Angels in Cancer Ward

A friend of mine shared The Starfish Story the other day on WhatsApp. The young girl in the story is seen picking up starfish left on the beach by the tide one by one and throwing them back to the sea. An old man approaches her and says, “There are thousands on the beach….you cannot possibly make a difference”. The girl walks to pick yet another star fish and throws it back to the sea and then says: “It makes a difference for that one”.

Even as I read the story, memories of an incident in RR Army Hospital, Delhi came rushing to my mind.

A friend of mine was admitted there to undergo spinal surgery. It was a sunny Sunday and I was staying just across the road. My wife made something for the friend for lunch and so I just walked across to call on him. He was in good cheer and we chatted for some time before I took leave to go home. Instead of taking the lift, I decided to walk down all the three floors.

As I turned into the corridor of the floor below, I noticed three ladies standing by the side wall. Well dressed and holding themselves so graciously, I couldn’t help lingering my look a little while. Just then, one of them turned and happened to catch me looking at them. And, she smiled as graciously.

I bowed my head and said, “Good Morning”.

“Good morning, how do you do?” she said.

“I am fine, ma’am. I am Wing Commander Srinivasan. What are you doing here? Is everything alright?” I said.

“Oh, I am Mrs….. My husband is a Colonel. Well, yeah, actually things are not pretty okay for someone. So, we were just wondering what next?”

The chivalrous soldier in me rose to the occasion. Stepping forward, I said, “Can I do something, ma’am?

 She looked at me for a few seconds and then said, “Perhaps not. But you can come in and have a look”.

She led me then into the Ward with the sign board – Terminal Patients.

The ward was full of young and old, with everyone apparently having the messenger from the Maker standing at hand. Notwithstanding the life support or other medical equipment that surrounded their beds, each one propped, waved, raised a hand and smiled looking at the three ladies. Many of them called out “mai” (mother) in voices that were laced with love. Their eyes glistened and wherever the ladies stood, hands reached out and held to them.

The ladies in turn sat by the bedside, holding hands, placing their palms on cheeks and simply ruffling the few curls still left on those pates. Their eyes were also moist but they poured out a compassion that ran like a river, immersing everyone in the ward.

Even I stood there watching, my eyes welled. It felt though my chest was caught in pincer, squeezing a strange emotion that I knew not the name. I cried.

The Colonel’s wife came over to me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. Led by her, I went over to a bed where a patient was cocooned in a plethora of medical equipment. Ironically, it looked as though the plethora of tubes running around and through him were actually sucking the juice of life out of him. The scrawny, skeletal body screamed a song of pain, though his lips hardly moved. There was not enough fluid in him even to moist his eyes with misery. I was immobile, both in body and mind, even to think what he must be going through.

She looked me into the eye and guided my sight to a board that hung by the bed. The patient was on Chemo for over six months. And, now the light of life was exiting him, anytime. He was just 23.

I stood frozen in a cocktail of emotions.

All our life, we spend every neuron of our energies into controlling things around us. We seek constantly to embolden and fortify our lives with money, material comforts, power, position and accolades. We crave to bring newer vistas under our power, seeking them not only in planet Earth, but also in the Moon, Mars, and the universe beyond.

We have everything and have the power to possess anything that we set about to want. Yet, thins fleeting thing called life refuses to bow down in front of our colossal might. It enters and leaves our beautiful bodies at will, sometimes devastating this cage of bones and muscles in ways that no human eye ever wants to see. At least, never want to imagine affliction with one’s own body.

What use is that power which conquers the mighty oceans and mountains and vales, yet remains so vulnerable to a thing that eyes cannot see? What use is that power which conquers worlds beyond, yet is bereft of the power to understand the world within?

The Colonel’s wife gently touched my shoulder again. I turned and walked slowly towards the entrance door. As I stood there, she patted me gently, not needing words to communicate. Both of us remained quiet for some time.

As I turned to look at her, she said quietly, “Please pray. He will be gone any time now”.

I bowed my head and nodded as I left.

I pray every day, even though I know he is gone long back.

