A couple springs ago, my husband and I discovered a miniature round nest adeptly stuccoed to a small tree branch overhanging our patio. Using binoculars, we saw two still and wide-eyed hummingbirds peeking out (zoom photo above). Every so often we’d hear and see mama as she hovered to feed them.
A few days later, the nest was empty. Although we missed the vicarious joy of following their development, we were grateful to witness their launch into flight–the journey for which they were born. Coincidentally or synchronistically, we are witnessing in the same week, our two young-adult children flying to new lands to begin new jobs. I love our metaphoric connection to Nature.
The mirror is so enlightening…
What can hummingbirds teach us? Amazingly, a hummer that’s just hatched has no memory of past migrations, only an urge to fuel up and fly in a particular direction for a certain amount of time, then look for a good place to spend the winter. They are fully capable of traveling astounding distances on their own tiny wings; it is generally accepted most fly non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico in the spring and retrace their flight in late summer/early fall.
What about your launch into flight? Where are you in the process of a hummingbird journey? Sitting in stillness and opening to receive inner nourishment in preparation? Sensing the inner urge to leave your familiar nest and take flight? Flying in the direction that you feel called without knowing why or the way? Looking for a good place to spend some time? This month’s meditation is designed to guide you to your natural insights. Please join me…
Written Form of above Meditation
You Have Permission to Use This meditation with Others with Credit to
The RIM® Institute and Dr. Deb Sandella ©️2013
Many Thanks!
Feeling the warmth of the sun… I breath more deeply… and relax into myself and let out a sign of relief…ahhh… I know I am safe here inside my body… My eyes close gently and my inner vision turns “on.”…my attention gradually settles down inside… into the center of my being… as I breath in through this center spot and exhale out of my back.I notice how the waves of breath come in and flow out through every cell… from the top of my head to the soles of my feet…As I’m astutely aware of energy flowing… in me and around me… my imagination escorts me on a joyful hummingbird journey…In stillness, I rest and receive all the Goodness and satisfying nourishment of Life itself.
Taking my time… I notice how good it feels… as the warmth of the sun and the vitality of Nature fills up my physical body… just like a SCE flowing all the way down into my feet and toes and continuing upward through my ankles and legs… up into my pelvis and abdomen… it fills my torso and chest… and my shoulders and arms receive the flow all the way out to the tips of my fingers. Up into my throat and face… filling my head and my brain until every cell in my body is recharged like a battery.
And I Sense inside by body, an inner urge to explore. Moving my attention into this energy, I let it lift me up and out of the usual and into unknown territory that call me to it… hmmm… as I soar I enjoy sensing images of juicy new lands, uplifting thoughts and compassionate feelings, as my feel-good hormones rise quickly and my body responds with pleasure…
With this exciting new sense of exploration, I find a place to rest in my body where I’ve never been before… maybe in the space right between my eyebrows or the center of my heart or the spaces between toes… as I feel an immense joy of adventure…
Much Love,
Dr Deb
Larry
This was lovely.
Just the respite I didn’t know I needed.
❤️
Dr. Deb Sandella
So happy it was helpful, Larry!
Debra MacKillop
The newest “hummingbirds taking flight” focused on exactly what I, and probably many, are struggling with. I am making new plans to move to a more rural wilderness area of my state (I do have some family there) and get away from the city traffic, congestion, high cost of living, and some sad memories. But it’s not easy, the process is hard and uncertain how to do it, and like the young birds, I feel called but how it unfolds is a bit of a natural-world mystery.
Dr. Deb Sandella
Thanks for sharing Debra. It is such a time of change and opportunity. Good for you for stretching into the new without knowing how. How does it feel having shared your specific journey? Usually, When we share our feelings with others it feels better. I hope your share with us feels more spacious even in the midst of not knowing.
Debra
Dr. Deb, what felt affirming was your theme of the young hummingbirds leaving the nest. No matter how old we are, we have many times of a “leaving the nest” feeling in life. About a decade ago, my last child (of 3 children) was leaving my nest, and I had been following online on a nature camera, 3 eaglets growing up in their nest. One day the nest was empty and the parents kept coming back to it to check it. Once one of the eaglets came back too, briefly. Like for you, I was struck by the metaphor for myself.
Debra
The newest “hummingbirds taking flight” focused on exactly what I, and probably many, are struggling with. I am making new plans to move to a more rural wilderness area of my state (I do have some family there) and get away from the city traffic, congestion, high cost of living, and some sad memories. But it’s not easy, the process is hard and uncertain how to do it, and like the young birds, I feel called but how it unfolds is a bit of a natural-world mystery.