Hummingbird Tales

I saw it all from my green sky.

I had no more alphabet

that the swallows in their courses,

the tiny shining water

of the small bird on fire

which dances out of the pollen. 

- Pablo Neruda

If we consider possibility that dinosaurs evolved into birds, imagine Brontosaurus Rex shrink into a hummingbird body. What a change had to occur from a bulky creature who walked on thick legs and shook the earth with each step? 

An amazement of technology, a hummingbird can fly upside down and backwards while dipping its beak and tongue into flower nectar.

Where did the jewel of glitter first open its eyes? In Peru and other South American countries a variety of hummingbirds exist. They went to the rain forest and the high peaks of the Andes. They arrived in Argentina and Mexico. One species even made it to Alaska.

The Quechan people of present-day Ecuador tell stories of how the hummingbird represents a variety of attributes such as wisdom, optimism and agility. One story tells of a fire in a forest where many animals live. The hummingbird carries single drops of water back and forth from the pond to try to put out the firs. When the other animals ask why, the bird replies, "I am doing what I can."

Creative Write: What story could you craft today about an animal "doing what it can?"

Story in Five Lines

Have fun creating a story in five lines.  Who knows, you might become inspired to expand it.  Try one each morning for a week.

First line           Title   (Make it intrigue the reader)

Second line     Two words to provide conflict

Third line          Three-words showing action taken

Fourth line        Four-word sentence describing a feeling about the title

Fifth line           Renames or describes the first line

Morning Challenge

Heron hunger

Time to fish

Search for a meal

No fin in sight

One Way Change

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves, otherwise we harden. ~ Goethe

What could you change today to avoid a "one way" habit?  Think about renewal as spring moves into summer.

Consider:

Take different routes to places all day.

Wear a forgotten piece of clothing.

Thank people for sharing their smiles.

See an old problem with rewewed solutions.

Think in couplets.

Eat with your fingers.

Sing your conversations.

Write like you mean it.

Write into YOU.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~ e.e. cummings

Three methods to learn wisdom: reflection, which is noblest; imitation, which is easiest; experience, which is the bitterest. 

-Confucius

Recall a ten year old self.  What did you believe?  How far have you grown from then? What do you take with you from that self?  What surprised you that you leaned?  Describe a growth experience that resulted from a disappointment.

Reflect upon events in your life where wisdom appeared after a struggle. If you returned to the scene of the event, how might you adjust your actions?

How often have you used imitation to add dimensions to your personality?

Write to explore yourself today.

Stimulate Your Curiosity

"There are things known and things unknown and between them, the doors." - Jim Morrison

Eleanor Roosevelt believed curiosity became a child's most useful gift. For Dorothy Parker curiosity cured boredom. She felt curiosity had no cure - thankfully. Albert Einstein claimed he had no talents. Life turned him "passionately curious."

Curiosity begins in wonder. It travels like sparks once the fire ignites. Even looking up the word will reveal something else along the way. Mysteries surround that we take for granted. While the media conjures negativity; our minds can search for positivity from the ruins.

By snagging a snapshot of attention, ideas leap in. I become a companion with the frame and wonder where it will lead. Playfulness and imagination extend the image.

What happens beyond the gate?

Words in response to pictures help reflect and interpret the world. They form a relationship. Sentences search a world of paradox and investigate mystery.

Barriers reveal portals to adventure.

Do you see the man of the sea hiding?

Creative Write: Take a walk and capture your curiosity with a collage of portals. Or, use the three above. Do a freewite to investigate their connections. Let stories and poems arise from one side of the entrance to the other.

Verb Your Nouns

Frolic with creativity and verb your nouns. Choose a beakful of nouns and propel them into action.
Exaggerate. Play. Propagate.

Energize with these.

sparrow   Sparrow your worries to sleep.

nasturtium:  Did you ever nasturtium an idea into story?

sunshine  Sunshine your shoes.





purple:  Purple an idea into a poem.





beetle:    Beetle for fun. What happens if you beedeedle?

falcon:    Just falcon an adventure.

poppy:  Poppy around the town!

wing:  Wing the day!

What arrives . . . instead.

The deer they said would be there at dawn

never appeared

but the dawn mist instead.

Always something instead

like the little brown pebble on the porch

that turned out to be a frog.

Things that arrive on their own . . .

                  -  Tony Hoagland

How often do we chase somethings then others appear instead? They lead us to a greater adventure. Recognize the fun of impulses, opportunities and insteads.

Ask questions instead of searching for answers. Delve into the unexplored. Make friends with uncertainty instead of the usual.

Stay in the moment.





Find nuances in ordinary.




What's in an eye gleam?

Don't miss the obvious in shapes, scents and sounds. 

Notice what flutters in unexpected places. 

Experience the shadows.

Squint, alter and go wild into colorness.

Creative Write: Write about what arrived . . . instead of what you expected.