There are thousands of starfish on the beach. You may not rescue any of them. But when you pray, you do not know to which when you are making the difference.

PS: I have come to believe that there are angels on Earth, especially in Cancer Wards.

Autofocus

We become friends for a variety of reasons and under a variety of circumstances. One such form of friendship, in my opinion, is the intellectual type. These type of friends are like auto focus lenses. Irrespective of how hazy your own thoughts are, they manage to centre on the issue that caused all the haziness in your mind. They have the uncanny ability to blot out the perpherals and see your thoughts as they are. And, they don't question you so much that you will feel like a rudderless ship on foggy sea.
Believe me, there are times-a-ton in life when one feels like out on the sea, with only the fog and mist swirling around when you find it difficult to see your own feet. It is not the cyclonic thunder storm that you feel is coming; its not that you lost your sails and are adrift; it is not that the radio went silent cutting you off from the shore. It is just the feeling that tons of algae and clams are weighing down your hull and that in that bloody swirling fog, instead of making headway, you are slowing down. You are unsure where the break will come from or when you will hit the Gulf stream that will take you ashore.
It is then that the autofocus steps in. On the swell splattered deck, as the wild winds howl around you, he holds the vessel of your soul steady, calms your nerves with the soothing cup of the coffee of his thoughts (with a dash of Château du Tariquet or Chartreuse, if you like) and holds a candle to the darkest recesses of your thought.

Lo, behold and in a flash it is clear to you. You know what is taking you adrift and you also know how to steer your laden ship safe home. The autofocus just comes like the streak of golden Sun through the swirling mist, and even though he doesn't share your burden on the wheel, you know that the long way home is promising ride on the crusty waves.

Count your blessings and say Grace, if you are blessed with autofocus. You cannot buy them are cajole them into friendship. They do not get created. They just occur. To be more precise, they are a reflection of your own self. The more true you are to your friends, with no conditions attached, the more likely that you will get autofocus.

Have fun. Live life. Remember to live it today.

Where do they lie the ruling heart...

This poem comes from my son, Deepak:

Wer do thy lie the ruling heart!
To the wanted love it must see,
Or to the wanted dreams it longs to be
Courage it has shown in the darkest of life,
Fighting and swaying yet marching to thy end of land,
Touching those who havnt been touched,
Taking those who have been along,

Wer do thy lie the ruling heart!
To see the unseen yet unsee the seen ,
Taking roads which havnt been
Making trails for the ones behind,
For it is them who can stay wen the sun is gone

Wer do thy lie the ruling heart!
Loving those who havnt been loved,
Yet caring for those who havnt been cared,
With a dream it marches on
Only for those who dream so long.

Life gives a chance

It happened in a flash of a moment - literally. Barely five feet to go to the exit, the fireball enveloped me. The heat seared through my skin and thick black smoke made it impossible to breath. Five or ten seconds more, I would have become tandoor...roasted alive. Then it occurred to one of my companions to tear open the door and I tumbled out, followed by a huge fireball, movie style, close on my heels.

Rest of the events are pretty imaginable. whisked away to first aid post and transported 200 km to the nearest hospital, twenty agonizing days to substantial recovery, the support and goodwill of my staff, friends and colleagues to my wife and the tender care by hospital staff.... I suppose a mere thank you to all of them would be never enough. I presume Santosh Gupta, Choudhary, Satya, Banu Pratap, Chandrasekhar Y Pawar, Durgaprasad, Brijesh Kumar, Devika, Brinda, Anju Kumari, VK Sharma, SV Syed, Surya Bhattacharya, Ambika, Farah Patil, and my dear Mona have become now part of my living memory. May God bless them all and grant them His liberal grace in all their life's undertakings.

Throughout those twenty days, somethings else kept playing out in my mind like a gramophone record - those few moments when I stood inside the envelope of fire. Strangely, I did not feel an iota of fear. Fully aware that the fireball has me in its grip, I was conscious of just three things: one, I may last a few more moments; two, I should not change the direction in which I was going (towards the exit) for I would get disoriented soon; three, not to look around since my eyes will burn out. Keeping both my fore arms to cover my face, I just proceeded ahead, in time to tumble out of the entrance. In fact my hands got burnt in the process of opening the cover on the entrance when one of assistants also helped to pull me out.

