Life Lessons from the Hummingbirds

Our little group of ruby-throated hummingbirds continue to delight us. They have become welcomed-although sometimes noisy--companions for our porch-sitting as they buzz about fighting over the flowers in the garden and the nectar feeder.

It seems that in our garden, the hummingbirds and cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) are inextricable. The hummingbirds appear in early summer, just in advance of the cardinal flowers blooming, and they leave when the cardinal flowers finish.

Cardinal flower in mid-summer

So as I look out the window and see the red cardinal flowers with just a few blossoms left, I know that any day now, I'll no longer be joined on the porch by those busy, little birds. They will be on their way to their wintering spot in Mexico or Central America. I appreciate them more every day now, knowing that they will be gone soon.

Cardinal flower now.

It would be easy to be sad thinking that the hummingbirds and cardinal flowers will soon be gone and that the cold, short days of winter are just around the corner. But instead of being sad, I'll focus on enjoying each day that the hummingbirds are here, and when they are not, I'll enjoy the bright orange and yellows of the mums and pansies that we will be planting soon. And not long after that, the first of the hellebores will be budding out, followed soon by the festive white bells of the edgeworthia, and so on. Seasons come and go, and every season has something wonderful to offer a gardener.

But for today, I hear that familiar buzzing on the porch and I will sit with the hummingbirds.