How Can You Be Like The Hummingbird This Year?
This Story Is All About Hope In Hard Times & The Power Of Small Actions.
Hummingbirds hold a lot of significance for me. Not only are they beautiful, delicate creatures but they remind me of my mom. Shortly after she died, a hummingbird would often visit my window, which I took as a sign that she was looking in on me. Years later, when I was working on my book, Superman’s Not Coming, another hummingbird would visit my office.
These creatures get their name from the humming sound their wings make as they fly. Hummingbirds have incredibly flexible shoulder joints which allow their wings to rotate 180 degrees, giving them the ability to fly backward and helping them characteristically hover in midair. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is!
The Story of The Hummingbird
One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest, and a huge woodland area was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire, feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire.
One of the animals suddenly noticed a small hummingbird at the stream. It swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again.
All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Why bother?” “You are so small, you can put out this fire.”
As the animals stood around disparaging the tiny bird’s efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked.
Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the little hummingbird in a
mocking voice, “What do you think you are doing?”
The hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back at the crowd of animals and said, “I am doing what I can.”
Happy New Year, everyone! Let us know in the comment how you will be more like the hummingbird this year? What’s one small action you can to take?
I have been trying to educate and protect others about the health risks associated with Fog Machines used by bands at live music events, hoping restrictions might be implemented to protect the many who are unaware of the air poisons introduced by the machines that are making people sick.
. . . or as Greta Thunberg said, "No one is too small to make a difference".
Thank you for this beautiful piece!