A Sunday afternoon!

I noticed an unusual gathering of birds in our garden last Sunday afternoon. When I heard the bird movements and the cacophony I went out to watch the sight. The sky was becoming dusky in the east and a darkness was setting in. The bird songs of the morning and evenings are not similar. The bird songs are long and repetitive in the morning, where as in the evenings while approaching the dusk, they are short and only occasional. 

The afternoon bird songs were not like either of these. The birds were flying between flight stations. That is when I noticed that they were looking for places which did not swing wildly in the strong wind.  

There was a  message for me in this behaviour.

Th uncertainty or an unusual phenomenon in the nature does affect the birds, till they get adjusted to it. 

I had a taste of this yesterday.  I was getting ready for the on-line video consultation with parents and children yesterday. I had an unusual feeling of unsettlement at the beginning of it. I was warned by some that the signal for wireless internet might get dislocated in between, losing the audio or video link or both. This, instead of preparing me to be ready with another strategy, I was overcome with a stress level that I was not used to. The link failed after a few minutes during the first consultation. I completed the conversation with a telephone call, which sounds good enough for the family. 

What happens around us get reflected within! 

I have been conscious of the type of the inner ambience within me in the recent weeks ever since the COVID 19 has played havoc with human lives globally. 

And yet, I do not think that even fifty percent people wear masks, especially in rural areas. The physical distancing is a jargon oft repeated. What is often repeated looses its appeal. 

The birds settled down in safe places and did not prolong their reactive behaviour to the climate change. I watched these birds taking refuge under the shelter of thick foliage of tall trees when the downpour came. 

Those birds were my messengers of hope. I am often reminded of 'reverse quarantine' by well meaning friends because of my age during this season of COVID 19. I do practice this. 

Now the message is to practice it with ease and not stressfully or fearfully!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

'His name is today'

Most of us feel lost and overwhelmed by what we witness around us. There is a sign of loss and anguish around us.

While walking in the garden, the flowers greet me. 

It is difficult to reconcile between the loss of lives and property and glimpses of life that nature still offers us!

I have come to realise that amidst the many desperate needs all around us, the needs of children do stand out!

At the department where I work, we started with Oo-line video consultation for children and families last week. It is not a substitute for the regular meetings with them. But we felt good that the institution provided this facility to do this. This replaces the telephone consultation service we have had for the last three months, since the restrictions imposed on children below ten years to move out of their homes.

This resonates within me, His name is 'Today'! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

An artisan preparing stones!

I watched this artisan at work for over a week in the property below us, where a neighbour is getting ready to build his new home. 

His work is to get the stones in good shape and size to build the foundation for the house. He worked unmindful of the drizzle. He was contracted to do it and was therefore  keen to finish his work to move on to another job. 

What caught may attention was his intense concentration on his job. 

In a conversation he told me three things which impressed me most. He has to make the stones to match with each other. That is the way he can make the work of the mason easier. He has to plan the size of each stone. He wants them to be similar sizes. Thirdly, he was determined to cut the stones with even surface.  He had a design and plan in his mind. I wondered how he can get all these three correct! In that half an hour I watch him, what he did matched with his plan and design. 

I recalled my responsibilities in the past where I was responsible for designing and planning! I am not sure whether I had clear outcomes while designing and planning. 

I had an occasion to reflect on this yesterday. A colleague who is in touch with a few who showed an interest in joining our team told me at the end of conversations with them that they showed an interest because of what they have heard about the work we do in the department. It is what we do or how we do express the extent of plan and design we have in mind. 

A young consultant who is struggling with some issues at work feel exasperated at the way plans and designs are made for personal success or financial gain.

The artisan at work was making plans and designs for making the building aesthetic and robust. He had the interest of the owner and the users of the house in his mind. 

On my way back after talking to the mason, I saw this custard apple in the tree in our garden. I noticed how neatly the shell looked as if it was designed to be so! 

Any work we do needs to carry an exquisite finish that speaks of the attention we gave to the process of planning and designing. 

At the end of seven years of the Developmental Paediatrics and Child Neurology at MOSC, we looked at what we have been enabled to do. This ended in creating a web page at the MOSC website, which summarised our journey thus far. All of us in the department felt surprised that we have arrived where we are at the end of seven years!

I feel overwhelmed by all those who planned and designed the journey, those who are in the team now and those who were here with us before!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Beginnings in dark days!

