Sometimes the sights in a garden would take you by surprise. Since I noticed this suspended leaf in the morning, held by the strand of a web and dancing in the wind in our garden, it remained till dusk, when I visited it last. There were spells of rains and strong winds on two occasions during the day.
The strength of a strand of a web is not phenomenal. It is a fragile strand, although partially resistant to disruption to wind and water. The dried leaf is light. The web held the leaf while falling from the tree. In fact there is a web within the semicircle shape of the leaf suggesting that the spider wanted to secure it for it to move up and down.
My first impression was, how precariously placed was the leaf! Later when it remained suspended even after the wind and rain, I knew it was stronger than how it appeared to be!
Anyone who would have seen Mother Teresa or her photos, would have wondered how she carried enormous inner strength in her fragile body! Towards the latter years of her life, she had cardiac, spinal and joint related frailties. Yet she stayed strong inwardly, inspiring the sisters of her order in forty countries to live in austerity and serve those who lived in despairing situations of life. While thinking about this, I used to feel that she was present among us, as one who was 'held and moved' by the strength beyond herself! She had a 'given strength' which she attributed to what she received from God during her habit of prayer!
This given inner given strength is a reality that brought into a sharp focus while I stayed watching the suspended leaf dancing in the wind. The leaf was protected by the web. The hanging web strand looked slender and fragile, but it had a wider base of support with the web strands criss crossing underneath the leaf. The reinforced the strength of the web strand that carried the leaf.
To me, it became a vision to pursue the journey of life and live hopefully and trustfully. When one grows older, and has constrains in health, the tendency is to feel weak, vulnerable and therefore live cautiously and fearfully!
What this sight brought to me was a consciousness about the mystical dimension to our lives. There is a dimension beyond logic, reason and rationality, which constitute the temporal dimension. The mystical dimension brings into our lives surprises, provisions, and pathways to pursue!
There is a larger truth in life, beyond wealth, position, visibility and material success.
During this week, on 13th January, 2024, we will remember Dr Frank Garlick, a former professor of surgery at Christian Medical College, Vellore, on his first death anniversary. He left his position at CMC Vellore to spend another six years to visit medical students and doctors to share with them, the message of a vocation in the practice of medicine. He talked about the ethos to 'give away what has been given to us' because, 'What do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you have not received it?'(I Corinth. 4:7). He lived expressing this mystical dimension in life!
It is when we experience life the way the Psalmist envisioned in Psalm 104:10-13, we get a glimpse of this mystical dimension of God in our lives: 'God sends forth springs in the valleys, they flow between the monitions; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Besides them the birds of the heaven dwell; they lift up their voices among the branches. He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of HIs works'.
What a comforting message for 2024!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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