When did I realise this Eternal fact that I am one among the very
few who is blessed with some earth in my name, at least for some time?Perhaps when I heard from my mother repeatedly how her prayers to have her own small house and one coconut tree were answered by blessing her with a medium sized house and a quarter acre land. Throughout their lifetime my parents’ priority remained in buying lands with good soil and in cultivating the whole area which would bring income and most of the vegetables for our kitchen.
Papa always planted trees or vegetables and Mom had her flower
garden. And me, I have trees, vegetables and flowers in my garden.
I always heard of a land, a piece of earth as a blessing from God
or as a precious possession. May be this has created in me the awareness that
this is a transferable gift to my next generation.
When I got one acre from my Papa which is an ancestral property, I
received the hint that it is not for ‘sale’. I am supposed to use it, gain from
it and pass on. More than any of such responsibility, I feel that I am highly
accountable for preserving the quality of the land. That means, I rather use
natural manure that nourishes the earth than use chemical manure that flourishes
the crops. I must be a responsible owner, to use and pass it on with the same
quality of the soil.
These facts make me respect the land and stop me from calling it ‘mine’.
I happened to be one of the owners of a piece of land and there were many before
me and there will be many after me.
Life is a gift and more than living, what matters is the way we
live. Earth is a gift, but more than possessing it, what matters is the way we
handled it.
It calls for a humbling of self, perhaps forgoing a bit of our greed;
but what we gift to others is the best that we can give, our loss will change
to an act of nobility. Earth is for us to live in and never to plunder.
What best gift can we give our kids than a little space for them to run, flowers for them to make a little bouquet for you, a moment of prayer after keeping the flowers at the altar, a small water can to water the plants, vegetables that they can collect in a basket, trees to climb on to pluck fruits? Though we have houses built so tall and wide, isn’t it in our garden that we feel at home?
What best gift can we give our kids than a little space for them to run, flowers for them to make a little bouquet for you, a moment of prayer after keeping the flowers at the altar, a small water can to water the plants, vegetables that they can collect in a basket, trees to climb on to pluck fruits? Though we have houses built so tall and wide, isn’t it in our garden that we feel at home?
She is a Mother who never grows old
She withstands all the menace they do
She is silent when her children go violent
She still lives through someone like us!
She gives life to all we plant
She brings fruits and flowers to life
She lives in the hands of you and me
She is Earth, who makes our life still worth!