I took a while to sort out the new format which the blogger has created for posting the blog. I wonder why this change was needed! The earlier version looked easier and user friendly. 

But that is the message which is reaching us all the time. There is change which is more common than constancy!

I sat down at my table after watching the morning sky which was dark and intensely cloudy. I also noticed that the the bread fruit tree which was partly uprooted in the heavy wind three weeks back and whose stems were cut,  had new shoots. 

I picked up the news paper and was pleasantly surprised to read the comments of Bill Gates on his outlook to life. He is the largest funder of charity for human wellness and pioneering initiatives to conquer infectious diseases. 

I realised that I have a choice here. I can look at the clouds and turn gloomy. I can look at the shoots and receive the hope it brings after its life of seven years was cut short by a wind. 

Bill gates seems glad to have been displaced form his software pursuit to move in to philanthropy!

At seventy one years, I too have felt that I stayed too long in my clinical work without pausing to reflect on another beginning. As I come to close of the end of my current contract at work, I do sense a move- meant within me to embrace a change! 

A change is a movement in life. It is a beginning rooted in the past! It is a new expression of one's vocation. 

I have often wondered if the COVID 19 is a wake up call to invoke a new perspective to life, living and learning!

Jesus of Nazareth in His words to His followers said, 'My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow Me'(John 10:27).

There is hearing and following!

I suspect that one is used to hearing the voice of ambition from within, which is what most of us follow. 

The new orientation Jesus of Nazareth presented was for a listening heart, and a will to follow! 

That is the new beginning, open before me!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

  

Garden is alive!

For about three weeks, there were less movements of  butterflies, birds and squirrels in our garden. I noticed these familiar visitors yesterday. 

The season of monsoon is usually a time of change in the behaviour of common again residents. They shift to places of safety. When they reappear, it is a signal of better dry weather. They are more accurate to sense the climatic change than the meteorologists. 

A garden is for visitors and residents!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Hidden living !

A wasp in our garden gave me some lessons in living two days ago!

I noticed a neatly made rounded hole in a dry wooden support, provided for a creeper plant growing in a flower pot in our courtyard. Seeing the neat edge of the hole I knew that it was frequently used by an insect. 

I decided to wait at the spot watching if an insect would come out or go in. I noticed a head appearing at the mouth of the hole and later watched the wasp moving out and flying away. It returned in a few minutes and disappeared into the hole. I waited to wait for it to appear again but that did not happen till I was able to endure the waiting. 

Although I looked for the wasp since then, I have not been able to spot it. 

A wasp lives hidden in a dry stem!

In a conversation with a person of considerable achievements, he narrated me many of his accomplishments, till I had an opportunity to ask him a question for which I took an appointment to call him on the phone. He lived publicly by making known all that he was after in his life!

It was the following that conversation, I happened to watch the habit of this wasp, which lives hidden and flies around unnoticed. 

What is this dimension of living hidden! 

Jesus of Nazareth had a way of living which looked rather strange to people at that time. In the narration of a meeting between Jesus and His followers in John.9:10, His followers 'had come to report to him all that they and done'. We are told in that passage that 'Jesus withdrew himself to a city called Bethsaida' after this. Although people found out his hiding place and reached out to him, the gesture of 'withdrawing' calls for contemplation. 

It is when we can live withdrawn regularly, we can have the inner wellness to be with people to make our presence  a value for others and ourselves. Our lives are deeply rooted in the recess of our soul, where treasures of wisdom, insights and truth reside. The times of staying hidden is to break away form the rhythm of living impulsively by the dictates of the circumstances and sense the guidance from within to live responsively, intuitively and thoughtfully. 

If the work we do alone becomes an expression of ourselves, we would feel driven to do more and more in pursuit of fulfilment. If we are used to find strength in our role of 'being' ourselves, we would long to become more complete in being ourselves. Then, being would take precedence over doing! We are 'human beings' and not 'human doings'!

It is the depth of a person which permits him to choose hidden. In that hiddenness he or she grows to be a treasure house of wellness and abundance of kindness towards others!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Flowers for honey bees!

I walked pass many flowers yesterday and found that a yellow daisy and butter cup flower had an ant or a bee coming for nectar.

The flowers give the nectar even in rain and sustain the small creations!

The nature reminds us of our vocation- to live for giving!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)