Feather Of Joy

I grew a garden this year. I’ve often thought of, and occasionally tried, to grow a garden. This year, I really grew one. I had a bit of a cheat head start, because my neighbors already made the raised garden bed, complete with gopher wire underneath to prevent, well, gophers.

Still, I mixed in the compost and new soil, with my hands no less. I started with gloves and also used a little shovel, but then tossed them aside to dig my hands into the soil to make it fresh. There’s something special about that I think. And, sure enough, weeks later I had an amazing garden of all kinds of edible plants. Nothing like going out into your garden only half dressed and picking fresh arugula to eat with eggs in the morning.

And, every morning, when I water my garden, I also fill the little bird bath there with water. I see the wild doves and hummingbirds there a lot. Woodpeckers too. I figure growing a friendship with the birds by giving them fresh water is sort of like growing a garden. They seem to like it.

Then, today, waiting for me in the almost empty bird bath, was a tiny feather. It is too small to be anything but a hummingbird feather. Imagine, a hummingbird left me a feather. I immediately thought he did so to thank me. A bit narcissistic of a thought perhaps, but I thought it, and saw no harm in thinking it either. In Native American folklore, the hummingbird is a symbol of “tireless joy and the nectar of life.”

As you can see in the picture, I placed it in my miniature sand dollar, the one with the hole in it. That was another miraculous little unexpected gift last year while beach combing during COVID.

I treasure these little gifts, truly, partly out of their unexpected discovery and mostly because, to me, they are little ways the universe or God slips into my otherwise 3-D reality and says: “I see you.” Nothing tops feeling seen by God. And, when I master the slippery slope of slowing down enough to hear God whisper hello, whether through a tiny feather or shell, I remember that I’m a little treasure in someone’s mind as well.