Drinking in Joy

Reading from the 05/28/2016 Restorative/Yoga Nidra class


From an article in "Spirituality and Health" magazine by Randi Ragan

"One summer not long ago, I was in my backyard watering a row of sunflowers.  It was at the end of a hot day and I enjoyed the pleasure of getting splashed; the cool water felt good against my dusty toes.  I pushed my thumb against the hose opening to create an arcing spray that reached out in front of me by ten or fifteen feet.

My mind drifted as I enjoyed playing with the water; the last rays of sun caused it to sparkle if I angled it just so.  Slowly I became aware of a hummingbird swooping through the ends of the water spray.  He'd fly through, disappear, and a few seconds later, reappear, and repeat the process.  To the Native Americans the hummingbird is Joy, so I received my visitor as a welcome gift.  Delighted, I held the stream as steady as I could, held my breath, and stood very still.

In a split second, the water caught him just so and slammed him to the ground.  I dropped the hose and ran to find him.  He was lying soaked on the grass, with his eyes open, barely breathing, in a state of drowning.  I hesitated a moment.

Then without thinking it through, I gently scooped up the little bird up in my hands and made a covered tent out of my palms.  He was utterly still.  I held him close to my mouth, whispered to him not to die, and began slowly exhaling hot breath on him.  I don't know for how long I did this, maybe a minute, maybe two.  I had never performed mouth to mouth resuscitation on a human before, much less on a tiny bird.  His little chest eventually fluttered and heaved and he blinked several times.  Hummingbird Joy then rolled over and seemed to be steadying himself on my open hand.

After a few moments, he flew away, but not before cocking his head and looking at me square in the eyes with his own small black buttons. I watched him fly up to the top of a nearby tree.  He chittered for a bit and then buzzed off.

I bowed to the spirit of the bird that allowed him to surrender and let himself be saved (by a hot-breathed giant no less), and his innate impulse to get up and fly again.  Joy comes, joy falters, joy abides.  Joy contains the essence of possibility."