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A new beginning

Nature starts each day with a promise - new blooms, fresh dew drops, the song of birds...
Last Updated 28 June 2015, 17:31 IST

People, I believe, are of two types –owls and larks. Owls are those who remain alert and active at night and can stay awake into the wee hours. They tend to get up late and are often grumpy if forced to surface early. Larks, on the other hand, usually turn in early and are cheerfully up and about at dawn.

I am a lark married into a family of owls. This has both advantages and disadvantages. It is disadvantageous because I am forced to stay up longer than I would normally wish to. On the up side, I have the early mornings all to myself! This is the favourite “my time”. No one to bother me asking for tea/coffee or drag me into a conversation when I would rather converse with nature.

Sometimes, I feel guilty to enjoy the beauty and freshness of the early morning all by myself without sharing it with my family. Watching the sky lighten always makes me feel good – a new day, a new beginning! Nature starts each day with a promise – new flowers bloom, fresh dew drops shine on the grass, birds fill the air with song. All of nature seems glad of the new beginning.

Sipping my tea, I watch the day start outside the window. Magpie-robins and bronze drongos create their own music in the trees; one whistling, while the other creating extraordinary squeaks and harsh calls. In the near distance, I can hear the cackles of a flock of Malabar grey hornbills.

Prancing squirrels make it known to the world that this is “their” playground. The neighbourhood cat steps out of our jeep-which she has marked as “her” territory, and greets me with a soft meow before stretching and washing her face. She does not demand any food from me. She has probably feasted on a rat in the night…

I can actually see the hibiscus flowers bloom outside the window. They are large buds with open tips when I first see them. After a few minutes they have become cone shaped with wide mouths through which the pistils have begun jutting out. When I step out to pick them, they have almost fully bloomed with the cones separated into five petals.

Today, I was startled awake by the shrill and joyous shriek of a flameback woodpecker as it whizzed past my window. Another day. All my days are carbon copies of each other. Every day I do the same things, perform the same mundane chores and go through the same old activities. But why was there a spring in my step and a song on my lips as I proceeded to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea?

Perhaps the woodpecker’s lively greeting lifted my spirits. It seemed to say that yesterday’s mistakes are history. Today is another day full of opportunities to right our wrongs, to make friends of one’s enemies, to appreciate and love another. Another day to start anew, a new beginning round the corner...

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(Published 28 June 2015, 17:31 IST)

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