Lazuli Bunting : The Real Deal
Lazuli Bunting
This is a Lazuli Bunting. I’ve only seen one once before, in July 2021 here in the mountains where I made my first expedition post-Covid. Then I received what I thought was a pretty good photo but not fully what I wanted. It would be exaggeration to say that it’s been weighing on me for this year, but when I decided to return this summer, I definitely had hopes that I would be able to receive a better photo. It’s not that I wanted a better photo for its own sake, but rather I think of these drashot as offerings. Last year’s was good, but I wanted a new one, utterly flawless. This photo - with its obscuring twig - teaches its true power: that even a “flawed” photo can also be influential and illustrative, maybe teaching us more than a flawless rendering.
Prayer is hard. That may sound strange. It is strange, and it’s also true. Every single day I pray. And each week I celebrate Shabbat. And at the appointed times through the cycle of the year, I observe holidays. I can’t count how many times I’ve said a given prayer or experienced a specific holiday. But what I can say, what I imagine we can all say, is that there are times where we have experienced these observances more or less fully. It doesn’t mean that we’ve done something wrong or poorly, only that there are other times that have been more robust. And rather than bemoaning our “lack of perfection,” I would suggest instead that we celebrate our genuine attempts and variety of lived experience.
Couldn’t I - shouldn’t I - simply Photoshop away the obscuring twig? Wouldn’t that greatly improve the photo? It’s both easy and tempting. A few clicks, and I have a perfect finished product. But the product, the endpoint, isn’t what these offerings are about. I make these offerings as a process, designed to inspire, to provide joy, and to teach. And here, with this so-slight hurdle, just a twig, I have the opportunity to remind us all - certainly myself - that even these seeming flaws are reality. And it’s reality that matters, not some idealized conceit or theoretical construct. We who pray, speak as the real us - warts and all - and that’s OK. The Bunting teaches more with its twig; we offer more when we acknowledge our challenges in prayer.