Hummingbird visiting you
A hummingbird that zips right up to you seems like a gift from the garden. Its life runs on a strict energy budget, and the visit is a good excuse to look at how you spend your own strength and when you refill it.
What it may mean
A hummingbird lives closer to empty than almost any other animal. It burns energy so fast that it has to feed every few minutes through the day, and on cold nights it drops into torpor, a deep rest in which its heartbeat and body temperature fall sharply until morning. That mix of all-out effort and real shutdown is worth noticing when one zooms past you. How do you refill your own tank, and do you let yourself rest that deeply, or do you only slow down a little and call it rest? Readings of the bird vary from person to person, and for many it is simply a happy surprise. Still, a creature this small that knows exactly when to stop has something to say about the week you are having.
Depending on how you saw it
Checking out your red shirt
Hummingbirds learn to look for red and orange flowers, so a red cap, shirt or garden hose can send one zipping up to inspect you. It checks, finds no nectar and leaves at once. You might ask what you keep going back to out of habit, long after you learned there is nothing there for you.
Two hummingbirds chasing each other
The high-speed chases around a flower bed are nearly always fights over food. A single male may guard one patch all day and spend much of his energy keeping others away. It may be worth asking whether something you guard so carefully still repays what it costs you to defend it.
One resting on a twig
People rarely picture a hummingbird sitting still, yet hummingbirds pass most of the day perched, digesting and watching. A resting hummingbird looks almost ordinary. Which of your own pauses do you count as wasted time, when they might be part of the work?
The first one of spring
Ruby-throated hummingbirds come back to the eastern United States each spring after a long migration, some crossing hundreds of miles of open water in a single flight. The first one at the flowers can feel like a date on the calendar. Use it as a marker: what did you carry through the winter that you are free to set aside now?
Why it happens in nature
Hummingbirds hover by moving their wings in a figure eight, about 50 beats a second in the ruby-throated hummingbird, which is what makes the humming sound. They drink nectar for fuel and catch small insects for protein. They have excellent color vision and remember where they found food, often returning to the same yard after migration.
To reflect on
When did you last rest as completely as you work?