The way of living !

The rose flowers in our garden during the summer heat do not seem to be affected in their colour, fragrance or texture. They have a shortened life of three or four days unlike in the colder period of the year, when they remain for a week. 

The environmental factors have an influence on the longevity of each flower! 

The aging process is under study and observation globally as scientists have a desire to prolong human life on earth. 

As against the longevity of life, another stream of scientists are working on enhancing the quality of health-physical, emotional, social and spiritual. 

Ther are about thirty or so friends with whom Anna and I have a weekly communication. We benefit from it. Our friends too find the conversation helpful. 

 

It was a comment by one of them recently which made me pause to reflect on wellness that is the central search of all in mid-life or thereafter! 

It is through fellowship and communication most us find that wellness!

What made the above flowers endure the summer heat is the wet soil that nourishes the plant. 

Anna and I feel that our connection with some friends on a regular basis provides that social milieu of relevance and belonging to allow a measure of  abiding wellness in our lives! 

The flowers have a short life! But during that season, they communicate abundance and fullness! 

Such an abundance and fullness emerge from being centred in  relationship with God and each other! 

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

From Family-to-family !

Anna and I had an opportunity to attend a wedding and a baptism during this month. We remember both families in our thoughts as they look forward to their future. The jasmine flower in our garden symbolised to us of the life that they are entering into! Both families are on a becoming journey! 

The journey of becoming a husband and wife and a father and mother are journey experiences which bring opportunities to feel endeared and be endearing. 

The intimacy of relationship offers the ambience for the blossoming of lives. 

Life originates in a family and is formed in families!

Every family is a sign and a symbol of hope ! 

The genealogy of life on earth begins in families. 

The nuclear family structure is replacing the extended family structure in many communities. 

That calls for attentive nurture of families by social support. One social support families would benefit from is a creche for infants and toddlers at work place! 

I wish families with older children will take an interest in families in their neighbourhood who have younger children ! That can form a new support system from Family- to- family! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

From many to some !

From hundreds of flowers in the cashew tree in our garden only some became fruits ! What a waste of flowers, was my thought as I watched this during this season! 

It was then I read about this phenomenon, I was made even more curious about the multiple biological processes that take place in plant life. 

According to the information in the internet, Cashew trees produce thousands of flowers in each season with about ten percent of them being hermaphrodite, are capable of becoming fruits. Most of the flowers can be male, which produce pollen and do not become fruits. The hermaphrodite flowers need pollination with the help of honey bees, stingless bees, wasps and ants. I remember feeling concerned about ants crawling on the flowers wondering if they were to damage the flowers. If the pollination rate drops because the pollinators are few, then the flowers do not get converted to fruits. 

It is now known that only 4 to 6 percent of fertilised flowers become fruits if atmospheric conditions are unfavourable with high humidity, rain or cloudy days .

Sometimes a tree cannot support the weight or nutritional requirements of all fruits in formation. Some freshly formed fruits would get  dropped by the biological homeostasis in the tree. 

A tree lives its life. Its fruitfulness is conditioned by environmental factors in the soil, weather, pollinators and nutrition of the tree few months before flowering! 

I remembered a parable Jesus of Nazareth spoke, recorded in the gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Bible chapter 13 verses 6 to 9: "A certain man had a fig tree which had been planted in the vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard keeper, 'Behold for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down!. Why does it even use up the ground'? And he answered and said to him, 'Let it alone, until I dig around it and put in fertiliser, and it bears fruit next year, fine, but if not, cut it down' " !

The parables have meaning beyond the obvious and the context! What strikes me is that a fig tree was in a vineyard. The soil and weather conditions needed for the two are different. The fig tree did not receive its fertiliser from what was spoken by the gardener when he offered to dig around it and fertilise it ! 

The Cashew tree needs the favour of the pollinators, nutrient soil and favourable weather for flowers to become fruits. 

The 'human becoming' has a similar requirement!

Anna and I while attending the service of an infant baptism, listened to the exhortation given to parents in the liturgy. It was all about the details, rituals, habitual practices in a home and parenting presence. 

