Hummingbird, hummingbird should be your name
Too restless to settle, too wild to tame
- Leon Russel
I am watching a documentary on public television about hummingbirds. I love birds to begin with but hummingbirds are my favorite. I am fascinated with their colors, watching their young, and most of all their ability to fly. My husband has always been interested in aviation and held a pilot's license for a while. He wanted me to get my pilot's license too. I went to ground school and learned all the rules and regulations of flying. I took flight lessons. I soloed. But I didn't have a passion for it.
I do remember the dreams I had when I was little, that if I went running down a flight of stairs and leaped down the last few, arms spread, I would be able to take off soaring. THAT I have a passion for. I love to watch birds in flight. I would give anything to be able to fly in that manner.
Some cultures believe in totem animals. I have a deep connection to this tiny little bird, enough so that I know it is my totem animal and for that reason, I had it tattooed on my leg. Hummingbirds have long been considered a symbol of infinity - and science can now show that their wings allow them to hover by moving in a figure ∞ . They are also considered symbols of healing and resurrection because although they need to eat almost constantly during the day to stay alive, they can stop eating at night and can survive very cold nights. This is because they enter a state of "tupor" in which their body temperature lowers nightly to match the surrounding temperature, and its heartbeat slows dramatically. Then in the morning warmth, the small bird warms back up again and resumes its normal heart rate.
But the real reason I love these birds is because they are rarely still. They are constantly moving from one thing to the next to the next to the next. And I understand that. I feel it. I feel I am flying with it. I feel what I do mirrors it. They are delicate and breathless.
And they are the only living creature than can capture light and color.
They are Joy.
