The formative family experience !

The cashew tree in our garden is now with fruits in different stages of formation of the fruits from the flowers. 

The tree started flowering in December unlike the normal time of March. The cashew fruits are normally ripe during the summer months. 

As I watch generations of cashew fruits in this tree, it became to me a symbol of family life !

Each family has people of all ages growing together and becoming people of their calling in the ambience of  family relationships. 

The fruits hang in the flower bunches, which the tree brings forth in the due season every year. 

The flowers and fruits find their shelter in the tree. 

I have had reasons recently to think about the way each family tree becomes a shelter for all its members !

A boy who found a packet of currency on the road side early morning while he was on his morning run in Bangalore handed it over to the police station near his home. It was a large sum of money. When he was interviewed for his conduct of honesty, by the police officer, he  said:  'I grow up in a home where honesty is a value which I see in my parents'!  

This is the 'shelter' that a family offers to younger generation. The family is a canopy over all those who belong to it. The family has its instructive, formative, protective and creative impact on all who belong to it. 

I know of a home where children do household chores at home including cooking, on Sundays so that parents can have some time for themselves. What a thoughtful way of being mindful of parents ! 

I remember a seeing a father who is an artist, carrying his pencil colours in a knitted pouch, which his pre-teenage daughter made for him as a birthday gift.  He spoke about it in immense admiration of his daughter.

I have come  across a family, where each birthday occasion is made special, when parents and children share family life experiences and feel grateful towards each other. 

A family is the soil in which children are rooted!

Our children are the fruits, each family offers to the community around them!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)