The sunrise paints the sky a deep scarlet and a flock of birds fly across the sky, their wings flapping in unison. The gentle morning breeze sways the Champa branches on my terrace and I spy a flower or two, early for the season, in golden glory. The cashew tree scatters its largesse with nonchalance, and the leaves come down in spirals of grace – rich red, earthy brown and flaming orange, or the Fall colours as the Americans would say – sitting in heaps till a gust of wind lifts them, swirling on to car tops in the neighbourhood. The nesting birds in the cursive of the branches of the mango tree jealously guard their little chicks from prying eyes. The ambitious green patch in front struggling to be a garden is in flowering, with the hibiscus, the sunflower and the marigold.The sun shines and the dew drops on the petals, sparkle. The birds, meanwhile, are in melodious chorus and there are ‘intimations of immortality,’ everywhere.
What a miracle! I am a witness to Nature’s artwork. “It is one of the perils of our so-called civilised age that we do not yet acknowledge enough, or cherish enough, this connection between soul and landscape,” says poet Mary Oliver.Small miracles occur for ordinary people every day.There is grace in knowing what might have been but wasn’t, and bliss in living a day when nothing special happens but life just carries on. I see young mothers ushering along unwilling sleepy-eyed little ones to school in crisp laundered uniforms. There are dreams and prayers in their eyes for their wards. The aroma of the invigorating morning cup of tea comes wafting up the stairway and soon I am sipping it slowly and reverentially without rushing. My morning is complete.The sheer happiness of just being! No further fulfilment is required.For a while, it is possible to turn away from the misery – the hurt and the longing – and to turn to the Creator in worshipful surrender. But then faster fulfilment is the mantra of the day in a culture of impatience. Instant gratification, if not lasting satisfaction, is the motto, with which we march to the drumbeat of pressure.
It is not only the Olympic athletes who are in pursuit of Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger), but the world in general is in pursuit of everything – be it money, power, name or glamour. Do we live? We just survive from day to day and speed along to extinction. Albert Einstein had said “a quiet and modest life brings more joy than pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.”
If a Nobel laureate could say that in the midst of so much fame and success, he must have realised the stress of modern living and the wanton futility of it all. Let us heed an old Irish blessing that says, “May you always have walls for the winds/ a roof for the rain/ tea beside the fire/ laughter to cheer you.”That sums up the sanctity of life.
