The first photo above is the entrance to our cottage from the gate. The photo taken on a misty morning yesterday at twilight, gives a feel of a quiet and serene ambience around our cottage.
This passage leads us to our cottage which is our home and symbolises the outer journey of life, that we have been blessed with. We come in and go out of this home to engage in activities which form our daily lives.
The second one taken about twenty years ago, is that of the entrance leading to a retreat house, where Anna and I were used to going when we were younger. The passage to the retreat house symbolises the inner journey we were led to make, from which we gathered insights hidden the in the biography of our lives.
Each of us has a story and a narrative. It is interwoven by the strands from the outer experiences and inner experiences. Both carry meaning and together they make life experiences cohesive.
There is a ninety years old jack fruit tree in the centre of our garden, which we can see from our dining room which, gives us fruits in its season every year.
A few feet away, a jackfruit sapling sprouted from a seed that accidentally fell on the soil, probably from a jack fruit which got opened when it was dropped. That sapling remained there and I did not expect it to grow or bear any fruit. During the last six months it seemed to grow faster and lo and behold, I noticed today, one growing jackfruit along with another small in the same pedicle and a third one resting on the ground.
This is a symbol of how we are given, for which we did not labour for!
Every time I come into our garden and enter the cottage, I am reminded of what Anna and I inherited from my parents. The cottage and all the facilities, the garden and the large compound with many fruit bearing trees, came to us because my parents laboured for them.
The entrance to the retreat house, is also another reminder of how we were nurtured in our younger days, by people who had a pastoral heart towards us. In fact, they came seeking after us, to give us an experience of discovering the truths that remain hidden in our inner recess, a reality which needed spiritual accompaniment by people, who cared and were familiar with interpreting the inner canvas of human experiences! We felt enabled and carried in that inner journey, because of which we got introduced to seek for the sacred truths resident in inner life, where God's presence is often experienced!
Some of the pleasant surprises and trying times would have remained as events had it not been for the accompaniment we received from senior friends. They without intruding into the privacy of our lives or projecting any thoughts of their own into our lives, tarried with us to discern the meaning of such experiences beyond the initial impressions we had about them.
A Beatle, fond of the new shoots of the coconut palm got deep into the shoot and managed the tree. I am not even sure if the coconut palm would survive. That 4 cm long Beatle can shorten the life of a four years old coconut palm, which would have a life span of fifty years or more! The small events in our lives can have impact on our inner life more than they would signify initially.
The domestic worker who has been struggling with his alcohol dependence told us yesterday that, ever since we started transferring his wages once a week to his bank account, it was his daughter and wife, who were handling the bank transactions, because of which he has less money in his hand. This gradually reduced his habit of daily visiting the bar. It was Anna who thought about this plan, which was deliberately done to reduce easy access to money! In the conversation with him yesterday, he kept referring to this change which strengthened his resolve to kick his habit. Not that he arrived there, but he might be on his way! Anna mentioned to me after the conversation, that this idea dawned on her, while carrying him in her thoughts to find a way forward for him.
Even this approach to receive people as they are and not get repelled by what they do or not do, is a consciousness that has grown within us, through this growing awareness of messages from our inner life.
The introduction to nurture our inner life was a gift we received. We live receiving the fruits of what others laboured for.
In fact, the sighting of this young jackfruit tree with fruits on it, surprised me and brought an awareness of how, what was not considered significant enough, can now replace the old jack fruit tree, whose branches had to be cut recently, as they looked not so healthy.
The provisions of God are new each day!
God gives us 'our daily bread'.
What we receive daily is abundance of it!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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