Web of life

Life on earth is one giant web, consisting of multiple smaller webs within. I came across a veritable treasure of a book, while searching the web for ideas related to the environment. This book is an eBook in pdf form - "Empowering Stewards of Nature-Lessons from our web of life" by Bill Graham, a marine biologist, researcher and educator. He calls himself 'a student of nature'. His passion for the 'interdependence and connectivity', and all energy connections within Nature has deeply resonated with me.   

The feeling of this connection to all creatures of this planet has been growing stronger and deeper within me, more than ever before. (This connection is magnified tenfold occasionally, when the outline of the physical body blurs in my mind.

I can very well visualise Bharathi's total bliss as he embraces every creation as his own! (Subramaniya Bharathiyar was a poet, freedom fighter and social reformer from Tamil Nadu. He was known by the epithet -'Maha kavi' meaning great poet)

"காக்கை குருவி எங்கள் ஜாதி – நீள்  கடலும் மலையும் எங்கள் கூட்டம்" ;

(The crows and sparrows are our kith and kin; Seas and mountains - our hearth and home; We are abound everywhere around)

My connection reaches out to all beings in my environment. The ever present crow community, the pigeon gang, the chirping mynah on the kitchen window sill and my little squirrel friends keep me company through the day. 

The tinkling leaves of the peepal outside my balcony add to the lazy somnolence of post lunch bliss. The huge cows lazily roaming the street, nod their head with a sudden snort and observe me sagely when I step out onto my balcony. And of course the ever vigilant street dogs guarding their territory, keep up a constant tune with their barks in the background. My special bond  with all the plants that we have in our balcony, completes the circle of connectivity. 

The street vendors with their individual trade calls, that  indicates the time of the day carry a myriad of stories, and that is for another day.

How can I not include the connections through social media,  which brings many interesting and sensitive human beings into contact with each other and me. (I go slow with technology, taking tentative steps. However, there are some deep connections in this too!)

I happened to connect with a curious, warm, enterprising woman by the name, Sashirekha Lakshmanan. She loves cooking and creating pretty designs of kolam and writing is one of her passions. She writes short stories and poems in Hindi and Telugu.  One other great passion that she has is to grow and nurture plants. She shares a lot about her plants and posts pictures of them.             

  

One particular post of the colourful violet 

blooms and pink flowers, side by side in their earthen pots, caught my attention and imagination. The image stayed with me for a long time, that particular day and I expressed it in  the shape of a kolam the next day.

    

                                                                                     

The colours, orange and pink, have called out to me and so I have let these colours flow from my fingers to become five little flowers! 

I experience the passion and sense the conviction completely when I remember the words of Bill Graham (the author of the eBook): " Nothing exists solely on its own. From the most minuscule atomic particles to the grandest galaxies, the past, the present and the future of every animate and inanimate being in our universe, including human beings, is defined by its interconnection to every thing else." 

When we open up to the sounds, colours and the minute movements of the things around us, we are part of the system and we move with the backing of all other beings and objects in the system.

As Bill Graham quotes Henri JM Nouwen ( Dutch catholic priest, professor and writer), "We can offer a space where people are encouraged to lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and to listen with attention and care to the voices speaking in their own centre."