The Sunbird finds its nectar by going deep into the flower! It has known form habit that nectar is at the bottom of the flower!
There is a depth within each of us, which is the place of wellness, peace and comfort !
Often our lives are lived in the theatre of actions and reactions, associated with stress, anxiety and fretfulness! That is the existential mode of life.
The truthful mode of life is at a deeper plane when we remain in communion with ourselves.
The layers of emotions in our conscious mind are at the surface level. What is beneath that layer of existential realities, is the true life that we are meant to experience.
The year 2025 for the Christian Medical College, Vellore is significant in different ways. One is its completion of 125 years since started by Dr Ida Scudder in 1900.
The other is the 100th birthday of Dr Mary Varghese who studied at CMC from 1946 to 1952 and started the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 1962. Dr Mary sustained a spinal cord injury in 1954 and remained wheel chair bound since then. Dr Paul Brand trained her to sit in the wheel chair and operate on hands of patients of leprosy, who needed reconstructive surgery. Later she received advanced training in Perth and New York in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Those who knew her closely speak about the 'deeper plane' form where she lived following her spinal cord injury. The turbulences of shock and grief settled down and she became a radiant person conveying hope and peace! She had some health related constraints in the later years due to pulmonary complications. Even in such a situation, Dr Mary lived from within drawing strength from the inner peace and hope.
Dr Mary lived in her body but transcended its limitations because she experienced soulful living with a purpose and direction to make her life a sign post to others to find peace and
The circle of friends she found at CMC facilitated her to live beyond the realm of her limitations!
How we live when we are well or challenged by limitations, is a choice we make consciously!
The deeper plane hope!of our being is the ground of reality of God abiding within us as a companion!
When we feel displaced from that consciousness, it is the well meaning friends, who can awaken us to the awareness of that reality!
Living is therefore an exercise of becoming part of the web of relationships with people who can help us to stay grounded in the reality of knowing, who am I and whose am I !
M.C.Mathew( text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment