How are you all doing these days? Coping with the existence of Covid? Tolerating the new school procedures and policies resulting from it? Avoiding the riots and destructive behaviors that go along with it? Digesting the divisive nature of the media? And then we have the two lovely presidential candidates. Wow.
Well, this post isn’t addressing any of that.
What To Write?
I haven’t written for a while. I haven’t been able to come up with anything pleasant to share, something that doesn’t make my head hurt. So much going on in the world that makes my brain ache with concern. And a few hurtful things directly around me too. Ug.
But now I have material to share. Another example of God using nature to bring a smile, a warm fuzzy or a quiet hello. A message of hope, if you will.
I have written about this before. In a post named Nature’s Messages, I talked about how certain beautiful creatures represent loved ones I have lost. I think of my mom when a beautiful butterfly flutters around my head. My father in law comes to mind when I see a strong and stately elk.
And now I have representation for my friend Lori. Let me tell you how this came to be and how her memory lingers.
Just Be. A Moment As Friends
Last summer, the summer of 2019, Lori still functioned well even though she lived with a brain tumor for over a year. Her husband went to Colorado for a vacation with their sons while Lori stayed home with their daughter.
I invited these two lovely ladies over for supper while the boys were gone. We were just sitting down to eat when a humming bird settled on the feeder just outside the window next to us. We stopped for a moment to marvel at its beauty, to watch the tiny bird get its fill and then fly off. It was just a moment or two of solitude, long enough for me to soak it in and treasure it. I appreciated this experience with a friend I knew probably wouldn’t be around for another summer.
The Humming Bird Is The One
And in that moment I decided that the humming bird would be the chosen creature. In the future I would think of Lori whenever I saw a humming bird, remembering the moment toward the end of her life when we watched the bird together. And remembering what a good friend I had in her.
So this past spring the humming birds came around again. Ever since, thy land on my feeder and slurp up its contents. They buzz around outside my window, keeping guard over the feeder and chasing away any other birds that might come near. Sometimes they perch on the nearby power line to keep watch as well. At times they eat directly from my flowers, creating a picture one might see in a magazine. I am always amazed by them. And I always think of Lori.
After several months of watching the humming birds and thinking of my friend, I encounter one in a unique way.
First Quiet Hello
One evening I was sitting on my front porch with my oldest son. We had been chatting, looking up things on our phones and sharing our finds. I was looking down at my phone when I saw something out of the corner of my eye, something moving. I looked up to see a humming bird just two feet in front of my face. It wasn’t flitting around nervously like they always do. It was suspended in mid air in one spot and looking directly at me.
I looked into its eyes for a second, expecting it to fly off, but it didn’t. It just hummed its wings and looked at me. I nervously said to my son, “Look at this”, never taking my eyes off the bird. I heard him say “Whoa, it’s just staying there and looking at you.” I watched it for a couple more seconds, and suddenly it was gone as fast as it came. It flew off into the distance. My son and I looked at each other in disbelief, remarking about how strange that was.
Later that evening I suddenly connected Lori to that hovering humming bird. Could that have been a quiet hello from a lost friend? I don’t believe in reincarnation or people still walking the earth after they die. But I like to think God used that humming bird to comfort me, to reassure me that she lives on in her family and in a better place.
Second Quiet Hello
A couple weeks later I was watching the birds on the feeder outside my window. This is the same window where Lori and I stood to watch them the summer before. Usually they eat and play and buzz around not realizing that any human stands close by. But this time a female bird came right up to the window where I stood on the other side. She hovered in one spot again and just looked at me for 5 seconds. Another quiet hello. When she finally buzzed away, I smiled on the outside and inside.
Still Interacting
So not only do I think of Lori often, I feel like she knows I am thinking about her. And maybe she even responds back through the hum of a tiny beautiful bird. Or at least God is responding for her, reminding me that loved ones don’t ever completely disappear. They live on in our every day lives in many special ways. And of course in our hearts. I will take any quiet hellos thrown my way.
