The Gift of Costas

Today I was focused on much studying I needed to get done for an exam this week, completing my "to do" list and checking off errands completed.  Throughout my self-imposed schedule I felt myself hurrying when I didn't need to.  I caught myself feeling tense when I didn't have to be, and I began to fine tune what I needed to hear...peace.  Peace be still.  I began to take some breaths and remove my foot from the accelerator of my vehicle.  I slowed to below the speed limit and stopped racing by the world around me.  I completed my list in ample time and when I got home, I stopped.  I stopped to listen, listen to the falling leaves, listen to the goldfinches at the feeder, and then I saw him.  By the time I returned to the window, he was gone, but I knew he would be back, because he was a gift for the patient, and for those who live in a harmonic balance of peace and productivity.  In the course of many minutes I slowed to set the camera and took intermittant glances out the window.  I set the camera down, sat and studied for awhile.  Then back to the window with camera ready, he appeared.  A tiny bird in full frame with long beautiful black-purple feathers trailing along each side of his cheeks.  He hovered for me and I took him in with long glances and I smiled at the gift three feet from my eyes.  A male Costas hummingbird was enjoying the nectar from winter flowers I had planted so he and his kind could have year round food at my place.  And now, the flowers were yielding a special harvest on a day where productivity and peace were placed back into balance so that a Costas gift could be noticed, appreciated, and enjoyed.