During the last three years when Anna and I have been involved in parenting conversations with families, we proposed to parents to have a weekly audit of the parenting presence, through a check list to receive an insight about the promptness in about fifteen domains of engagements with their children. There are five phases in the developmental progression of children: Infancy, Toddler, Early childhood, Mid-childhood, Pre-adolescence and Adolescence. For each stage the engagement plan would have distinct domains. 

A fig tree needs the environment that promotes it to grow. Its cannot grow well in the setting of a vineyard! 

The childhood is a mystery to behold and unfold! 

The home, parenting and schooling form the trilogy of the support system children need! 

Out of the three, the parenting presence takes precedence in childhood formation! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

The silent fruitful presence !

It is time to recall the fruitfulness of the cashew fruit tree in our garden for the last six months. With the last fruit gathered a few days ago, it was a good time to gather the photos taken during the season and recollect the different stages of the growth of the fruit from the flowering stage. We have an about three kilograms of the cashew nuts ready for sale now. Anna prepared juice from the pup of the fruit for our breakfast drink. The squirrels had good meal time for the last six months. Now the tree looks bare with thick foliage, recovering and hibernating for the next season. 

A farmer told me once that it was his habit to feed each plant with something special a few weeks before it was to bear fruit and manure it  again after the fruiting season is over. A tree or plant receives the attention of the farmer ! 

 

A few hundred photographs of the different stages of fruiting of the cashew, I got familiar with the changes the fruits make each day before it is fully ripe to be plucked. The formative process form being a flower to a fruit spread over about two months was a delight and surprise to watch. 

It was an experience which made me feel connected with the cashew tree, because it blossomed to be fruitful for others to feed on!

The tree yields its fruits to be given away! 

Parenting is such a fruitful experience to give fully for the formation of children.

Anna and I receive photos of infants and toddlers from some friends, who share with us the joy of parenting which is reflected in the delightful responses and growth process that children manifest !

The fruits in the cashew tree drew me to it most morning during the last six months. Now I shall pass by that tree each day in my walk, and wait for the next season when it shall come back to its fruitful season!  

Till then, grateful memories shall linger on !

Anna and I vividly remember planting this tree as a sapling nine years ago. From its third year it was giving us fruits! We pruned it at least three times. It is the tree we used to hang the swing and make a tree house when our six grandchildren from the two families came for a holiday with us along with their parents in October 2025. We made a grass meadow beneath the tree so that we can have a picnic snack time beneath its shade. 

There are such joyful experiences associated with the cashew tree in our garden!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

The Summer colours !

The day temperature yesterday at the mid day was 34 degree celsius. I wonder how these flowers still retain their vigour and vibrant look! They are resilient enough to survive different seasons! 

I read a commentary from a newspaper, that we are in a season of 'undeclared third world war' with further uncertainties awaiting us! The prolonged suffering, loss and deprivation we encountered from the time of the Israel-Palestine war, Russian-Ukraine war and now USA-Iran war affected the economic state of many countries causing stress beyond what some countries can bear! 

The call for restrain and cessation of war by Pope Leo was trivialised! When the leadership of nations do not entertain a moral voice, there is anxiety in the air!

To me, the invasion of other countries and war stall human progress and impair human wellness, the consequences of which affect health, economy, industry, education, development, and social harmony. This is the existential dimension of our life on earth. 

While walking in the garden yesterday and greeted by the flowers swaying in the breeze of the morning hour, I felt that there is a contemplative dimension to our being!

Each flower is an expression of fruitfulness that earth provides. Each bud tells the story of life that shall flourish. In the central bud of the jasmine bud cluster in the last photo above, there is a hole, created by an insect to feed on nectar in the tender bud! And yet, the bud is still looking healthy enough to flower! There is an unstoppable spontaneity to grow and flower in each of these plants! 

This is the order in nature-overcoming all adversity!

It was this contemplative message, Dr Martin Luther King junior announced, when he prophesied quoting the song 'We shall overcome...' !

"We shall overcome

We shall over come,

We shall overcome, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

I do believe

We shall overcome, some day.

We'll walk hand in hand,

We'll walk hand in hand,

We'll walk hand in hand, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart, 

We shall live in peace,

We shall live in peace,

We shall live in peace, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We shall all be free.

