Blue-gray Gnatcatcher : Richness Day by Day

This is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Momma sits on today’s egg, which will seemingly tomorrow be an adult. One of the greatest joys of near-daily outdoor photography is the enhanced sense of granularity that one receives in looking at the world. Going day by day creates the opportunity for observation in a way that is profoundly richer than going out week by week or quarter by quarter. The incremental changes in this family’s life illustrate the notion of deliberate movement towards an inevitable destination.

Genesis details the creation of the world, starting with divisions: day from night, the upper waters from the lower, the seas from the earth. These were all binary and instantaneous, at a godlike scale, prior to man’s arrival. But look now at human perspective. We humans observe time divided into seven consecutive, integral, days. Our time is a cyclical flow of six secular days and one holy one. Holy and secular could have been created in a binary way too, like day and night. But HaShem opted instead for a gradual build-up, positioning holiness in a way more suited to human faculties. This cannot be coincidental.

We often face seemingly binary choices, “forcing” us to answer yes/no, black/white. But our Tradition reveals reality is more granular. We are taught to find nuanced Interstitials between binary outcomes. The richness there, seemingly hidden, is apparent to deliberate looking. Six secular days build to Shabbat. Seven weeks build from Pesach to Shavuot. Seven years build to the Shmita. And daily walks in the park discover the building of a nest, the laying of eggs, and the hatching of life’s journey to adulthood. Jewish time, like the Gnatcatcher, invites us to consciously build awareness, to savor life’s richness.