When I was with the green hummingbird, it became the company I didn’t know I needed. We spent our mornings together, and after it went its way, I read and wrote.

…a hummingbird, essential company in the endless journey through dead-ends, restarts, and new beginnings – as well as a reminder of the beauty of the world, the power of the sun, the rain, love, and life, all packed inside the body of a creature that weighs less than an ounce. A sign that within the smallest detail, the whole world is present, and just as the gravity and magnificence of life is present in the mountains, oceans, stars, and everything larger than life, it is also brilliantly present in its smallest bird.
~Zito Madu from “Hummingbirds are Wondrous” in Plough

While weeding in the garden tonight,
my husband found a dead hummingbird,
wings spread as if still in flight
yet bold hum and chirp gone –

dear little bird, so quiet and alone,
as if it simply dropped from the sky,
a wee bit of fluff and stardust.

Wondrous detail and essence
is best seen immobilized by death –
its little heart no longer races,
its lungs empty,
its wings stilled.

– from a Death
comes a reminder of the joys
which overwhelm all sorrows of this world –

a world God-breathed with His gentle and radiant beauty.