Steller’s Jay : From Jay to Joy

Steller’s Jay

This is a Steller’s Jay.  It’s a wonderful bird.  Like all the corvids, it has tremendous personality.  It’s loud.  It’s raucous.  It’s a big colorful presence, and its personality seems to reflect its prominence in the tree.  It’s obviously an easy bird to identify.  And they’re absolutely everywhere here.  There are many challenges in seeing particular birds, but the jay is impossible to miss… if you go to the right place.  I saw them only after a two-day drive, because I left my home and took myself somewhere far away, somewhere special.  Where I live, there are none of these jays.  I have equal certainty about two conditions:  staying home, I will not see this jay; traveling to the mountains, I am guaranteed to see many.

Shabbat is a day given over entirely to joy.  More than simply resting from our labors, Shabbat is an opportunity to rejoice in all that we have been given and all that we have created.  We suspend mourning rituals.  We don’t fast.  We don’t even speak of things that would impede our appreciation of the incredible bounty among which we live.  How do we observe and remember Shabbat?  It is a journey.  Shabbat’s essence is separation, distinction.  Some see the “Shabbat rules” as limitations, when instead they should be seen as liberations.  We can journey away from the components of our working lives and instead be elsewhere, in a place given over to savoring and to appreciation.  

Even the World’s Greatest Birder wouldn’t see this jay where I live.  This beauty requires coming to it.  To experience Shabbat’s power and joy, we also have to be willing to make the journey.  All such voyages entail certain challenges, whether finding a different path or even pausing on the one we currently travel.  And while we acknowledge that, we take comfort remembering Shabbat is a destination accessible to everyone, given to us all in the structure and rhythm of the world itself.  Driving to the mountains was a not-insignificant accomplishment.  My sure reward was this Jay.  Observing and remembering Shabbat, its own journey, gives me a similarly guaranteed opportunity - to experience the fullness of joy God offers us all.