The collection of photos above from our garden taken recently gives three patterns- flowers alone, flowers with buds and Buds alone ! That is the distribution I notice in the garden most of the time. The dew of the night and the webs on some flowers made by the spiders are only faintly visible.
Apart from the above, there are flowers in the early stage of bloom and flowers with the petals having fallen off and a flower with damaged petals due to insects.
I realised as I saw these photos that while a garden is a safe place for flowers to bloom, it is also a place where we can notice the flowers at the end stage of their blooming or flowers prematurely damaged.
I have recently heard a few stories of homes carrying a similar story. Many experience the security of their home and relationships within the family. But there are exceptions when children or adults feel unsafe due to hostile attitude in the family relationships.
The safety of a home and warmth of relationships contribute to childhood formation and the parenting canopy.
The journey of a family is towards the formation of children into adulthood and parents becoming shades of shelter and protection for children to grow into their full stature.
Both these functions seem to be threatened amidst the changing value system!
Children endure the hardships and parents feel lonely because the family ties are loose, fragile and tentative!
Each morning when I return after the walk in the garden, what stays with me is this message of 'tending the garden of life'- families where children and parents grow together.
It is in families we welcome birth and bid farewell to those whose time have come to move on!
The life in the family is formative to face the joys and travails of life!
The flowers above, in whatever state they are, remind me of the joy of living and abundance of gratefulness we are privileged to share in our families!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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