Every day when I have an opportunity to walk in our garden, what is common is the sights of flowers, Bees and Butterflies. They are most fragile and vulnerable. However they survive the hostile environment. The incessant rains for the last one week did not diminish their presence or activity.
During a conversation with a friend yesterday, whom I was speaking to after a while, he raised an issue, 'Why do we often go down emotionally under pressure or stress'!
That is when I remembered a biographical hint, which late Dr Ray Windsor from Newzealand, shared with me in 1976. He came to India having had advanced training in cardio-thoracic surgery to offer his services, at a time when the coronary by pass surgery was still not practiced in India. He went to two prominent hospitals, one in south India and the other in the north. They did not welcome him. Having been disappointed, he went to the post graduate Institute of Medical sciences, Chandigarh, which was in its early stage of being established. That was where he had an opportunity to start his cardio-thoracic surgery practice in India, from where he moved on to become the international director of the Bible Medical Missionary Fellowship, stationed in New Delhi.
While sharing about his disappointment and staying in India for about four months without an open door for him, he felt dejected and was ready to go back to Auckland where he was working earlier. That was when he met late Mr Alan Norish, a retired army officer who served in India during the Second World War. Mr Norish mentioned to him 'disappointments are also opportunities'.
During that conversation with Dr Windsor, he happened to mention to me something that has been a pathfinder for me. One can go under a difficult situation or ride in the wings of that experience to a horizon beyond. That was what he did, following which he saw some doors closed for him another one opened for him.
It is our perception which makes a situation hostile or favourable. It is within us to navigate through a difficult situation or retreat and stay regretful or reactive.
It was through this optic I viewed a honey Bee and butterfly out in the garden, to gather nectar in between the rain. They knew the way to adapt to the situation and still continued to be present with an overcoming orientation.
There are some good books on mid life transition, beyond sixty, life after seventy, and life senior citizens, etc in my collection of books. Since ten days into retirement I have had occasions to turn the pages of some of these books to get a glimpse into scheduling each day with a structure. Dr Willian Cutting authored few books giving suggestions to senior citizens to 'move to live well'. He advocates a physical activity schedule for senior citizens.
What is this movement! Is it only physical!
Movement is also a journey from a mind set to freedom of thinking!
I like the way the Bee and the butterfly moved from one flower to another, sometimes returning to an earlier flower they visited. They did not have a linear path but an exploratory path during their nectar seeking.
The journey of life is through peeks and valleys of life experiences. All humans are on an exploratory journey, often having to go through an unchartered path.
I go out early in the morning, while it is still dark, to gather nutmeg fruits from beneath a tree, which has its branches spread on to the public road. The ground is overgrown with grass. As the shell is yellow in colour and the seed is red, it is easy to notice them in the grass. After the initial gathering, I shine the torch on the ground and notice a fee more glistening in the light. It was that light which revealed what was not so evident.
There is a light within which is what illuminates the inner path for us to make the existential choices.
Jesus of Nazareth said, 'Watch out that the light in you may not be darkness' (Luke 11:33). The verse before that explains this statement. 'The lamp of your body is your eye; when your eye is clear, your whole body is also full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness'. The eye that sees, discerns and illuminates!
A Bee and a Butterfly see with their whole body because their eyes illuminate their body!
I found the practice of Lectio divina, meditative reading of the Bible on two or three occasions during the in between time at work, as a useful way to have the light within us illuminating us to see and discern the way forward. The Scripture lights the interior with truth that gets often subsumed by existential pressures.
This periodic movement from the exterior to the interior is what would offer us to see an opportunity in every situation, to redeem it for greater inner consciousness of the path ahead.
We are sojourners. Pathfinding is to be our habit!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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