We shall all be free,

We shall all be free, some day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

We are not afraid,

We are not afraid

We are not afraid, TODAY.

Oh, deep in my heart, 

We shall overcome,

We shall overcome,

We shall overcome, see day.

Oh, deep in my heart,

I do believe, 

We shall overcome, some day!" (lyric taken from a site in the internet)

The summer is hot and humid. The plants and flowers are resilient! Till there is peace, freedom, and overcoming of the ordeals against wellness for all, the flowers and their colours in our garden, would remain in my heart  as symbols of hope for contemplative pursuit! Till then, my own prayer is that 'we shall not become weary by doing good'! 

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

 

The earth is a home !

A small bug, a Rice ear bug or a Pod-sucking bug according to Google,  survives in the garden often unnoticed! They are plant feeders using their piercing mouth parts to feed on fruits, vegetables and seeds. 

They can cause some stippling or our cosmetic damage on fruits and is considered only as a minor pest. The multiple scarred marks on the cashew fruit above suggests that this bug might have been feeding on the fruit . 

The garden yields flowers and fruits. There are many insects who live on them. 

The strand of web between the two flowers above is another indication of how Spiders use the plants to make their wet to trap insects to feed on them. 

The hospitality of plants towards insects of all sorts, including towards those caterpillars who eat away leaves or petals and damage the plants, is the order in nature! The higher species feed the lower species. 

This is a pointer to understand human behaviour! What dominates the human instinct is caring for others. But there are exceptions of exploiting those who are less able to benefit those who are in a dominating role. 

I read today in the news paper that a forest department is arranging for water basins in the regions, where ponds and lakes are drying up due to summer heat for the benefit of birds. 

We do not harvest the guava and papaya fruits from the tress in our front garden for birds to feed on them! We learned this practice from bird lovers who make their garden bird friendly!

The Magpie robins resident in our garden start their bird calls around 5 am in the morning! The silence of the morning when they are not around is a strange experience! I noticed this Magpie robin this morning, perched on the coconut palm facing our cottage engaged in tuneful long bird calls . 

A bug or a bird has a place in the garden! 

Why deny Palestinians a place of their own! That is a question that does not leave me!

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)

Flowers for the peace makers!

The Crepe jasmine flowers (Pinwheel flowers) in our garden withstand the hot day and look elegant in the evening as well as they looked at day break! 

On a day when ceasefire between Iran and the USA ended and Iran abstained from talks that the USA initiated, send gloom over what might happen. The indication is that the USA might extent the cease fire! 

We live in a political climate of multilateralism where the international relationships emerge and grow based on appreciative enquiry and participatory planning! The war strains and reduces this prospects. 

The flowers announce the serenity of peace in a garden! 

I feel reminded of the role of peace seekers, peace initiators and peace makers in troubled times! 

Peace at home, work place, national life and international life spring from active pursuit of wellness for each other! 

This calls for a journey from hostility to fraternity! 

The Crepe jasmine flowers in our garden bring this message to me!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Sight and vision!

 

Often it is what we hear which turn our attention to its source to notice it. But there are some experiences which can only be seen and cannot be heard ! 

A juvenile Magpie robin was aphonic while making a bod call, which is how it is often in its initiation to bird calling practice. There was an Indian Golden Oriole perched hidden in a cluster of branches of a tree in our garden. I noticed it accidentally. Its stillness escaped my attention initially. A cluster of rose buds in the corner of the garden hidden behind the jasmine bush was another sight that I almost missed during the morning walk. Later in the day, the candle in our dining table was subsumed by the brightness of the mid-day, till the electricity went off for a short while, when its luminance stood out !  

Seeing, noticing, observing, beholding and engaging are different stages of seeing. We normally see what we are normally fond of or are familiar with. It is our mind that processes what we see. Our mind connects what we see with our earlier experiences and memory. 

What happens when we see something about which our mind or memory is not tuned to or familiar with! Those sights might escape our attention. The psychoanalysts use a term 'sleep walking' to such a state of being not present to many sights that are visually before us. 

It is the physical sight that gives us vision. The vision is both physical and transcendental. 

