Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Hummingbirds

This morning I was having a cup of coffee on my deck.
I was listening to the water in my garden fountain and writing in my journal.
Suddenly, a small hummingbird flew up to the pink ivy geranium plant
which was about five feet in front of me. 


Now I had seen the little one out there a time or two this summer.
But this morning its arrival brought a surprise.
A day ago, I was thinking about my husband's mother
who passed away ten years ago. 
We still miss her terribly.
The twilight of a summer day sometimes make me melancholy,
so I had been thinking of her, feeling the loss,
wondering if her spirit was still near.


She always had a great number of hummingbirds at her front porch feeders,
and many mornings we had coffee together there and watched the hummingbirds.
So when I saw the hummingbird this morning, 
I wondered if it was a sign from her that she was still with us. 
I immediately dismissed the idea as wishful thinking.
But a moment later, the hummingbird veered away from the geranium blossoms
and flew right at me and hovered there in front of me
within several inches of my forehead.
Too close for comfort, really.
I could feel the vibration from its wings.
For a second, I wondered if it could have seriously mistaken me for a flower 
and my heart pounded as I waited to see if it was going to go for my head.


But after what seemed an eternity,
the little hummingbird flew off and lit on an oak branch nearby
and preened for several moments.
I turned back to my journal, 
looked again, and the messenger was gone.
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