Mother's instinct!

As I watched this calf feeding on her mother, I was fascinated with the mother's still posture. She stayed available to the calf through that period of fifteen minutes. This is most similar to what a mother would do during her breast feeding time with her baby!

The mother remains available exclusively for her offspring during the feeding time!

Hurry is the enemy of availability!

Let me complement the recent worldwide advocacy initiatives to promote breast feeding practices as long it is possible for the mother to feed, at least till the baby is 18 months of age! There are several advantages of breast feeding.

One emotional advantage is availability of the mother which then creates the strands that weave the fabric of bonding between the mother and the baby! This calls for emotional presence while breast feeding beyond just the physical presence. Can we encourage a mother  to stay focussed on thinking, feeling and inwardly relating to the baby during breast feeding rather than being distracted by watching the TV, listening to music or engaging in conversation! The breast feeding time is a private time between the mother and the baby which needs to be protected from other distractions. In fact when the mother stays looking at the baby and stroking while feeding, there is evidence to suggest that baby receives more milk and mother returns from the breast feeding time emotional refreshed!   

Being available is a mother's natural instinct! Let us affirm its value and highlight its lasting impact!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

One step in learning!

I take time to sit in with my colleagues who introduce children to a methodology of learning, which they can use for their advanced learning. This is s simple pedagogical principle: learning by association.

As this child is shown a picture, he picks up its name from among several pieces of name labels. He then would read the word by spelling it aloud. Then he would associate the picture to an actual object and its function whenever possible. This is learning by knowing, different from the rote learning.

Every step of learning is thus made in to a hierarchy of steps of understanding, with sequences made easy. 

The steps of understanding are difficult to define for all children alike as each child has a thought or perceptual block at different levels of the hierarchy of learning steps. We refer to this as challenges in learning, for which we need to find by-pass strategies.  

I have been using an apple computer for three years now. I am still most elementary in my knowledge of  its versatility and find my mind struggling to sequence the steps of technical learning. I have got used to essential details related to posting what I write at the blog site. Does that mean that I know all about blogging. Not at all!

Most of us live with fragmented knowledge. Most of our arguments or disagreements are created by our strong adherence to the step of learning that we have arrived at and not seeing well enough the other steps others have climbed! 

Knowing is a process which begins by freeing ourselves from our current position because knowing itself is a movement from the known to the unknown! We would know more if what others think and tell us inspire us to find the next step in our learning process!

M.C.Mathew(text and photograph)

Flowers in summer!

Flowers communicate a lot!

When the temperature is over 40 degree celsius all around, this bunch of flowers seem to stay fresh, resistant to the hot breeze and scorching sun. Its roots are behind this defiance!

The roots reach out to the subsoil and would find its source of moisture!

The challenge is its incentive to flourish in the adverse conditions!

I am in the midst of a challenge to make some changes in my work-style and number of working days  that would sustain me to stay fresh!

The sight of this plant and its flowers gave me an indication that we are bestowed with insights that can help us to live well and fulfilled, no matter what the circumstances are.

A friend shared with me this morning that he accepted the denial of permission to go to speak at an international conference as an occasion to grow in resilience. he refers to this event which occurred 15 years back as a 'desert' that formed him.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Being occupied or distracted!

I was fascinated by how a colleague managed to get a child to sit at the table to explore some toys. He is short of attention and has some needs in learning and integrating .

Every time he left the table, she would cajole him to come back to the table with new toys. For some reason, he stayed for a while with this moving puzzle box and showed some interest in exploring. She was seeking for his attention, when he had other competing interests.

Even a three year old child can exhaust us of our patience and ideas!

In this case, I was glad that my colleague contested his distraction with new approaches.

I spend this week on reflection and recollection. I am about to complete two years after my bypass surgery! 

I am examining my habits to get to know about the way I occupy my time. Sometimes distractions occupy my time rather than a planned activity. As I audit this process, I realise  that it is necessary to be in charge of the next moment as it has the possibility of being spent in a distraction! 

It is a good practice to audit our distractions periodically to find out whether we occupy our time or distractions occupy our time!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)    

The news we read!

During a recent meeting with students to explore the theme, 'How to live life', I encouraged the students to do an exercise in groups. The five groups examined five national news papers to look for items that connect with our daily living. All the five groups found that there was negative reporting and a lot of news of violence, accidents, crime, corruption, war, calamity, suicide, etc. They felt that  the english TV news channels also specialise on 'expose' of the political misadventures of leaders in and outside the government. 

We feed our minds with an awful lot of what can discourage us and deprive us of the charm of living and serving!

With the withdrawal of Maggie noodles from the Indian market due to the high content of contaminants, we are even more suspicious about the authenticity of many things we have taken for granted!

So how are we to live!  Yesterday I was given a poster by the students summarising the content of the discussion during that afternoon meeting. One caption in the poster was, 'live mindful of others'.

That indeed is the message and summary of the Good Samaritan story! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)   

The stillness of butterfly!

I am often intrigued by butterflies, especially the small ones. Some of them are truly exotic in their appearance.

In the garden around the cottage where Anna and I live, we have a variety of small butterflies that it is a visual feast on a sunny morning to sit and watch them!

The mouth parts of the butterflies are difficult to observe however close one might be to them. I try using a macro lens to get a feel of how they gather the honey. There is stillness in the body for an ultra short time during which time they suck out the honey. There is lot of fluttering before and after that. 

It is in stillness a butterfly does its most important activity.

It is similar for humans too. It is in the interior stillness, we have communion with God much beyond every other spiritual exercise would offer us. I feel that there is a lot of emphasis on the spiritual exercises of  reading the scripture, meditation, oral prayer, singing, fellowship, Eucharist, etc in one's personal and corporate life. 

I wonder whether being silent before God is given a similar importance! During silence before God, we are drawn into communion, which is what our souls are longing for!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

The sense of wonder!

Anna and I noticed this Cactus plant with several new shoots with flowers, growing in the wild in the Brookland guest house compound at Connoor. We knew about this phase of the growth of the Cactus plants, but was seeing such a sight for the first time, two years back.

The Cacti plants give these new shoots infrequently, which make this even more special. 

However one has to wait tentatively and patiently for the season! The season of plenty is worth waiting for because it has many surprises.

As I receive pictures of Eathan everyday I am in for a surprise. He is exploring, observing, socialising, communicating, reacting and experiencing. In all of these, at seven months of age, he conveys a sense of wonder, appreciation and amazement.

He is a lesson for me to stay in awe and wonder at many silent things in nature, which is for us to richly enjoy.

On my walk this morning, a male Robin was on the centre of the road, least disturbed by some of the morning walkers, presenting itself for us to have a glimpse of the beauty that abides in a small bird!

Staying in  sense of wonder is therapeutic to our soul!

M.C.Mathew(text and picture)