Birds, Spider and Flowers

 

The garden around our cottage is in its scenic confluence at this time of the year. The weather too is favourable for plant life. The gathering of birds in the feeding station adds to the variety in the garden!

The serene silence of the garden and the reciprocal bird calls provide a good contrasting experience. 

The silence and the refreshing interruption !

It is when one can be silent inwardly, the sounds can reach us fully in their myriads of meaning. 

The silence prepares the soul to receive the sounds and calls of birds to receive an awakening message. 

The feeding station is becoming a place of comfort for birds. The birds do  not chase away new visitors. There is a communal harmony. 

The political world is in turmoil globally. The human language used by the political leadership is of suspicion and division. The language of nature is wellness, fullness and cohesion. 

The news in the media is one of many disappointments; but the garden is a reminder of new life, growth, giving, caring and flourishing! 

The garden is announcing the message of Christmas season- a Giving God became present in human form at Bethlehem ! 

What the birth of Jesus of Nazareth borought to the shepherds while watching over there flock was a good news of peace, goodwill and glad tidings! 

But this good news evade the attention of many on earth. The recent gruesome acts of two gunmen in the Sydney beach, killing holidayers and Jews who gathered for the celebration of Holy Week, tells us that we still are far away from being and living as a relational  human family. There are those who are hurt, wounded and angry among us, for whom violence is the pathway to react or retaliate!

This calls for good news bearers to he more proactive in the mission St Francis of Assisi, who prayed:

" Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where  there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek, 

to be consoled as much as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love,

For it is in giving we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying we are born to eternal life".

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Colours and colourfulness!

 

The colours of Hydrangeas hold our attention as they have shades of colours of blue, violet, white and pink! It is a challenge to reproduce this in a painting. The nature's gift of colours and colourfulness are striking and refreshing !

It is when we have plants in the garden, we create colours to surround us. 

The colourfulness creates an ornamental look. In fact, poets suggest that colours around us affect our mood. A poetry may spring within us  to express the inner response and reflection of sights, scenes and colours, we see around us.

In the poem, I wandered Lonely as a cloud, by William Wordsworth, the last stanza is : 

'For oft, when on my couch I lie, 

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with daffodils'.

The colour and movement of flowers in the wind bring an experience that has a bearing on our inner ambience. 

We can create an environment with plants inside our homes and out in the garden, which can bring an experience of solitude by watching the plants remain silently present wherever they are planted or placed. Experience of solitude brings solace to add to our inner well being. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The one and many!

 The contrast between the single flower and confluence of flowers kept returning to me the whole day. 

When I left home, I remember noticing the rose flower which was in our walkway. At work place I happened to visit the conference hall where the stage was getting decorated for the hospital day gathering. 

The confluence of flowers aroused a consciousness about the richness in diversity when brought together form an ensemble. For about two months the Chaplaincy department was attempting to organise different functions to prepare for the hospital day celebration. Many people came together during the events. I felt encouraged when I watched some activities where the staff appeared jubilant. I participated in the photo exhibition with an entry on the theme 'healing touch'.

This season of two months when people came together to remember the hospital day, turned out to be an occasion of celebration and festivity. 

It is when we value others we become part of them. 

To be part of others is often a journey that only few take in a society where individualism dominates. 

I felt encouraged by a narration of a new staff who attended most of the hospital events deliberately to get a sense of the place and people. His comment was, 'I felt good that I was in a place where people of diverse abilities and gifts come together'. 

It is when we can see the good in others we become drawn towards the collective. For most of us, the self absorption is an hindrance to see the good in others. 

To receive ourselves as those, whose fullness and enlargement are made possible by growing in a sense of belonging to the collective, is an orientation that we need to cultivate within.

During the last ten years, I keep wondering whether I made good enough effort to belong the collective! Or have I withdrawn to be myself!

How do I welcome others! 

That is where it starts! If I can welcome and offer to relate others warmly with no preconditions, then the journey to become part of the collective has begun!

The collective is richer because the individuals bring their gift of  self giving!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)