My mom is an incredible birder.
As a child, I was not always thrilled to be dragged through
various bird sanctuaries in search of feathered friends. I have a particularly
vivid memory of being tricked into one last drive through the bird sanctuary
after thinking I had managed to avoid an entire vacation without purposely
looking at a bird. That being shared, I cannot put into words how thankful I am that my mom loves birds and that she and my father continuously
asked us as children to take notice, not to miss what might be right in front
of our eyes, to look beyond the surface, to take in and ruminate over the
details of the world around us.
When you’re birding, it’s like looking for a needle in a
haystack. Your eyes are scanning through trees and brush and across water
looking for the slightest movement or flicker of color. What a triumphant
moment it is to spot an indigo bunting or a family of whooping cranes or a
yellow-crowned night heron. My mother particularly loves identifying the
skittering shore birds of various shades of brown that blur together as they
wade through the water. “Aha, a Marbled Godwit” she cries! I’m delighted with a
meadowlark on a fence post.
Because of moments such as this, my eyes were trained to
spot beauty, even a miniscule version. I was taught to stop and look. I was
challenged to look outside of my current state to what might be changing around
me. These lessons also gently shared that joy could be found anywhere and at
any time. You just had to be willing to stay alert and take notice.
I believe small moments of discovery can make life richer.
Taking the time to stop and smell the blossoms along your path, accepting a
compliment, looking at the cloud formations, studying a painting, taking on a
new practice, noticing the bird along the edge of the water or the changing
colors in the leaves, can all lead to open hearts, hearts willing to, if only for
a moment, let in God’s love and light.
When we acknowledge those moments, whether we realize it or
not, we become reflections of that shared love and light. Not only are we
filled with comfort, but we also bring comfort to those around us.
I’m aware that this trained eye to beauty and creation is
not lost on the rest of the world that is not so pretty. I am often reminded of
the story of Lazarus, not the story about how Jesus raises Lazarus from the
dead but the story in which day after day after day after day the rich man
walks over poor, starving Lazarus crippled at his doorstep. The rich man either
purposely ignores him or never notices him.
We have been given an unbelievably beautiful world full of
creatures of all shapes, sizes and walks of life with whom to share it. Let’s
give thanks for it and take time to appreciate it. At the same time, let’s
realize that not everyone is enjoying it the same way we are. Perhaps they
didn’t grow up with loving parents who trained them through forced birding
expeditions. Maybe they didn’t have a support system to help them through
school or enough food on the table or the medication they needed or a kind word
to help them through the fear they were experiencing.
With love and light,
LT