I kept asking myself as to how come I did not panic; how the mind remained absolutely clear and unfazed. While a score of explanations like upbringing, training, attitude, physical stamina, etc, kept popping up, the simplest of the explanations holds the fort - life gives a chance. It always and in every absurdly hopeless situation too, it gives a chance. Like Paulo Coelho says, the symbols are ever present. It is upto us to take it and move forward or ignore and be done with.

Osho in every breath says that it is being aware which is essential. Be aware. Awareness is life and not being aware is death. Life calls for an awareness of our being that is beyond mere physical senses. It is transcendental in nature. Every time there is a close call, believe that life is actually giving us a chance. Take it. 

Did we say it was a Monday?

Champa, our maid, simply ordered us to remain seated in the bed so that she can mop the floor without all of us flopping around. I do not know if maids elsewhere have the same habit of either talking to themselves or addressing someone throughout the process of their sweeping and mopping. In India, they do. Particularly if you have hired a Bengali housemaid, DBS comes as part of the package, whether you asked for it or not (for the uninitiated, DBS is Daily Broadcasting Service that doles out essentially unconnected news, randomized depending on the mood of the broadcaster, and aired whether listeners are tuned in or out). Today the broadcast was about mothering children in the 'modern, tech savvy world'.

And, as is perhaps typical of every mother, she complained about her fourteen year old son's addiction to smart phones. 'Chapat, chapat (indicating the key pad beeps his phone makes), chapat , chapat, all the time'.

'You know, he kept asking me every five minutes "mom, has it become alright?" throughout the other day when his phone had some glitch and I had given it for servicing. Till it came back, every five minutes it was "mom, mom and mom". Now that it is back, for the past two days, mom simply doesn't exist'.

The half hearted way in which she made the complaint brought smiles on our face. It was wonderful to feel the pride that her son was tech savvy and the 'loss' of attention he gave her before the smart phone arrived perfectly balanced in her tone. But that was not all.

Addressing my niece sitting on the edge of the bed, Champa continued.

'Look at my daughters. Twenty four hours (round the clock) it is cartoons and more cartoons on the TV. It is as though movies and other soap opera do not exist. Walking into my own house, do you know how I feel? As though I am a cartoon myself.'

I just couldn't stop myself. My niece was actually trying to avoid Champa's gaze. Giggling happily at the niece's cost, I told  Champa that she should repeat the last dialogue to my niece's mom.

'Why?'

'Because you are telling this to a person whose mom feels exactly the same way you feel about cartoons on TV' I said.

'Ooi, maa' she exclaimed the way only a Bengali can. 'Look at who I am complaining to'.

By then, the entire household was laughing. Can you ask for a better start on a Monday, I wonder.

For all those who hate science....

Reading a book that has been sent by a friend for review, I came across a statement he made: "Love is chemistry and attraction is magnetism". I was wondering if love is chemistry and attraction magnetism, can there be anyone in this world who can say he hates science?

My own experience suggests that this chemistry and magnetism can at times result in economics, biology, physics (please do not read it as anything else) and as the years go by, history. Who says physical sciences are distinctly different from social science and humanities!! I recall an instance when chemistry turned into athletics and spirituality.

Mohan (my FPG some thirty years before) and me walked into Kamaths wanting to catch up on breakfast. I took a seat facing the hotel's entrance and Mohan sat opposite but at an angle to me. We finished our dosas and called for the inevitable coffee when a young woman (don't expect me to say handsome. Perhaps this story wouldn't have happened otherwise) came to sit in the table behind Mohan, facing me. Mohan and me had a penchant for engaging in intense debates and I was loading my next torpedo into the tube in my mind when this young thing happened. The torpedo stuck in the tube and before long even I realized that I was ogling. Women in any case know it intuitively when someone ogles at them and here she hardly needed her intuition. And, in the processes of freezing on my tracks on my top floor, I had made a fatal mistake. I did not notice that she was accompanied by her father.

