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Why the Hummingbird?

I met the hummingbird when I was seven. I was watching several robins play in the bird-bath in my backyard. I turned to watch them fly away, and I saw a tiny bird sitting on a branch in the cherry tree. Suddenly it lifted itself straight up and like a rocket headed right for me. I ducked, turning my head in time to watch it stop in mid-air and stick its long beak into a flower that was right next to my face. Its wings hummed like a bumble bee and were moving so fast up and down, back and forth, side to side and every other direction that I froze, afraid to move.

This delicate little bird moved from flower to flower. Its feathers were green and blue and purple. I quit breathing as I watched it move away from the last flower. It stopped in mid-air in front of my face, looked right at me, and lifted straight up into the sky and disappeared. That was the beginning of my enchantment with the hummingbird, and it returned each day that summer to my backyard.

According to Ted Andrews, "Birds are gods, and can make the thunder and bring the rain...Birds reflect a union of the conscious mind with the unconscious....Birds are a source of creative imagination, and they have the ability to awaken within us our own flights of magic.

Each bird has its own unique qualities and characteristics. Each has the ability to help you in your life, to realize that everyday of your life presents opportunities to soar to new heights….A call to unfold the wings of enchantment within your life."

Myths of the hummingbird show up in many cultures: A messenger between the worlds bringing balance to nature and spirit, this tiny bird was considered the Sun in disguise by the Mayans. It invoked abundance and new life and was known in Aztec and Mexican lore as Huitzilopochtle, one of four lords of creation. When a warrior died, he became a hummingbird and lived in paradise in the Sun.

In the Peruvian legends of the Andes, this magical bird was considered a symbol of resurrection: The hummingbird would sleep through cold nights, appearing totally lifeless, and then would come back to life with the warmth of the sunrise.

During primordial times, people in the Mojave lived underground in the dark. The hummingbird was sent forth as a guide to find a path out of darkness toward the light.

Hummingbirds invoke imagination of the fairy realm: feathers glowing with inner light; Happiness and joy - the yearning of our souls, awakening our sight from all directions to witness a delicate balance and sacredness in nature.

When we assume hummingbird consciousness, what might this tiny guide bring into our lives? An awakening to the simple and profound pleasures of creation. We can hover at moments in our lives, freezing them in time like my childhood adventure, which reminds me that beauty is right in front of my eyes if I only take time to observe and savor.

The hummingbird offers the possibility to travel in any direction, It is the only bird that can fly forward, backward, up and down and side to side, and hover in air. The hummingbird can only fly, not walk. Alighting on a branch, sitting very still before lifting off, it cannot move its tiny feet at all. It must fly.

Where must I fly? --- Backward to savor my past? A new direction? New realms? What might I see that I don't see? Where am I not flexible? Where are the flowers and nectar in my life? Where is the source of my own nourishment ? Is this little bird my connection to the Divine, a messenger from both heaven and earth? Is it here to bring me clarity, joy, new focus and direction? Will it bring me back to my natural realm, my natural currents? This tiny hummingbird inspires my imagination, and I ask, "What is possible?"

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