A quiet time!

It was around 9 am yesterday, sensing that it was hot already, I looked at the thermometer, which showed 37 degrees celsius. The forecast for the day was a mid-day temperature of 41 degrees. 

I looked outside into the lawn in front of our cottage and spotted a Myna gathering whatever it can find from the grass. That made me to look into our bird bath and the feed area. The bowls were empty. I refilled them. 

While being at the lawn I turned to the cashew tree, which had fruits ready to pluck as well as tender cashew nuts. It amazed me because, the cashew tree is still flowering.  The first fruit in this season was in December. It is the first time, since it started yielding fruits, three years ago, the fruiting season would exceed six months. 

As I stood watching the cashew tree, my attention turned to the edge of the lawn, where I noticed the flowers which bore the brunt of the summer heat and humidity, swaying in the breeze as if they were calling me to visit them!

I took time to go near each of them. 

When I came to the jasmine flowers, I felt the fragrance in the air. That made me to go even more closer. 

That was when I noticed two spiders, one on the jasmine bud and another on a leaf. I stood watching for any movement towards making a web between the buds and the leaf. 

 

As I kept looking around for any movement in the garden, I spotted a squirrel coming to the cashew tree to search for fruits. A crow flying between trees adjacent to it chased the squirrel away. The bird movement in the garden is now infrequent since summer has set in. Even the resident Magpie robins, Bulbuls, Sunbirds and Kingfishers are not around. 

I felt moved by the sight of life in the garden, where the Myna and spiders find a home in the garden for themselves, in the summer time. 

I was away from home for a week and was recovering from a viral illness. It was after two weeks that I was taking time to move around in the garden to feel near to the plants.  

I felt an unusual awareness of their presence, not just because of their colourfulness or fragrance alone. The green grass in the lawn was as much communicative as the flowers and fruits. It was from the grass the Myna found its food. The grass is least regarded ordinarily in a garden. Often they are regarded as weed and removed from the soil. Even the least noticed, also has a purpose to fulfil!

I do not remember manuring the lawn grass at any time in the recent years. They are watered in the summer months. 

When Daffny is out in the garden, it is to the lawn she runs to roll on the grass. Dulcie treats the grass as a carpet and stretches herself on it. The cool feeling the grass offers to the bare feet is refreshing to experience. The elegant look the grass offers is special.

This time in the garden, was an educational experience for me to feel the value of small things or experiences, which do not often receive enough attention as much as other experiences. 

Thanks to the Myna in the lawn, that I was given some quiet time to travel inward and experience the refreshment the lawn, a bird, spiders, plants, flowers and fruits brought! It became an uplifted time of grateful awareness of God, who is the giver and provider!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)