Hummingbird

My New Year's resolution is to be a hummingbird.

Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation’s deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do.*

I'll admit that my natural state is more of a snarky, cynical vulture, so it is going to take all my effort to flit around the good, the possibility, the hope and the joy. Greg is famous for two phrases since we've been married. One is NEVER WORRY IN ADVANCE. The other is WE CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY. He has probably said them to me a thousand times, usually at times when I'm not being happy (which makes me more mad) or when I'm anxious. But darn it all, he's right. Happiness is a choice. It is also a natural consequence of righteous action.

Yes, I still want to improve my freestyle (swimming, not rapping) and learn to make sticky rice and register for the stained glass class at Thanksgiving Point. I want to have a longer fuse when I argue with my daughter. I want to do yoga until I can touch my nose to my knees. I want to keep reading The Classics in hopes that I will have them all knocked out by the time I'm 40. But more than anything I want to be the hummingbird that chooses happiness regardless of the landscape below.

*Steve Goodier, Quote Magazine, in May, 1990 R.D.