Returning home burdened !

All the above photographs on the road in the late afternoon,  in a rural area tell us the routines of the people 

I noticed this man above walking unsteadily with a bag on his back, crossing the leg with each step at the ankle joint. As a developmental physician, it took me on an inner journey of his probable  personal difficulties in mobility! 

Each photo above tells a story of their lives! 

When I noticed the birds engaged in a fight in the air and a Butterly looking injured in its wings, I became even more aware of the stress and strife of life that each person encounters in the daily journey of life! 

I wish more and more people think of the neighbours as in need and live missionaly!

Our altruistic way of life would become pathfinders for others in need! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Missing birds !

These old photographs remind me of the missing birds in our garden!

With change of the environment and the paddy field beside the stream converted now with saplings of Rubber trees, many birds find the place inhospitable!

Yes, we miss something when we disturb the habitat of birds!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Giving presence!

The Rambutan trees in our garden after their season off fruiting, give new shoots to grow for the season of fruiting by April-May next year. The cycle of growth and fruiting is the natural rhythm to these trees. The sight of the different shades of the green make the trees ornamental to behold. During the fruiting season squirrels and birds came to feed. Now they come for their shelter during the day and night.  In fact some birds use the trees as rain shield! 

The trees live purposefully! They live during their seasons, bringing their gifts to the garden. This is also the season when the Rambutan trees shed their aging leaves. Our domestic helper gathers a heap of dry leaves for the compost pit from underneath each tree every day. The tree gives away the leaves to become manure to the garden. 

The trees offer a giving presence! 

I find this revealing! When our gardener was pruning one tree as its branches were drooping, he remembered the fruits he gathered from those branches a few weeks ago. A tree suffers even while giving! 

Its giving habit does not earn an entitlement to be protected from pruning. The pruning although makes the tree suffer a loss, offers protection and growth in the long run! 

The message the Rambutan trees bring to me is their mission of giving presence! 

That is a theme to meditate upon! 

Giving is a gift of love!

I received this in the WhatsApp message from a dear friend a few days ago. Knowing my habit of brewing coffee in the morning, this person sent this to greet me in the morning! 

This was a reminder to me of the thoughtful ways we can be giving to encourage others.  

Giving is the lifeline of living! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

 

Abundance of hope and love !

Blooming wherever a plant is rooted ! 

That is the behaviour of each flowering plant! Each flowering plant adapts, thrives and flowers. That is their biography! 

The Magpie robin and Taylor birds come to sing tunefully in our garden on most mornings. That is their behaviour. 

The Bulbul and Sunbird were at the garden for their morning feed! That is their routine of the morning!

The garden becomes the home for families to be born! 

For me, watching these sights each day in our garden brings comfort and hope! The sights of blooming, singing, feeding and becoming a family are all uplifting experiences. 

This is a counter to the stressful and fretful human behaviour that we come across all around us. 

While watching these sights, I am reminded of a God who is making us aware of love, peace and hope as an anchor to live in troubled times! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

At the beginning of the day!

The rituals of birds  often have a pattern!

For Mynah, it is drink, eat, bathe and fly to be with others ! 

As Anna and I watch these rituals in our garden, we get introduced to the way some birds have found our garden a place to come to at day break of these rituals. 

I noticed this Mynah perched on a tall tree after leaving our garden! 

This movement was preceded by its rituals in our garden! The bird can fly high and long distances because it was quenched, fed and groomed to be flight ready. Every morning a bird moves from its perch at night to the dawn of the day ! The dawn gives it another day to explore and find the companions in the air! 

  

This is a journey of becoming! 

A bird too has its relational living!

This is a message that birds leave behind. They are a community!

Each of us is more than an individual. We belong to each other! Let me quote from Dr David G. Benner: "The self is too small, partial, and vulnerable to withstand the assaults of life alone. It was never meant to to do so. It was meant to exist within a web of interdependence that provides substance and belonging. Lacking this...everything becomes about me- my goals, my needs, my plans, and my fulfilment....self- fulfilment is not wholeness. Neither is it completeness of fullness of being. It is a pitifully poor substitute; it is egocentric self-encapsulation" (Human being and Becoming, page 112-113).

The bird above began the day by being with others of its family! I notice such bird behaviours almost every day!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The presence pf those who labour !

I was trying to capture the fruits in the tree in the camera! I failed to capture the fruits  due to poor light. 

But the camera captured the web between the Lilly plants, which was right in front of the fruits! 

I noticed the fruits and not the web while taking the photo! 

It came as a message! 

There are many things I miss seeing or hearing, which are important! The preoccupation with thoughts or sights can obscure the sight or experience of some events in life! 

The abandoned web is a reminder of the labour of a Spider for cat hing insects for its feed! 

A symbolic pointer to the hundreds who labour for their livelihood each day! They remain unnoticed or ignored in our society! Other glaring scenes and sights occupy our attention obliterating the views of those who live with hunger or no shelter! 

A call to live looking for those who are not in the lime light! 

