Cardinal & Hummingbird: A Full 4 Seasons

It was a year. Cardinal and Hummingbird. Hummingbird and Cardinal. Birds of a feather. Flying most days and nights…together. Their first flights were as expected…jumpy, Cardinal continuously rubbing his wings together, nervous of the new friend…new flight. And Hummingbird equally nervous desperately trying to be still. To take it all in. To not fear what could be. She could often be heard humming to herself, "believe it or not, I’m walking on air, I thought I never could feel so free-eeee!”

Rituals evolved: a late-night bird squawk; beak rubs and feather scratches; midday bird-beak texts written on sandy ground; recordings of bird sounds (his favorite were actually the softer and soother sounds like those of Squiggly Backs or Chipping Sparrows or House Finches, not those of Grackles and Starlings); a breaking of seed, and a weekend catch-up full of tales of past and present:

Hummingbird: (present) You would not believe what that bird from Utah did?
Cardinal: Did she comment on how your flight is energetic and …sexy?
Hummingbird: Um…well, actually, yes, but in a perverse, back-handed, judgmental and insecure way…

Hummingbird: (past) When you were with your siblings….
Cardinal: Don’t remember.
Hummingbird: Nothing?
Cardinal: Nope.
Hummingbirds: Well, nothing about your nest-mates, flight-school..nothing?
Cardinal: I remember I don’t remember.

Sometimes, they would take long flights to other towns and other territories visiting friends or family. On some of these travels in great part, because Hummingbird could not handle silence the way she couldn’t handle stillness, she would make up games.

"Okay so…Cardinal tell your Top 5 dwellings." And somewhat begrudgingly (but not really) Cardinal would share his: Top 5 Dwellings (all were nests but different views).

Hummingbird would ask lots of Top 5 Lists filling space, creating connections.
“Okay, Top 5 Seeds” (Cardinal loved sunflower the best, with white proso millet not far behind. Hummingbird was more of a nectar, sugar-water lover, they rarely shared food); “Top 5 Stretches ,” (Cardinal-Pigeon Stretch, Hummingbird- Full Locust Pose); “Top 5 Hopes & Dreams”

Hummingbird:
• Find some stillness
• Write a bird-book
• Maybe have a bird or beast sanctuary for the left-behind, the bruised and the broken
• Have a life-long wing-man
• Maybe create (by dropping seed) gardens of flowers in places where there were none
Cardinal:
• live near the water
• make sure to have enough of a seed stash to get thru season-after-season
• make sure those closest to him are able to create their own nests, their own stories
• start a new Bird Business (Infinity Seed – Never a Shortage!!)

Cardinal struggled with the last one. In Hummingbird’s small, but mighty mind (or was it heart?) she was hoping he might say “find a permanent life-flight partner”, or.. or.. maybe he might say “share the seasons with a Hummer” or…

That’s the thing about Cardinal. Lately, he was about the now. The present. The thought of other nests and other flight patterns were not part of his workout plan. And understandable. Cardinal was leaving one life and shifting into another. Still, when Cardinal laid his head on Hummingbird’s heart or when their wings would touch mid-flight or when after a night of ‘birds & bees’ they would lie together in peace and ease, she secretly hoped for...forever.

Her dad, a hummingbird of a different generation who hummed opera and preened his feathers with tree sap so they were sleek and shiny, would say to her, “Love you. FAOD. Forever and one day”.

So, as Cardinal & Hummingbird began their second summer together, Hummingbird let her dad’s words be the guide. “One day, each day, might lead to forever."

And with that Hummingbird began to sun her self under the early morning light, waiting for Cardinal to call.