Realizing that I was 'stuck' and sensing the trouble rising behind him (literally!!!), suddenly Mohan got up, seized my elbow and before I blinked, paid out the bill in the counter, pushed me into the street and goaded me to pick up pace. It is only when we turned the corner and were well on our way back to the room that I realized that Mohan had actually saved my skin.

From chemistry to athletics to spirituality, reflecting on this 'history', I realize that sciences, humanities and spirituality are inseparable. No man can ever say with certainty that they are separate from our own lives irrespective of our likes and dislikes for a subject. Did someone say he or she still hates science?

Think again!!!     

World Cup is not just about football....

“Let their feet rule your heart” proclaimed the headlines in Time of India. Yes, the World Cup in Sao Paulo literally kicked off to run amuck in our heart. Scolari’s expressive antics, Neymar’s impressive two goals, Oscar’s dream run to give Brazil its third goal – every single one of them made you dance on your feet. Marcelo’s OG (own goal)…produced guffas in the stadium and his naïve looks after the even and the goal keeper’s understanding pat on his back will remain one of the memorable and humorous incidents in World Cup 2014.

But what actually touched my heart most happened 10182 miles away to the east of Sao Paulo. Lt Gen Chatudom Titahsiri, Head of the army run Channel 5 in Thailand said “Happiness for the whole country is more important than money” after the military junta ruling Thailand decided to broadcast World Cup matches free of charge!!

Years before, a friend of mine taught me a valuable lesson “when you love someone or something, show it in small deeds. Osho, one of the most profound intellects to have walked this earth also said that it is passion that defines your thirst for truth, not renunciation. The person who wrote the headlines in Times of India and the Thai general both have just proved this right. When you give your heart to what you seek, you receive two bounties: first, you live; second, you achieve.

Do not forget to switch off the drudgery of your life when you can and watch World Cup 2014. It is not just football. It has many wonderful lessons for life. Happy watching and happy living!!!   

Happy parenting....

It is the summer break for the kids and three of my nephews, aged 9, 10,and 12, dropped in to spend a week with us. Both of our own kids (!) were out and that made the age composition of the gathering a bit wonky. One 82, one 73, one 53, one 50 and of course the three arrivals!! We were smug with the confidence, having raised two of our own, that handling these three would be child's play - at least that's what we thought. While a full blown book would be in order, just a couple of instances would suffice to prove that we have miles to go before we can be confident enough to feel so smug:

Scene 1: As I came upstairs to our room, I saw the young mister 9 holding his towel around his waist, standing 'statue' in front of the bath. "What happened? Are you not going in for a bath?" I asked. Without turning his head, he raised his little finger and slowly pushed it through the gap between the wall and the door. "Cockroach" he said softly. My next thirty minutes were spent chasing a rogue cockroach through ten thousand crevasses and hill sides (at least that is how the cockroach behaved)....Mind you, mister 9 had also told me in his soft voice not to kill the roach. So I had to chase, catch and export him across our garden before mister nine consented to pour two mugs of water on himself. When I entered the house after successfully exporting the roach, and panting and perspiring in the burning heat of Chennai, the 50, 73 and 82 had the laugh of their lives !!!

Scene 2: Having somehow managed them at home through the day [courtesy the three musketeers who happily chomped their their way through packets of potato chips, I had watched without much choice of course, Tom & Jerry, Gods Must Be Crazy, Haunting and Conjuring - all in a row!!!], we decided to take them out to a bakery joint. The three were out of the car and into the joint even before my wife and I locked the car and entered. Mister 9 had also decided that all three of them will have only masala potato fingers - just because that was the brightest ad displayed at the entrance. The attendant helpfully told me that the potato fingers would be freshly made on order. So order we did, and waited. At the risk of a commodore's stare from my better half, I asked mister 9 "there are hundreds of items here, should you have ordered the potato fingers that would take time?" The youngster simply told me "that is what we want to eat". Fine, okay, let us wait. A round of pastries, patties and cold coffee later, when the potato fingers finally arrived, the young mister 9 looked up and said "see, it was worth the wait, don't you agree?" When did I say I had a choice to disagree?

