Bullock’s Orioles : What Am I Missing?

Bullock’s Orioles

These are Bullock’s Orioles.  These.  Plural.  There are two birds here.  Perhaps it’s obvious now, but I confess I’ve periodically been looking at this photo for over a year, ever since I received it, and it’s only this moment that I realized there’s a second bird there.  This entire time - over a year - my eye has been drawn exclusively to the frontmost bird.  That’s all I saw.  Yes of course one bird is partially obscured, but there’s more at play here.  The first bird’s shining eye and the beautiful thistles captured my attention and occluded everything else.  For over a year, I literally did not see what was right in front of me.  Or better:  I did see, but what was right in front of me didn’t make an appreciable impact, didn’t register on my consciousness.

The Bible is filled with stories of things present and unseen.  Abraham’s concubine Hagar is sent into the wilderness with her crying child, Ishmael.  Her poignant abandonment of her son, rather than watch him die of thirst, is miraculously remedied when God reveals a well nearby.  Did she not see it prior?  Was it not there?  Later we read of Balaam’s Ass, an animal which three times tries to avoid God’s angel blocking its way.  Each time, his human rider smites his mount for mocking him.  Only after the ass explains its behavior - in words! - to his rider does the person see the angel and acknowledge his own error.  These examples depict Divine intervention, but even in utterly mundane circumstances, these episodes have a lesson to teach.

I recently experienced a remarkably unpleasant conversation.  It was with a person I know well, like, and respect.  And it left me reeling.  Part of my discomfort was the substance itself.  More interestingly, I have to question whether I’m simply more attuned than I might have been before.  Have my own efforts at deeper discernment generally made me more aware of something that has been present all along?  Was this an anomalous conversation - as I hope - or have I simply been failing to see what’s been right in front of me all this time?  And now I’m asking myself what else might I have been missing?  What a lesson!  As a new year begins, clearly there are more bird photos and more relationships that merit reexamination.