Once we lived on ten acres of wooded hillside.
The spacious windows in our split level native stone home looked up and down
the hills that were dotted with gnarly old Black Jack Oaks. One day while
sitting at the window watching the birds at the feeder I noticed a hummingbird
that seem to be struggling at the sweet water feeder. The hummingbird’s wings fluttered, then its
tiny body fell slightly, as if it couldn’t back out of the feeder. I soon realized that the bird’s tiny beak was
stuck in the feeder.
I rushed to the rescue. Upon climbing the kitchen ladder I
noticed that large black ants filled the feeder. The hummingbird’s beak
apparently had stuck an ant inside the sweet water and couldn’t pull back out.
I watched the tiny bird fight to back out. Slowly, I lifted by arm and hand to
the bird. Placing my hand around the
tiny bird to help in some way, I held it still and felt the beating heart
hammering in a body the size of my thumb. But nothing I could do helped. At
last, I pulled the hummingbird away from the feeder breaking his beak in the
process.
I cried for the injured bird, and screamed
and kicked the dirt at the black ants who’d caused this pain. I carried the
tiny bird in the palm of my hand for a few minutes, feeling his heart beat and
tiny flutters of his wings before he died. Then I placed him in my pink bougainvillea
growing in the back yard.
With tears running down my cheeks I thought
of an old story about the Elephant and the Hummingbird.
Once when elephant went walking through the jungle he saw
a tiny hummingbird lying flat on its back along the path. The bird’s feet were raised up into the air.
“What on earth are you doing?” chuckled the elephant?
Hummingbird replied, “Didn’t you hear? The sky might fall today
and if that should happen, I’m ready to do my part to hold it up.”
Elephant looked upwards and saw the heavy gray clouds.
Then he laughed and mocked at the tiny bird, “So you think those tiny feet of
yours could hold up that sky?”
“No, not alone I can’t, but with a little help from my
friends we can. What will you do elephant?"
