Photo by Cedric Fox on Unsplash
If I lived in a world
where I didn't know
a willow tree as a willow tree
or sunflower as a sunflower
but instead named things
based on observation
the tree in our front yard
would be a hummingbird tree
All the year-round
no matter the weather
that tree has a visitor
the lovely hummingbird
of course, it has a name as well
but I'd call it persistence
the hummingbird and its tree
a mystical happy couple
There's so much we can learn just being present in nature. Sitting day after day looking out a window or walking through the woods or down a sidewalk looking for life. We can let ourselves become familiar with the world around us. Sometimes, I can get all caught up in the names of things but they really don't matter. They help us describe things. Many people know what a curly willow tree is. Calling it by its name limits the number of words we need to exchange information.
But wouldn't it be more lovely to describe? What does each person see or what do they compare it to? The tree in our front yard has dangly down limbs that swirl and curl. She's a tough old broad. A few years ago an ice storm left her split and ugly. We cut her down to about four feet. Today she's as lovely as she was before. Her prolific branches swirling up into the sky and tumbling down in their twisty way. Kind of reminds me of my hair some days. A bit of the wild side in that tree.
And, her friend Anna's Hummingbird with its an iridescent green coat and a fuchsia throat that flashes a bit of color when it turns just the right way. It flits in and out between the favored tree and the feeder. This morning it struggles against the gorge winds. It has to aim carefully and fly in bits to get to that feeder without crashing into the window. I think those skills are born into their nature. After all, I've never seen one hit the window no matter how hard that darned old wind tries.
I urge you to spend a little time today watching something outside. Learn its nature and maybe give it a name. It's a light exercise, one to feed the soul.
Happy Thursday
Victoria