Leaves, buds and flowers !

Each day offers new sights in our garden. 

What fascinates me is the changes that happen in each plant. If I missed noticing a plant for a few days and returned to watch it, it would have new leaves, buds or flowers. 

A plant rooted in the soil is changing and growing. 

This occurred to me as the reality in human lives. 

During my years of involvement in child development, I have had the opportunity to observe children sometimes once in two weeks. I felt   surprised by the changes that I noticed in their physical, emotional, cognitive and social dimensions. In the infants and toddlers, the rapid growth and changes were obvious. 

As an adult, I wonder whether this process of growing and changing is observable in our lives in tangible ways!

I met a shop keeper yesterday, after three months whose first comment was, 'Have you lost some weight'! That was what was obvious to him. 

This comment helped me to ponder over this process of growth and changes in an adult life. 

Now I man in the fourth month since retiring from the hospital, I did not have the regular rhythm of welcoming children or families. I shifted to write and complete the pending project of publishing three booklets on child development for the use of parents. I had the freedom to follow a comfortable rhythm for each day. 

With this change outside, what was happening to me inwardly!

I felt an expanding inward space to see, hear, feel, and sense my own thoughts, needs, aspirations and relationships. The inner fabric woven by many strands which remained amorphous and vague for a while is now becoming more distinct. I am just about to feel different strands and streams of thoughts and that create the mosaic of my inner world. 

This awareness of inner events, movements and perceptions help in knowing what affects the inner consciousness. It is a pebble,  which stirs the still water in a pond. 

What are those pebbles in my inner world!

Are they stressors!

The state of anxiety is what we absorb from the world around us. One pebble that stirs the inner ambience is this anxiety state. A comment by someone, that 'you do not have a pension or insurance. How do you plan your future' was a stress evoking question. 

The walk in the garden two days back,  while this stressor was at work within, brought a comforting and clarifying inner ambience. The plants rooted in the soil produce leaves, buds and flowers. The water drops on the leaves symbolised the day provisions they receive. A plant receives, therefore it grows, changes and brings forth leaves, buds and flowers.

The receiving and the giving!

This is the cycle of life!

The instinct to acquire adds stress to life. 

When life is lived in an attitude of receiving, because 'it is in God we live, move and have our being', there is a sense of being grounded and protected. 

It provides motivation to '.. to lead a quiet life, attend to your own business and work with your hands...' (1Thesss. 4.11).

This brings comfort to live each day and be in readiness to give!

The plants are ever giving oxygen and everything else! They live fully from the fullness of life granted to them. 

We are given to give!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)