On a delicate morning, with the early sun streaming through the garden precariously, the yellow sunbirds, and sparrows gather to preen themselves amidst the bauhinias, heliconias, honolulu creepers, gingers, peacocks and blue-peas. Yet it is in the midst of this peace and tranquility, that the battle for our hearts and souls continues. As Fr Josef…
Today’s second scripture reading at Mass in the Roman Catholic tradition is a wonderful rendition of the inner peace that comes with acknowledging the balance and equity of material needs, wants and apportionment. St Paul does not ask for the reversal of fortunes, or even equal misery – just the generosity of needing less and…
If you were traveling to the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, to witness a summer blazing with flowers and colors, early June would be too early, as season travelers would tell you. ‘Green and nothing much else’ they would say. Yet, in the right places, deep in nature’s own backyard, when the man-made entreaties of…
Ninety hours in the pilgrim town of Assisi brought me from the milieu of an interesting cultural experience, to the dissonance of attempting a meditative journey amidst the life-line and highway of a major tourist town, and thence to a more balanced reflection on the 800 years that had since passed from the austere beginnings…
A glimpse of the sweet morsels from the fruiting mango tree that feeds the young black-naped oriole in the south garden. Here the mother indulgences in her young, while other birds look on, and await their turn at the fruit basket. Now its the turn of the yellow-vented bulbul to partake of the…
This is a Sunday where the divine and the merciful meet. Consider reflecting on the Last Testament and Will of St Pope John Paul II, first written in 1979, and edited on various anniversaries of spiritual exercises, as his Petrine ministry raced towards the Third Millennium. He recalled the wisdom of his mentor Cardinal Stefan…
Last year. this time, in the Gardens Reflections on Good Friday, I had cited two verses from the Gospel of St John: “they went to a place which was called Gethsemane” (Mk 14:32), “across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden”(John 18:1) “In the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in…
A few days’ ago, I had a noodle meal topped by sweet potato leaves and an egg, garnished by a sprinkle of dried shrimps and an oriental belachan chilli paste (chilli padi with garlic and malay shrimp paste). Sweet potato leaves were the high point of the meal, since they were plucked from the garden…
This striking image of the young wild Indian Ring-neck parrot at the Peacock tree, shelling the pods and splitting the seeds with mouth and claws, is a wonderful reminder of their incredible dexterity and abilities through the generations of nature and nurture. Likewise, I caught this male Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) applying himself diligently…
In a scene reminiscent of the Kafkaesque landscape that the 20th century author had painted in his books, we trudged through this vast fog-bound lava plain, along with a horde of humanity, some on horse-back, others on motor-bikes, and still more like us, led by a determination to reach the end of the stretch…