Some Days

Some days, you tell a story because you took a picture.

Other days, you take a picture so you can tell a story. These are the infant plumbs in our front yard, but the story I want to tell is about 'changes of heart'.

Today's story is about a hummingbird, but it begins with red ants. I have vivid memories of the first time I decided to kill red ants, as a little girl in California. My heart said not to kill them, and to leave them alone. My head said they were bad and bit and caused pain, kill them. My head won and I've been killing bugs ever since, but I still have this icky feeling when I step a little wider so that I can kill a bug, instead of walking around it.

I saw a cat run by today, not my cat, a cat in another town. It appeared to be carrying something in it's mouth and I imagined it to be a mouse or a snake or something. I happened to be going in the same direction the cat was going, and when I got there, the cat was under a car peering out at the wee creature laying on it's side on the ground. A beautiful, tiny hummingbird lay there panting and looking stunned. I considered that it may have puncture wounds and remembered the little baby rabbit that my cat had caught years before, and the sad feeling I had when it died in a towel on my lap. I heard the thought, 'put it out of it's misery' scamper through my mind, but I was thinking that I've grown tired of killing bugs and had no desire to give up on this little bird. Knowing they are sometimes just stunned and will fly away if given time, I pushed the cat away and picked it up in my hand. I've never held such a wee bird before.

Instantly, it lifted it's head, and with the longest beak ever, it looked right at me and let out a clear 'peep', then laid it's head down. As I pondered what on earth I would do with it, it lifted it's head and cried out again, as if to say, "I'm still here, I'm counting on you".

My greatest goal was to get it out of reach of the cat, but since cats jump and climb, that didn't seem possible if I stayed close by, so I got in the car, holding my wee treasure, and drove a few blocks away to a veterinarian. I had no expectation that I could nurse it back to health if it were injured and thought they may have some experience with it. I asked God if He would please give it life and cause it to fly away.

Getting out of the car and walking toward the building, I marveled at the little tiny, still breathing, eye open, little creature laying in my hand. I walked in and told them I had taken it from a cat. Instinctively, the lady behind the counter reached out to take it from me, and instantly, it flew into the air, bounced off a window and flitted about their office.

Did I ever feel stupid. A feeling that grew roots when the older gentleman in the corner rolled his eyes and said, "now that was a real good idea, wasn't it". I found myself saying only, "sorry, I'm so sorry" while the little guy had half the people waiting in line with their pets, trying to catch the little guy. I just stood there thinking, "I sure hope someone knows what to do now".

Sure enough, an experienced hummingbird catcher was among the hunters, and she quickly ended it's flight and carried it outside, being very kind to me as she passed. Outside, she handed it to a young lady, who seemed to be her daughter, and told her that it would fly away when it recovered from being stunned, then the hummingbird catcher walked back inside.

I said, 'thank you very much...bless you!' and got in my car and drove away. I watched as the young lady stood with wonder looking at the gem in her hands, thinking about how I would have felt at that age if someone had handed me a hummingbird and walked away.

Magical, is the feeling I imagine it would be.