Beyond the sameness!

I was gathering together all the photos of the Lilies in our garden, taken from December 2023. It was while gathering them together into one folder, I came across that a few of the stems had three flowers, the majority had four flowers and occasionally five flowers in a stem!

The ones with the three flowers were scattered among the others. Their flowers and stem looked similar to the rest, which had four and five flowers. 

The majority of the Lilies, in the photos below, had four flowers and looked similar in every way, like the ones which had three or five flowers. They formed a cluster, suggesting that the bulbs which multiplied from the original bulb planted produced similar number of flowers.

I do not recall observing that a few of the Lilies had five flowers, like in the photos below,  when I took their photographs. I went back to the files of the earlier years of Lilies, since we had them for the last five years. I noticed that a few had three or five flowers, but not in the collection of flowers of every year as they were not captured in the photo.

I lived with an impression till now, that this species of Lilies had four flowers as that was evident and commonly seen. 

The exercise of gathering together all the photos from December 2023 was for the purpose, of transferring them to an external hard disk to create space in the computer. 

This discovery of three and five flowers, unlike the usual four flowers in a Lily plant, alerts me to look for Lilies with one or two flowers. I have not come across that in the collection of photographs which I have currently.

 

In the above photograph, there are two plants with three flowers while the other two have four flowers. I suppose the bulbs grow and reproduce new plants and therefore, it is likely that the plants which bear three, four or five flowers would be usually in clusters. This is a lesson about being more skilful in the art of observation. 

We look through the optic of our belief or assumption and see what our mind has conditioned us to see. 

The bias of confirmation is at work, which almost deceives our perception and prevents our mind from observing anything else other than the mind is used to or has believed as the norm.  

An alert mind is an enquiring and discerning mind and travels beyond the bias of familiarity. 

This experience brought me to a new consciousness about my habit to seek for confirmation of my thought from others, whom I talk to, rather than being open enough to entertain other thoughts than what I had considered. 

There was a road traffic accident involving five vehicles yesterday. The four reports I listened to by different channels in the TV differed in the details about the cause of the accident. The accident occurred around 6 am in a lonely part of a high way. Therefore the opinions can differ as only few might have been on the spot before the accident. It is when the closed circuit camera or the satellite pictures can give the images, one can be sure of the sequence of events. Till then the information would be a mixture of facts and fiction. 

A lesson that comes home to me, from the first time discovery, is that there can be more or less flowers than four flowers in one stem of a Lily plant. 

Every situation has its own uniqueness and is often not a replica of a similar situation in the past. It calls for openness and readiness to see every situation in its own context. 

Our mind might tend to present to us a situation through the filters of our past experiences, which might not be fully factual !

The breakdown of communication or relationships occur, because we view a situation conditioned by our past experiences, memories or impressions. 

Each situation needs a fresh appraisal, in which case we are less biased or dogmatic. 

I was given an opportunity this morning to know that, a Lily plant can have more or less flowers than the usual four in a stem. 

What a call for openness!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

8.50 am: Post Script

After I finished writing the above text, I went for a morning walk. I went to other sites where, we have some Lilies blooming in our garden. They being in the rear portion of our cottage, I was not used visiting those sites regularly. 

This morning, after the surprise observation of three and five flowers in a stem unlike the usual four flowers in a Lily plant, I wanted to find if there are stems of Lily with one or two flowers. 

I found three Lily plants with two flowers!

It turned out to be a jubilant time as well as a humbling time. Jubilant, because, I noticed for the first time that some Lily stems can have just two flowers. Ther might be more surprises awaiting. Humbling, because, it places before me a challenge to grow more open and less dogmatic about my impressions being the whole truth. 

As one grows older, the learning opportunities open up even more, if only one is observant and open enough to enough to revise opinions or impressions her so far!

A journey in unlearning and revised learning!

This might appear trivial in one sense, but it carries a profound meaning for me. Use the experiences to learn new lessons rather than loose the opportunity because of confidence in what I am used to believing!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)