Getting Our Eyes Ready to See
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
It is possible to be somewhere and be somewhere else.
To be with someone and not be with them.
To hear and not listen.
To look and not see.
It is possible that today you and I will blow past some bird whose beauty is as immense as a symphony, a bird who has entered our field of vision a thousand times but has never once come to our attention.
Priest and birder Ragan Sutterfield suggests that learning to see birds is one way to become more present to the moment, to people, to God.
And even when there isn’t a bird to be seen, waiting for one can be a spiritual practice that topples the idol of immediate gratification and opens us to the slow goodness of God.
Applying the principles of birding to prayer, Ragan writes:
“So often, for months and even years at a time, this showing up results in nothing. We’re just waiting. And then, epiphany! We see a light we wouldn’t have encountered if we hadn’t been watching, waiting, getting our eyes ready to see.”
It seems fitting that at this moment I find myself becoming increasingly irritable because I’ve tried for an embarrassingly long time to find words to finish this essay. I’m desperate to tell you things you already know about abiding and awareness and attentiveness in a way that feels like you are hearing them for the first time.
Instead, I’m at my desk glancing out my window at a tree with birdless branches… waiting.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
Sign up for Renovaré Weekly
Thoughtfully introduced Christ-centered spiritual formation resources.
Thanks for subscribing! You'll get our next Renovaré Weekly newsletter.
LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
-
1.
On Life with God this week, Nathan Foster talks with author and priest Ragan Sutterfield on the sacramental nature of birding and other patient pursuits which train our attention so that we can live awake to our transcendent God and the invisible realm of his kingdom.
-
2.
Ragan Sutterfield writes, “Sometimes we need permission, in a world of hurry and demands of productivity, to sit and wait and watch. Hunting, fishing, and birding are forms of that permission — an allowance to be quiet and sit.” Read “Getting Our Eyes Ready to See.”
-
3.
I like to reshare this piece every few years. It is one of my favorites in the Renovaré archives and worth returning to: Bill Vaswig’s “Discovering Contemplation: A Penetrating Gaze at Truth.”
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.”
– Evelyn Underhill
TO CONTEMPLATE
Louisiana Heron
John James Audubon 1827-1838
(source)
Artists are masters at paying attention. Before an artist ever puts brush to paper, the artistic discipline begins with closely observing the intricacies of a subject. Gazing and rendering from life becomes an easy bridge to adoring the Creator. When we attend to art, we gain the benefit of the artist’s contemplation and add to it our own attention and enjoyment. Along with our admiration for the creativity of God we can enjoy the imago dei shining through the creativity of the artist.
TO PONDER
God, teach me how to wait
and how to see,
how to trust,
and how to breathe.