Message of Life

THE MESSAGE OF LIFE

Standing on the threshold of the decade of eighty as I step over the dividing line on November the fifth, the question of celebrating the birthday does not cross my mind.


Come evening, there is a visit by a family of friends: father , mother and daughter, carrying a box of pastries and a bouquet of lovely blue-green and magenta orchids arranged tastefully in a basket.

I am pleasantly surprised, overwhelmed and falling short of words, in how to thank for the thoughtful gesture: the present and the effervescent ‘Happy Birthday’ wish proofed in unison, mumble some thing...

The box, containing Black Forest and Pineapple pastries, the pastries to be savoured slowly, is destined to the fridge, the basket, the Orchids to be admired at leisure, to the centre of the dining table.

As the days pass, one by one, the pastries, slowly, dwindle in number, enjoyed in small bites and pieces, the orchids on the other hand, strangely, day by day grow by millimetres, both in height and beauty.

Somehow, in the growing Orchids and dwindling Pastries I discern a subtle ’Message of Life’: its beauty, continuity and finality.