‘Gaze upward, Look Inward, Reach Outward and Press Forward’ is a brainy quote. Gazing upward and looking inward definitely helps one to reach outward and as one does it, he/ she presses forward in life. The dawn, the golden streaks of sunrise and the glow awakens every bird, animal and the flower world. Some hasten to fetch their daily bread, some who had done the night duty of collecting their ration get back to their cozy stay but most of them get ready to set go, trusting in the care of a Heavenly Father.
The flower world is amazing. It just opens its petals slowly, silently, unheard, unnoticed but hasten to put forth their rapturous beauty and glory. The sunflower keeps steps with the direction of the sun and that of another variety acquires colour from the sun and transforms itself from white to pink shade completely by 12 noon. Every drop of rain or the snow melted from the hills and mountains gushes down through streams to reach its destiny. It only reminds each one of us that life is short and whatever one can do must be done today and now. For tomorrow may not be mine.
While we have the heroic examples of sisters in our own community and in the human world of reaching out in haste to comfort, to care, to listen, to show affection, appreciation, kindness, forgiveness we have several examples even from the dumb animal world which surpass at times the care of humans. Let me quote a few examples, how animals and birds have rescued people from danger of life and even solved murder mysteries.
In 2015 June an interesting story appeared in the ‘Udayavani’ newspaper. A wild elephant which had come down to a village destroyed all the plantain trees and finally also pulled down the small hut of a family. Looking at the devastation and the angry elephant, the parents ran away leaving behind the little child sleeping inside the hut. After the rampage of the hut as the elephant was returning, it heard the cry of a baby. The same returned, looked for the spot in the debris where the child was buried, took out all the debris, carried it to a safe spot and went away. It’s the elephant that hastened to the care of the little one, while the parents had fled away in fear.
Dianne Busscher was woken up at 4.45 a.m. by the cries of the family cat, Oreo, coming from the garage. Busscher went down stairs to see what the fuss was about. What she saw was smoke and flames; she quickly grabbed the cat and rushed back inside to wake up her husband and their five children.
The fire destroyed the garage and a bedroom. None of the family was harmed on account of the cat’s cries. After this incident the family loved the cat. The cat hastened to the rescue of the family.
Ashutosh Goswami thought he would get away with the robbery when he killed his aunt. But according to the local police, he hadn’t realized that her pet parrot would turn stool pigeon ( a spy). In the highly embellished accounts of one of the most unlikely Indian murder mysteries in living memory, Goswami was just one of a number of suspects until the victim’s widower local Hindi newspaper editor, Vijay Sharma, read out their names in front of their parrot Heera. When Ashutosh Goswami’s name was read out, the parrot squawked ‘Usne maara, usne maara’- ‘he killed, he killed.’ Ashutosh was arrested by police in Agra for the murder of his aunt Neelam and he confessed to killing her. The bird hastened to bear witness to the murder.
Davide Ceci was 14 years old and couldn’t swim when he fell out of his father’s boat in south-east Italy; he was within minutes of death when dolphin Filippo came to his rescue. Filippo had been a popular tourist attraction off Manfredonia in south-east Italy for two years. While Emanuele Ceci was still unaware, his son had fallen into the waves, Filippo was pushing him up out of the water to safety. The dolphin bore down on the boat and got close enough for Davide’s father to grab him. A dolphin made haste to rescue from the claws of death!
Brenda Owen had gone out for a quick walk with her dog when she spotted a wheelchair on the riverbank; she saw a woman floating in the river. She called out to her but there was no reply so she told her dog, Penny, “Fetch! Fetch!” Without hesitation the dog ran into the river, swam to the woman and pulled her to the shore. Brenda said that Penny has always been a very obedient dog and despite being 10 years old she was still very fit. A dumb dog saved a wheelchair bound!
While the digital world of humans today takes videos while the bleeding or dying persons plead for water or to be shifted to the hospital, the caring animal world witnesses kindness, care and generosity. Last month we read a horrible account of a new born babe dumped into a dust bin, rescued by a dog and brought and left in front of a group of people to be cared for. May these lessons from the world of fauna enable me to be a little more humane and be like Mary to reach out to the needy in my community, in my apostolate and embrace the entire world in prayerful support is my prayer.
Sister Rose Agnes A.C.
Provincial House
St. Ann’s, Mangaluru