Scene 3: It had to happen. Mister 12 took mister 10 with the promise of teaching him how use a cycle. The mercury was helpfully at 42 C and even the crows and cows (all humans too except the mentioned) hid themselves wherever shade was to be found. My wife was rustling up lunch and suddenly there was a shriek. Mister 9 ran out and ran in to announce that mister 10 had managed to fall from the cycle. The skin around one knee was neatly peeled and down on the foot, there were two marble sized nicks. I picked up the wailing mister 10,  put him into my car and rushed him to our doctor who was, fortunately, only few hundred meters away. As the nicks and cuts were dressed, the shrieks could be heard for miles away. I was only thanking the stars that there was no lady admitted for delivery in the clinic. Had one been, she would delivered without even a sigh!!! The wounded and 'dressed' mister 10 came home to a welcome reserved only for war heroes, from mister 9 & 12!! Having done his dressing at home twice thereafter, my wife tells me that I have managed to learn to shriek well myself....

Oh, to say that bringing them up is easy...well, not me,,,I never said....in case you think it is, I can only wish you good luck. But then, there is something I must say: parenting is the most beautiful experience of life. There are no perfect parents. There can, however, be unfortunate parents - those who never realise that loving their children is the key to good parenting. Accepting their children for what they are, loving them, standing by them, supporting them, teaching them to enjoy small moments and small things....well these are the rewards. Elsewhere in my blog, I have quoted a poem by Khalil Gibran. I strongly recommend that we must reflect upon the meaning of that poem.      

May her wish come true...

We were just walking down to the bus stop when my friend suddenly stopped in front of a gate.

"Hello, Jay", she said to some body. So I also turned around and looked at Jay. She was a girl of 14 or 15, dressed in a T shirt and skirts, her hands holding a bunch of hay about to be fed to a cow standing in her yard, already chewing her cud. Her hair was unruly, her forehead shone with sweat but.....the smile was brilliant. The other wise could-have-been-awkward birthmark across her forehead actually seemed to accentuate her wide grin. Her eyes lit up seeing my friend and she hurriedly pushed the hay into the opening mouth of the cow. Wiping her forehead with the back of her palm, she sprinted to the gate and unmindful of the cow's spittle on her hand shook my friends hands vigorously, her grin widening.

"Meet Jay", said my friend and it was my turn to be bestowed the vigorous handshake and infectious grin. Since I did not speak the local language, I queried her in English as to what did she do.

"I", said Jay, emphasizing it with a touch of her bosom, "I...student!!"

"Great", I told her, "and which class would you be in?"

"Class...oh, yes...I know..class..." then she simply counted nine on her fingers and held them up to me so that I had no doubts as to which class she was at school. The grin too was as wide as her two hands!!

All this while, my friend was looking at her indulgently. Turning to me, she asked: "Do you know what jay wants to be?". I blinked.

"Jay wants to be a wrestler!". Watching my eyes widen, Jay simply put both her hands half up, squatted in the classic wrestler's pose and then tapped both her thighs. I could not miss the sudden change of her expression into that of a wrestler in the ring, eyes focused on the opponent and breath coming in short spurts. Looking up to me, Jay managed her thoughts in English:

"Want to play for India....me good, you know....coach tell me...lot of practice..."

Some one else would have said in volumes what she told me in four short expressions. The grit and focus of a keen wrestler showed. I wished her all the best and blessed her by touching her head. As both of us left the gate for the bus stop, I was lost in thoughts. My friend asked me quietly,"you are thinking of the child's background and wonder how she would achieve her dream?"

I sighed in answer. Jay lived in a small house with parents both of whom were ordinary labour. They had one cow and two bulls, but no land. She went to the government school, because there is no fee. She ran errands for neighbours and earned pocket money to both help her parents as well as pay to her coach. Any other girl child in her place in India probably would have been 'given' in marriage at her age. Her parents, the simple labour folk, would not dream of doing so. They were content that their daughter was happy doing what she did. Knowing that sports coaching takes a lot of money and even sponsorship, all I could do was to sigh. Wish I had the money and contacts to sponsor that child. My friend only said, "Amen".

