“unwrapped gifts and free surprises”

Again it’s hummingbirds that call me to “pay attention and be astonished” as the poet puts it.[1]  The dogs and I were lying in the front yard on the tiny bit of lawn. Around us a Native Plant Garden started a couple of years ago to attract birds, bees, butterflies, and assorted creepy-crawlies. Looking up, straight into the bright blue sky, I noticed the hummingbird feeder, two-thirds filled with half-strength sugar water. Crowded around its imitation flower petals, scurrying back and forth, a ‘plague’ of greedy wasps.

In short, nothing much going on.

Suddenly, with their familiar whirring sound, two Anna’s hummingbirds arrive . . . at once, darting in to draw up fake nectar . . . then leaning back as if perplexed by the rowdiness . . . soon buzzing backwards and upwards, helicopter-like . . . returning seconds later to claim rightful access . . . when, as if to say “I can’t be bothered to compete”, one abruptly zigzags 8 feet to the left . . . descending on a butterfly bush in full ‘Adonis blue’ . . . dipping its tongue in and out 12 to 18 times a second (so we’re told), lingering over each tiny blossom without a care in the world.

I’m spellbound. And to think, that during that short span of time I could’ve been wandering, aimlessly, in a mindless world of my own fabrication. 

Annie Dillard writes, “There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But — and this is the point — who gets excited by a mere penny?

[…] But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple.” [2]

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[1] The full quote reads, “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Oliver, Mary. (2008). Red bird: Poems, p. 37. [2] In: Albanese, C.L. (2001). American spiritualities: A reader, p. 441. Photo credit: From the Internet without a source.