photo above was making its bird calls while walking away after feeding on a crab for its meal. What a message for our consideration! At our work place, I wish there would be more rejoicing, thankfulness, affirmation, and reciprocity of goodness. It is when we can grow in the consciousness and experience of what Jesus of Nazareth spoke in the Sermon on the mount, 'But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you' (Mat. 6:33), we can grow into being hospitable, gracious and self giving! That is when we shall overflow with contentment and gratefulness, which is what shall make us to sing in our hearts to bless others.
6. Home coming
The next movement of the sea Gulls was to join back with other gulls on the beach. They found another sea gull to feel connected after having been away Going, Staying, Returning, Finding, and Rejoicing.
We belong to others, our family, friends, work place companions and strangers. I like the parable Jesus of Nazareth spoke about the Good Samaritan for this reason. A traveller finds a stranger on the wayside wounded and bleeding. He attended to the needs of the stranger and took him to an inn, gave money for looking after him and offered to return to enquire about him.
It is when we can live with that relational earnestness we are growing to be fully human. To live among others with a feeling and caring heart is the need in a society, where weak among us are like to become weaker with the philosophy of gaining wealth anyway is the norm for many.
7. Integrating
In the last photo above, there are many foot prints on the beach. It is a place of human interactions and bird presence. None of us can make out the foot prints of the sea gulls who live on the beach. Their foot prints got integrated with the foot falls of many others.
Anna and I complete our forty years of presence in Child Development service in 2023. We criss crossed this arena, along with others, who too have had similar interest in this country and overseas. Others made their foot falls in walking with children and families. Anna and I too walked the way with others. But theirs or our foot falls are not inseparable. They have together interlaced to make the matrix of child development in this country what it is today.
It is a mosaic of people and their contributions. I have been to about thirty places in this country, where Child Development service is offered in an affirmative way. They differ widely in content, depth, and extent, yet each contributing to what parents value.
At ASHIRVAD, we too have followed our perception and dream in Child development. Where we arrived after forty years of this journeying, was to practice a family centred approach to child development. We attempted to promote parenting, foster a secure home environment, facilitate healthy sibling relationship, support parent's wellness, and help in making a home communicative. We campaigned for giving a sense of belonging to children by creating a child's corner in a home. We pursued academic questions, looking for evidences for causal pathway of developmental departure, and creating a nurturing and educating model for child development.
Even the above is interlaced with the efforts of many others in different parts in the country in hospitals, schools, community centres and domiciliary services. The striving for distinctiveness was not the calling for us, but togetherness with others, to make a difference in the lives of children with Neuro-developmental needs.
When I sat at the table below for the first time today, which is the current location from where, Anna and I shall carry on our involvement in child development, what occurred to me was the small efforts we can still take, towards bringing wellness to developmentally challenged children and their families!
I feel overwhelmed that the sighting of the seven movements of the sea Gulls on a beach had a message deeper than what was apparent then.
All experiences have a deeper substance and content which we discover by pondering, reflecting and meditating!
This was one such occasion for looking for a larger meaning of ordinary events!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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