During the recent BRICS conclave at New Delhi, the Delhi government decorated the roads and covered both sides of the road from the air port to the conclave venue, where people from low socio economic state live in inhospitable dwellings. We can miss seeing people in need or will stay protected from seeing them by other glamorous sights.  

The silent presence of those who 'labour' for their livelihood looks an embarrassment to the ruling dispensation! 

It is only by owning their presence among us, we live mindfully to make a difference for their lives. 

The experience of missing the web reminded me how what is real is sometimes missed and stay distant! 

To stay aware of those who labour to live is more transcending way of  living! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Giving before taking!

 

The second photo of the Bulbul, having arrived at the feeding station, remembering to let other birds know of the food with its bird calls gave an indication of the fraternal spirit among birds!

It was 'giving' before 'taking' !

This form of 'giving' springs from a fraternal spirit ! The goodwill towards others and the awareness of the needs of others become the way of living! 

Seeing this Bulbul engaged in bird call rather than feed oneself, was a refreshing sight of hope! The last photo is a testimony of how the first Bulbul's call brought another Bulbul to the feeding station!

When humans loose neighbour consciousness, birds come to announce what is truly human! 

I thought that birds are also messengers to revive us from our self absorption of 'me, mine and myself' !

On a Sunday morning, this message brings a meditative orientation to the way of living! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Too much is a burden and self choking!

The above three photos of a Bulbul struggling to swallow the bread piece, it has managed to break from the loaf caught my attention.  The pieces were too large for their beaks to mouth and swallow. 

The same Bulbul soon learned to break smaller pieces, comfortable to mouth and swallow. The Bulbul impressed me as one who is a good example of being able to learn from experience! 

It continued feeding with ease and comfort pausing in between! 

It occurred to me that the Bulbul learned to take just enough feed each time and feed as much as it needed for a meal!

When it had a sumptuous feed, it moved on to the water bowl and flew away for its morning flight elsewhere !

I remembered the heads of the governments of the USA, Russia, Israel, and China, who have something in common with the first attempts of the Bulbul to eat. I wonder whether the political leadership of India is also leaning towards such a mindset! 

Their territorial passion and aggressive habit to accumulate by usurping what rightfully belongs to others, has created a season of war with human lives lost, displaced or harmed! The leaders remain untouched by the pain of thousands who are deprived of normal life! The leaders violated the vocation of peace, which the nations pursued under the UNO after the Second World War, except for a few aberrations.  

I feel touched by the wise decision of a Bulbul  to overcome greed and adapt quickly to take just enough for its one meal! 

I saw Bulbuls at the feeding station later in the day! Each had enough and more !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Human awakening and becoming !

The Bulbul in the above series of photos adopted different body postures while perched. From a crouched position, it positioned itself for its next flight path during those few minutes. The incremental alertness and awareness of the environment is an inner response, which was reflected in the body movements of the Bulbul. 

In the Book, Human being and Becoming, Living the adventure of life and love, Dr David G. Benner devotes a chapter on 'Love at the Heart of Life'. In that chapter under the subtitle, 'Love and Transformation' (p104), he wrote: " We each awaken in ways that are unique to us, and transformation starts with awakening. Both great love and great suffering offer enormous potential for transformation-quite possibly, the greatest potential of any experiences available to us. But as potentially powerful as the experiences are, most of us sleep through them and avoid invitations that they offer to awaken us from our self-preoccupation so that we can leave our minds and come to our senses".

I was fascinated to review about fifty photos of the bird above  during its seven minutes of perch to notice this 'awakening' presence to the environment. It was a bird call of another Bulbul at a distance which made the Bulbul appear becoming flight ready from its 'slumbering posture' in the first photo! It was the love instinct which awakened this Bulbul, while hearing the bird call. 

It was a time to have an internal conversation with myself! What is the inner instinct that draws me to listen to others! Does what I hear in a conversation awaken me to feel the experience that I am listening to me ? 

I remember a 12 year old girl telling me on phone a few days ago, after her surgery, how she still suffered from pain even after one week of the surgery! Her voice choked and her mother had to step in to continue the conversation! But the girl returned to the phone to close the conversation saying, 'I feel better than before, because my mother is always with me'! Her mother is her companion in her pain! 

The Phrase Dr Benner used, 'to leave our minds and come to our senses' was well demonstrated in the engagement between the mother and her daughter at a critical time. A mother's wakeful state arising from her awareness of pain of her daughter!  

A father who called from overseas yesterday talked about his six years old son, whom he wants to see using his interest in drawing and story telling! He too was awakened to sense the interest of his son and pursue it to let it evolve into fruitful expressions. 

A mother who homeschools her two children wrote about the 'aliveness the children brings to her life by their enthusiastic learning of history', which did not interest her  when she was learning history at school. For that mother, her children bring an awakening of love that feeds into her soul! 

I found these conversations creating within me a longing to move beyond the twilight of living to more fuller experiences of awakening and awareness ! 

It was the bird call from a distance that awakened a Bulbul and made it fly away searching for the caller! 

Human awakening is a journey towards human becoming!

M.C. Mathew (text and photo)