Of Hummingbirds & Humility

/ Ally Bean

screen-shot-2016-10-21-at-7-41-34-amI was dive-bombed by a hummingbird the other morning.

I was wearing a bright pink fleece jacket, sitting outside on our deck in the sunshine, drinking coffee from a red mug.

I was lost in serious thought pondering what I might write about next on this blog, when *flutter, flutter, flutter* a small energetic little bird started diving at me.

I knew that the bird was a hummingbird;  there are lots of them in the wooded ravine behind our house.

They flit around.  You cannot miss them.

I knew that to this little bird I must look like the biggest darned flower in the land, a doozy of a good find.

I tried to sit still hoping that the little bird would tire of attacking me, but you know what?  That little bugger just kept going.  The Energizer Bunny should be so determined.

Eventually I decided to *shoo* the hummingbird away from me because I needed to sip my coffee while it was hot to get my brain going.  I had important things to think about like the topic of my next blog post.

But of course my brain, that can be a tad self-absorbed and egotistical, was blinding me to the obvious.

That is, the topic of this post was making itself known, quietly, right in front of me.  A humble little idea showing me the way, while at the same time reminding me of the basic premise of The Spectacled Bean.

A premise I explain thusly:

  • be here now;
  • make sense of what you’re seeing | feeling | experiencing;  then
  • write about it.

In other words, PAY ATTENTION.  Life is in the details, and that’s where you’ll find the best stories.

Always.

42 thoughts on “Of Hummingbirds & Humility”

  1. Very much a “Be in the now” sorta story 🙂
    We rarely see hummingbirds, and this year, the yucca that usually brings them to the picture window did not bloom (Iunno) and so we saw even fewer.

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    • joey, hummingbirds do well around here. I used to jump out of my skin when one came close, but I’ve learned to chill out when I see one. They fascinate me, and are so purposeful when they’re looking for nectar… which seems to be all the time.

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  2. Isn’t it amazing how the little things in life, the things we think are mundane, become a great story? I love hearing about the tenacity of your little humming bird. They are so cool to observe, and just sit still and enjoy. I’m finding that with our little grand. He is so much fun to just sit and watch. Playing to him is very serious. And things that seem boring, or inconsequential to me, are so interesting to him. Being a grandparent is so much fun!

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    • Beth, I’ve come to believe that all stories start with one detail and grow from there. I sometimes try to make myself think of what to write about here, but those posts never ring true to me so I don’t publish them. However a situation like this one with the hummingbird is the essence of my personal blogging philosophy. Like you said about being a grandparent, it’s all about watching what’s right in front of you.

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  3. We have tons of hummingbirds in the summer, and I never realized until this very year, that they make a very tiny chirping sound as communication. I have heard, barely and when it was very quite, the sound of the wings moving at top speed, but this year we seemed to have families coming by and they actually talk to each other… talk about being in the moment and attentive to life-I’m glad that I was able to hear them.

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    • Deb, I’ve heard the hummingbird wings make noise, but I don’t know if I’ve heard any chirps. I’m kind of curious about that now. You must have really been in the moment to hear that! The hummingbirds around here are an unexpected addition to my life. I didn’t know that they were this hardy, but they seem to make it through each winter and show up again in the spring.

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  4. You have a great philosophy for your blog posting. Here and now. I’m trying to do more of that too. We had a hummingbird come to our family reunion last year. It was not fazed by the 25 or so people on the porch either, just kept coming to that feeder. We were able to get some really cool pictures.

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    • Thanks Janet. Every once in a while I need to remind myself of what I’m doing here on this blog. Plus, not too long ago someone asked me how I find things to write about. Thought I’d answer here.

      Your story is amazing story. Hummingbirds are the coolest little birds, pretty + determined. What’s not to love?

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    • Stephanie, I know what you mean. We don’t have a feeder so I usually only see one or two at a time. But in a flock they can seem intense. I can only imagine how out of control they get with nectar in sight.

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  10. Of all the many things I learned about our society when I started working for The World’s Largest Retailer, one of them is that there is a very large subsection of the population that LOVES their hummingbirds. The feeders and the nectar are almost impossible to keep in stock during the warmer months. I think I’ve actually seen a hummingbird once in my life…. but we must have bunches of well fed ones around here, unless maybe people just drink that stuff for an extreme sugar rush…

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    • evilsquirrel13, interesting. I didn’t know that hummingbirds were so popular. One summer we tried to have a feeder on the deck but the squirrels learned how to tip the thing, causing the nectar to spill onto the grass below, where the squirrels ate the nectar. Clever squirrels spoiled my fun, as they are wont to do.

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  11. Is there anyone who doesn’t love a hummingbird?!
    To me they sound like giant bumblebees. Add them to the list of things that make me smile when I see one ❤
    Having said that, I've never been dive-bombed by one thinking I was an enormous flower 😉

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    • Z-D, now you’re just being silly. Having that little bird dive-bomb me wasn’t all that harrowing, but it did get me out of head and into the here-&-now… where the stories are aplenty.

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  14. Yes, BE THERE. Be present. Many years ago we had to watch a video of the Pike Place Market(Seattle) Fish throwers and their “Fish Philosophy.” I thought it would be dumb but I learned a lot from the precepts and was inspired by their joie de vivre.

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    • Margaret, that’s the message the little bird had to tell me: be present. I’ve heard of the “Fish Philosophy” but didn’t know what it was. I’ve been to Pike Place Market which was a cool place to visit. With lots of fish, of course.

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  17. Our hummingbirds have already taken off for warmer climes. And I miss them. You must be just enough South for them to be packing on the calories for the trip to Mexico and Panama (which is where most of our Ohio hummingbirds winter).

    They have jumped the gun a bit, though. We’re getting way up into the 70s today and tomorrow. Perfect Hummingbird Weather, and not very Novembery at all.

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    • nance, it’s in the 80s here today. This is so NOT November that I imagine the hummers haven’t even thought about moving south yet. I enjoy seeing them around so I can’t complain too much about the [ridiculous] weather. But… it’s weird.

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  18. I’ve just been catching up on the last half dozen posts and I’ve learned lots. One of the most important things being I must keep up more closely so that comments don’t close before I have time to comment 🙂 So glad you are keeping on keeping a blog. And Zazzy, in case you are reading, I miss you too.

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    • Polly, always good to hear from you. The blog continues, rather like a perpetual motion machine that can never entirely come to a stop. I write here less often now, but I still keep on keeping on, so I must like doing this. For some reason.

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