Love Notes for Life - Hummingbirds

By Anne Round

Published The Magic Happens Magazine March 2021

Photo by Djalma Paiva Armelin from Pexels

Know­ing our­selves al­lows us to re­lax into our lives and ac­cept how we are in the world. Some­times we can re­late to qual­i­ties in an­i­mals that speak to our own lifestyle. We of­ten use lan­guage that refers to char­ac­ter­is­tics of an­i­mals that ap­pear in hu­man ac­tiv­ity. They swim like a dol­phin is an ex­am­ple.

Recently, I learned I am a hum­ming­bird. I read that this is a per­son who is nei­ther an early bird nor a night owl. In the past, I would have liked to be an early bird imag­in­ing my­self wak­ing early to con­tem­plate in the quiet of the sleep­ing house­hold. That is a com­plete fan­tasy for me. More times than not, I would say my morn­ing prayers as I rode my bike to work. I am a pretty prac­ti­cal down to earth be­ing who does like to fly high into the cos­mos and vi­sion the pos­si­bil­i­ties that are be­com­ing. I en­joy get­ting my hands into cre­ative ac­tions here on earth, whether I am cook­ing, gar­den­ing, or paint­ing. I gather my prayers, con­tem­pla­tions, and dreams into a col­lage of love for all hu­man­ity as I stir pots and trim roses. I am an or­di­nary, mid­dle of the day kind of gal full of love for life.

I am like a hum­ming­bird that flits from flower-to-flower sip­ping nec­tar from the gar­den of life. I heard Eliz­a­beth Gilbert de­scrib­ing a group of peo­ple as hum­ming­birds. Peo­ple who gather var­i­ous ideas from here and there and weav­ing them into the new. Her con­cept spoke to me as my lifestyle. I am like a hum­ming­bird wel­com­ing all the ex­pe­ri­ences of life with de­light. I see this clearly through­out my life as I open into an ac­tiv­ity, im­merse my­self, and then move on­wards when I am com­plete.

The hum­ming­bird soars to great heights, flash­ing its beau­ti­ful col­ors to the world, shim­mer­ing with the de­light of be­ing alive. When it is mov­ing, from flower to flower, it is del­i­cately kiss­ing each one and sip­ping of the essence. Just like the giv­ing and re­ceiv­ing of a smile as I pass fel­low hu­mans. I can­not al­ways see the hum­ming­bird dur­ing its trav­els. In­stead, I hear its wings when it is close by, the beau­ti­ful hum­ming which re­minds me to hum a lit­tle tune to bring ease to my body. The hum­mer is usu­ally in ac­tion, yet it does pause on a branch with its dis­tinct sil­hou­ette. It is a sweet re­minder for me to pause and breathe. I see all these qual­i­ties of the hum­ming­bird pen­e­trat­ing my life, and my heart fills to over­flow­ing with the love I have for all of life. My pur­pose is to love life and sip what is in front of me, al­low­ing the sweet­ness to nur­ture me, to ride high, and zoom down to be here as I am.

Cre­at­ing Love in Mo­tion:

Use this vi­su­al­iza­tion for drink­ing in the beauty of be­ing. Start with a few deep breaths to re­lax and close your eyes. Al­low your­self to imag­ine a flower gar­den. Feel the warmth of the sun on your wings, smell and taste the sweet nec­tar of the bloom­ing flow­ers. Fly around know­ing you are part of this beau­ti­ful gar­den, shar­ing love as you move. Rest a mo­ment on a branch, smile, and re­turn re­freshed.

May you know na­ture within you.