An evening of fellowship!

Anna organised yet another opportunity for us to gather for fellowship, table games and a meal yesterday in the department where I work.

It was the first get-together after our anniversary celebrations to mark the tenth year of the department. 

During the day, children who visited were children at five years or below, all of whom had a delayed language development with set back in behaviour and social skills. Two toddlers resisted clinical examination and protested when approached! Both of them had signs of Separation-Anxiety disorder. This is a frequent dysfunction in toddlers. Out of 15 toddlers whom I welcomed in the last two weeks, ten of them had this dysfunction. This distressed me. All of them began their screen time exposure at six months or earlier. The average time which they spent watching TV or the mobile phones was four hours in. day. One child spent the whole waking hours watching cartoons. 

This is an appalling situation! Children to grow up without opportunities to play with parents, listen to their singing, interacting at meal times or leisure times is a dangerous trend for parents and children. Parents are involved to meet the needs of children and not for creating intimacy with them. Children turn to parents to meet their needs and not for developing bonding to belong. 

As we spent the evening as a group to relax around the meal table, my thoughts returned to how each professional is carrying the grief stories of parents in their thoughts!

I used to promote a personal development plan for each professional during my involvement with them over the last thirty five years in the four places I worked. There used to be formal processes towards this, which became strategic for some professionals. The weekly debriefing session for the professionals is non-existent now. The three monthly audit of personal development plan is also not in practice. I realised how just like children drifting to choose to be occupied with media because parents are not proactive to build relationships, I feel I have slipped in not providing the opportunities for professionals to stay 'alive' and 'relational' by encouraging them to have a personal development pursuit. I wonder whether professionals would want to consider this as an essential part of their formative process!

We are humans. Our formation is a fundamental need. The work place is for providing input into the lives of professionals. It is what shall make them attend to their lives to work leisurely and spontaneously. 

There was laughter, conversation and sharing yesterday! I felt that this is an essential part of life at work!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

The morning!

The grey clouds against a blue sky and white glistening clouds!

The grey clouds are often in the sky somewhere but it does not  mean that it shall rain!

Living without being 'occupied' with the thoughts about the grey cloud is the way to live beyond anxiety!

The bright glistening clouds are given to us to live in an orientation that the sunshine shall accompany us!

The sunshine shall overshadow the grey clouds. 

We live with doubts, fears and anxieties, but hope is large enough to keep us going forward restfully!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Helping Hands

I had a disaster start at work yesterday. At the morning academic meeting, I reacted ungraciously to not being appreciative of an effort taken to enable parents to be more informed about the developmental challenges in children! I felt awful following my avoidable comments. I do not think that I recovered from a sense of guilt and disappointment with myself during most of the day. 

This happened in the backdrop of a message I received from a sunbird who bathed in little water found on a banana leaf! I wrote about this experience of 'Little is good enough' on this blog a few days ago! I felt that I communicated to colleagues at work in the morning meeting that I was not satisfied with little!

There were a few demanding situations during consultation yesterday, when I felt that parents could have been more thoughtful towards their children. I felt the need to feel debriefed, but I did not have the opportunity for it. 

I still brood over comments I heard about six months ago from the administrators of the institution that I do not take adequate efforts to increase the number of children I welcome each day!

Since then, I felt moved to respond to that challenge and I feel delighted now that the number of children visiting for consultation has doubled. I feel good that it is happening. Most of the days I finish work only after 4.30 pm when all the others in the department would have dispersed for the evening. 

One task I postpone to do at the end of the consultations is,  entering manually the data about children in a register, from which it is transferred to the digital format by a colleague the next day.  

Yesterday while I was entering the data a colleague and a visitor in the department offered to help in entering the data, when I was still completing the notes on the last child who visited. I felt touched by that act of kindness! They did it spontaneously and thoughtfully. Sometimes this part of the work takes longer time as diagnosis gets revised and referring to earlier notes become necessary! They both did this and I felt glad for the help.

After this, I was on my way to the Medical Records department to return the hospital charts, when I met a senior administrator, who stopped me to find out whey I was carrying the charts to return. It was nearing 6.30 pm. He looked surprised that I was staying beyond working hours to complete the work. He looked even more surprised that there were more children visiting the department now, as he was one of them who  in a meeting suggested six months ago that I had to be more enthusiastic to welcome children. He at that time ignored that children did not come in good number because there was a whisper campaign by some doubting my competencies! They even referred to my age as reason to avoid consulting me!

When I reached the Medical Records Department to return the Hospital charts, it was the same person who was often present there to receive the charts when I had to go to return them. One day it was 7.30 pm when I went to return the charts. This person referred to it and said, that she had not come across any doctor personally coming to return charts at the end of the day and added, 'you work because you want to help'! That was like a shower of blessing to me at the end of the day, when I was still brooding over my inconsiderate comments in the morning meeting. 

The two who helped to complete the register; the hospital administrator who looked surprised and the person in the Medical Records Office who shared a complement ... small things, but surely encouraging enough to close the day with gratefulness!

It was at the end of the day, I realised that there are 'Helping hands' who are reaching out to each of us in different ways. I recall how the domestic helper brings tea each day! I watch the domestic helpers keeping the department space tidy! I watch my colleagues engaging families!

