Lessons with a Hummingbird

This morning I was sitting on our front porch listening to the rain in the trees. Humid and cool, the breeze made my soft sweater seem even more cozy. Sipping my tea, letting my mind wander for a few minutes before I got started with my day. 

Then I saw it: the quick flit of a hummingbird zoom in my peripheral vision. I looked over and there she was. Humming as she went finding nourishment from our shrimp plants (which is the flower on the banner of this page). She flitted to a few more and was gone. My eyes were already filled with tears. I cry every single time I see a hummingbird. I'm not really sure why. Are they too cute? Too beautiful? Too mysterious? I have no idea why but they fill me with so much emotion I cannot contain it. Just the act of the hummingbird doing what it was created to do brings me to tears.

A minute or two later my mind had wandered to how beautiful it is when a person finds their work, their purpose, and does what they were created to do. We each have a unique purpose, a calling on our lives and gifts we were given to fill that purpose.  

My mom comes to mind when thinking about purpose and calling. She only ever wanted to be a mom. She stayed home with my brother and I until we were in school and then worked at our school until we grew up and moved on to middle school. What is so interesting to me is that she continues to mother. Mommas come into the front office of the school she works at and she mothers them. She mothers her Sunday school students. She (grand)mothers my daughter and still mothers me because Lord knows I need it. Her purpose did not end when her children grew up... her purpose and her gifts are still the same and she continues to use them. 

Our gifts and purpose do not always correlate with monetary compensation. Maybe the most beautiful, sacred parts of our purpose are the parts no one notices. Those moments of magic when the flow is what it is, a sacred dance of worship when we simply do what we were created to do.