There are hundreds of children in this world who are capable of doing the impossible. They say, the path makes itself for those who tread with grit. Jay knows the path and I pray that the path makes itself so that she could travel to her destiny. So grant her God! Amen.        

The small matters...

It was an amazing dialogue and it came from someone we normally do not expect capable of such thoughts. Oh, I must first narrate what happened.

I was at a dry cleaner's shop. As I pulled out the jacket to give it to him, both of us noticed a small tear at the shoulder joint. 'You must get it it mended before giving it to me', said the cleaner. Alright, I went looking for a tailor in my car. Here was the past middle age tailor with his customary paan (beetel nuts) in his mouth and at that time with nothing to keep him occupied. As I showed the jacket, he looked  at me quizzically first, then at my car. With a sumptuous 'no offence meant' smile he then asked me

 " dho rupaiah ka silai ke liye, pachas ka petrol? Apne  hi haath se siladethe?" (for a stitch for two rupees, why have you burnt petrol for fifty rupees? You could have stitched it at home).

I told him that I was at the Dry Cleaner and of course I had no thread and needle. So would he mind?

"Arre, na na saab. Humara tho pesha hein. Yehi dho rupiah se hamara ghar chalta hein" ( No, no sir. do not mind what I said. This is my profession and my home runs on this two rupees only) So saying, he stitched in a jiffy and my Cleaner was happy. But the dialogue has kept going in my mind for over three or four days.

A simpler wisdom on economy and self help could not have been given by the most prestigious B-School for a thousand dollars. Most of the time we tend to think that small is ignorable and will eventually pay through our nose to mend it with big.

Not just in terms of money but in life too, many of us take no notice of things very small - relationships, colleagues, work, family, children and every other thing around which our lives reolve - we are 'blissfully' unaware that it is the small and most of the time intangible things that actually make us happy.  And like I did, we do spend big money thinking that money makes up for every thing.

'Stitch in time' is perhaps a proverb not for mending clothes but is apt to be followed in life too. The small matters!! 

  

The Mystery Called Life!

Quite some time ago, a friend of mine called and complained non-stop about his boss. ‘Rakshas hein rakshas, juice nikhal deta hein! (in Hindustani, a fiend who drinks your blood!). Kabhi kabhi man karta hein, bhag jaon yahan se (feel like running away from here!). Like in all such situations at work place, he also had a ‘friend’ to pour his heart out (apart from ‘tele’ friends like me). Since it was some time since we had spoken, I rang him up to say ‘hi!’ He almost broke down on the phone. Here is what he told me.

His sister was due to be married and everything had been arranged. As the marriage was to be solemnized in the groom’s city, a bus was arranged to convey the bride and family to that place. The joyous melee in the bus turned into a nightmare enroute. Driver lost control and banged into a huge tree. Apart from others, the bride got crushed between two seats. The rest was mayhem.

An sos was flashed for the treatment. Some help came from here and there. The ‘trusted’ friend of his office was no where to be seen. Considerable money was locked up as advances to the hotel, marriage hall, caterers, et al. He was in a spin.

And then the ‘rakshas’ appeared in the hospital. After confabulations with the doctors, he handed them a cheque sufficient to see her through o her health. As the dumbfounded friend kept looking on, the ‘rakshas’ wagged a finger at him before leaving and told him to rejoin duty the day she is stable!

‘Yaar, mein jaan bhi dei dun uske liye, tho bhi khum hoga (I can even give my life for him, friend). Bloody hell, to think that I was cursing him all the time those days!’

Human beings are the most complicated things that God ever made. Though HE is supposed to be in every thing, how He will manifest, what He is capable of doing and in whose heart you will find His reflection – well, that perhaps is the mystery called life!

Kalil Gibran - On Marriage & Children

There are great philosophers around the world who have given gems of thought on many things concerning our lives. My favorite is Kalil Gibran and his greatest gems are:

On Marriage
 Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.


Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.


Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.