In the ebook, Spirituality and the awakening self-the sacred journey of transformation, David G. Benner refers to the body-centred self (p89-90) ! "The body provides such a substantial framework for the self that many never move beyond the body-self that should be simply the first stage of human unfolding. But it is the first stage for all of us, and important residuals of this way of organising self remain in all of us for the rest of our life. To be human is to be embodied... We are our bodies just as we are our minds, souls and spirits. We are not, however reducible to any of these expressions of Self. But if the self is ever to soften its attachment to the body and trust its more ethereal nature, it must first embrace its rootedness in the body". 

The aphonic Magpie robin, the silent Golden Oriole, the cluster of rose buds and a lighted candle were all physical realities, were seen and noticed. They have a physical dimension and expression. It is the sight of the eyes that brought those realities into a plane of awareness of the happenings in the environment. My body processed it physically and emotionally. 

What might be the  transcendental dimension of these realities?  A juvenile Magpie robin is on its developmental journey! The Golden Oriole is on its journey for courtship. The rose buds would bring colour, fragrance and nectar  when flowers are formed. The lighted candle brings us to an awareness of the eternal light, God, who is present with us to show us the path!

Our body processes the signals that we receive through what we see, hear and sense. The fashion world focusses on the material body projecting costumes, appearance, style, and body embodiment of self! This happens through the fusion of mind and body, disregarding the aspirations and longing of human spirit and soul !

The body provides the gateway to enter into the true self which is an integration of mind, spirit and soul! 

What we see or hear or sense have a larger purpose than their physical presence but an inner resonance of meaning or a metaphor! 

This is what would make human life sacred because life is larger than just the physical body! 

Our human experiences are all about discovering the depth of our being (Self), through finding meaning of life lived individually and collectively!  

Each of us is called to spend our life time on earth as pathfinders of living integrated lives in our body housing our mind, spirit and soul! 

M.C.Mathew ( text and photo)

Yes to life and No to what harms others!

The birds of Sunbird family are the smallest of birds that visit our garden on most days although their visits are less frequent during the hot days. They visit the flowers for nectar. Their arrivals and departures are quiet without bird calls. They feed quickly and fly out to the next station. That is the usual pattern. The above Loten's sunbird is iridescent and attractively colourful with an elegant look and behaviour! 

At another corner of the garden, a female Purple-rumped Sunbird was gathering its nectar ! 

The flowers received an adorable look with the colourful presence of the Sunbirds. In fact, the above flowers get noticed even more, when Sunbirds come to feed nectar. 

It is the nectar that brings the sunbirds to the flowers. The Sunbirds pollinate the flowers to continue the life beyond ! The small Sunbirds sustain the plant life by visiting the flowers. 

In the book, The Time is Now-a call to uncommon courage, Joan Chittister, begins the book, with  questions: 'How do we really get out of the swamp we're in. What else are required, to fix this muddled world?' 

In the chapter on, A word about prophets, Joan asks: "The only question is, Will we take up what we know is our moral and spiritual responsibility: to make the world a better place for all, to bring to life the fullness of creation for all? To help bring about equality, safety, security, and compassion for all? That is where the prophets come in. The prophet is the person who says no to everything that is not of God.

No to the abuse of women

No to the rejection of the stranger.

No to crimes against immigrants.

No to the rape of trees.

No to the pollution of the skies. 

No to the poisoning of oceans. 

No to the despicable destruction of humankind for the sake of more wealth, more power, more control for a few.

No to death.....

The prophet is a one who speaks the truth to a culture of lies. 

And while saying no, the prophet also says yes. 

Yes to equal rights for all.

Yes to alleviating suffering.

Yes to embracing the different.

Yes to who God made you.

Yes to life.

This book is about prophetic spirituality...

It is the spirituality of awareness, of choice, of risk, of transformation. It is about the embrace of life, the pursuit of wholeness, the acceptance of others, the call to co-creation" ( quote ends).

Yes, the Sunbirds were engaged in sustaining the plant life from which they received their nectar! 

This is in contrast to the current painful pursuit of war, destruction and  attempting to subdue others who are different from us. We need political leaders and rulers of nations who are bathed in prophetic spirituality! 

I was reminded while watching the Sunbirds, how they continue the cycle of receiving and giving to sustain the garden life, a prophetic mission indeed ! 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)