Let us remember to celebrate and acknowledge the Helping Hands!  

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Vigilantly present!

 

During the three minutes or so I had a closer view of this Bulbul, I noticed several body movements out of which I picked up these photos in order to connect with the behaviour of this bird. 

A crow was in the vicinity. The Bulbul was observing the behaviour of the crow. When the crow moved to the adjacent tree, the Bulbul flew away. 

Between its arrival in our courtyard and flying away, I noticed the body movements of Bulbul, which conveyed different perceptions of the environment.  

Yes, it was utmost vigilant!

Being present vigilantly is a responsible way of living!

I notice from my experience that such an attitude can evolve only by attentiveness to the events around us and the voice from within. 

What events around us can do is either a sense of fear or comfort. If fear is the dominant feeling, it needs to be demystified and if comfort is the feeling it needs to be turned into attentiveness. 

That is why transition times are useful in between our work schedule, to audit the inner filter that is within us at that time. 

To be comfortable during the time of pressure or a challenge is possible when we return to the position of being restful. It is a good habit to develop the practice of 'returning and resting' inwardly amidst the travails of daily work !

The inner composure and wellness create space to absorb the pressure and demands of the day!

The Bulbul in the photo sequence above seemed to behave from inward composure and awareness of the environment!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Evening Visitors!

The avian visitors in our courtyard! 

First it was a single Bulbul, then a pair. Then it was a single Magpie Robin, followed by  a pair! It was almost dusk and the bird movements occurred in between a short pause of the drizzle!

The environment around us is alive and vibrant if only w can pause and take tome to be carried away to realities of events around us. 

It is when we live pre-occupied we lose the romance in nature, which tells us of life that is lived around us in a spirit of peace a joy!

The political and social events around us make us sometimes feel bogged down. With schools getting ready to open on Its November, parents are weary of what might happen to children if there is a surge of the pandemic of Corona! The farmers are in an awful state of anxiety about their future following a terrible event of a vehicle running over some, killing six people in the state of Uttar Pradesh!

Yes, all of these are true!

However life is to be seen through an optic of living fully amidst pain and grief!

I felt renewed by sighting the avian pairs, who made their habitual visit to our courtyard even on a rainy day!

Life is for Living, Learning and Leavening!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

 

Little is enough !

I watched this bird groom itself in the morning with little water on in the hollow of a folded banana leaf in our garden! 

I felt moved as I watched this sight!

A bird adapts itself to a situation with ease and comfort!

All that it needed was just enough water to smear its body by rolling on the surface of leaf! For these small birds grooming is crucial to make them flight ready! So it managed well  to do with little water!

Yes, it was lesson on little is enough!

The craze for more is an instinct to which we often serenader to!

To have more of what pleases is a compelling instinct! 

The longing for pleasure takes over and we tend to live senselessly!

I took time to make a personal audit while watching this fascinating life style of a small bird!To be able to manage its need with little and fly away to the opportunities of the day!

I often wondered if there can be little more acceptance, recognition, or influence ! It was a message to live contently with less and be fully occupied with what is ahead! 

To live in a space which is congested and competitive is a challenge, when many around try to usurp more than they need or deserve!

Even then, to stay content by turning attention to the large opportunities in life to be mindful of others is a better way of living and serving!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A hospital's initiative for Children's educative formation!

When the October edition, 2021 of the Asha Kiran Hospital News, Lmptaput arrived yesterday online, I took time to go back in the history of the hospital, which is in its third decade. It was Dr Joseph Thomas and Mrs Grace Thomas, who introduced Anna and me to the hospital. They were founders of the hospital along with Dr Verghese and Nirmal Philip. While in the governing board of the hospital for a while in its initial period, I got to know the aspiration of the founder members to focus on educating children. They started the community centres for pre-school children for providing nutrition and providing informal learning to make them school ready. The hospital facilitated establishing a residential school by an independent agency. That school still is a place of hope for children of development workers who work in cross culturally in different parts fo North India. 

Later in the last twenty years the hospital provided informal learning for school readiness through its several community centres. The second picture is that of one of the community centres for pre-school children.

The third picture is that of the school which they started for the local community, where children of the hospital staff study.

I recall the hospitals that I visited during my years of involvement with the Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India, Emmanuel Hospital Association, Christian Medical Association of India and Christian Medical Colleges, Ludhiana and Vellore. I remember 12 hospitals where a school was running parallel to the hospital under the supervision of the hospital.  

Let me send greetings to all the hospitals who considered education of children as a calling and pursue it actively! 

When I heard Dr Shobha from Asha Kiran recently speak at a meeting at CM Vellore, about the students who started their preschool years in the Community centres at Lamptaput now in college education, I felt that her voice choked with joy.  I remember a similar incident when Dr Johny Oommen once spoke about the school and its impact on the youth at Bissam Cuttack. 

I feel moved as I recall the stories of some hospitals even now following this path of touching the lives of children with creating a schooling opportunity for children in the community. The Madhepura Christian Hospital in Bihar is one such hospital in its initial phase of starting a school. Its pre-school is already fully functional. 

A hospital is a light for the community. It is a joy to see the hospitals being a light for children!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)