The bully blue jay is back at my feeder — yet another example of God’s creation of remarkable beauty until the mouth opens. But if it weren’t for him and his annoying screech to all his friends, the other birds might not have found my feeders for a long time. I havn’t fed the birds out my home office window for well over a year and a half. But the bully brought the attention back, as they so often do. The doves came next — reminding me of my very first post on hearingnseeing nearly 4 years ago — such gentle and cautious creatures. The sparrows also have returned but often flee in the time it takes me to turn my head and look at them. And of course the squirrels are still trying to find a way to the seeds — and to my amusement, have not succeeded.
So while the network is down at the moment for the real on-line work of my day, I am left with a few minutes to ponder what I have seen and heard from the Lord recently. Hearingnseeing has always meant to be about day-to-day life and seeing God in it. Today it is jays and doves and sparrows — just the normal. I have seen eagles and pelicans to take the breath away, cormorants to behold, lots of cranes, a western tanager, orioles on my window sill. But not today. I have been drowned out by the sound of hundreds of blackbirds and watched the collective movement of a mass of cowbirds move as one; yet it is only the usual that brings me company now.
We desperately seek God in the storm and praise heartily for his creation or blessings — but in between are ordinary days, the living out the discipline of the faith with neither fire nor thrill. This, I think, is the easiest time to “forget” about God and just go about business as usual, being lulled to lax.
So if this is just another blue jay, dove, and sparrow day, so be it — or in other words, Amen. Did you know that is what Amen means — so be it? Which just begs to have many words and thoughts of prayer placed before it, don’t you think? What a great way to spend an ordinary day.
Lord, these words are plain, simple. You can make beauty of ashes. It just makes me wonder what You can do with ordinary? Please use me and others today to find out. Amen.
hearingnseeing 
This is so true! We often get so caught up in the mundane, we miss the beauty around us. However, the inverse is also true. We get so caught up in the beauty that we miss the day to day! Thanks for this wonderful reminder! God’s Blessings!!
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