Optimum Health Institute

The grounds are unusually beautiful with the branches of exotic (to me) carob and pepper trees and various palms spreading out over a brick courtyard bounded by lodgings and buildings of obvious Spanish influence with white stucco walls and romanesque windows. Bird of Paradise and Calla Lilies bloom in profusion with morning glories and nasturtiums, Bougainvillea and other flowering shrubs and plants too numerous to name. Hummingbirds abound and have built tiny hanging nests in many of the trees.

I enjoyed walking through the courtyard and gardens several times daily while staying there. Sometimes I came across the green, iridescent "hummers." No matter how often I see these fairy-like creatures, I always experience them as a gift of the gods. I never tire of seeing them; each one renews, awakens the sleeping spirit like the the hand of a joyful god.

With their metallic emerald backs and roseate throats and whitish underbellies, I believed they belong to the species said to be found most commonly in Southern California, Calypte Anna or Anna’s Hummingbird.

One day I was feeling a little downcast as I walked along a footpath through the gardens when a hummingbird suddenly appeared just a few inches from my face. Startled, I still had the presence of mind to stop at once. The little creature hovered in front of me, those diaphanous wings a blur of light, then darted off. . .

. . .Coming back again just as quickly, hovering near my face again. I could have touched it; my heart leapt up. It hovered for a while then darting away, stuck its bill and a bit of its head into a Hibiscus trumpet. . .Came out all covered with pollen and hovered near me again for several seconds before flying off.

My heart always bubbles with joy in the presence of these seemingly magical birds. They uplift my heart and pierce my consciousness with pure delight; help me to enjoy this creation and appreciate being alive. Like so many people, I find them very special creatures.

In many traditional cultures the hummingbird is a being of magic and spiritual significance and is sometimes empowered as a totem animal. In some of these societies the hummingbird is viewed as a symbol of resurrection, but quite often the hummingbird is seen to open our hearts, fill it with joy and teach us to laugh and sing and take delight in God’s creation. Indeed, one species is called the Sun Angel in Native American lore, which considers the "hummer" a joyful messenger.

However, this article is not about the fascinating world of hummingbirds and their species, habits and lore or even the wonderful spiritual significance of the bird in Native American and other traditional cultures (See Editor’s Note at end of article for some great hummingbird sites.

Rather, it is about my own, spiritual fascination with the hummingbird.

You see, I believe that we are in fact all part of one great consciousness, and that every part of that consciousness reflects all the other parts; sort of like a giant hologram. In this view, which reflects the essence of the spiritual thought and experience of many spiritual masters, mystics and poets (especially the English Romantics) as well as the thinking of certain modern physicists based on thoughtful studies of Quantum Mechanics, we are all one. Separation betwen self and others, self and God, self and all our complicated toys and stars is an illusion; yes, even parents and teenagers.

One of the main axioms of Quantum theory states that light is both a wave and a particle, suggesting to some scientists that light partakes of both matter and consciousness. In this regard it is interesting to note that sometimes the spiritual thought from previous human epochs presages some of modern science’s deepest insights into the nature of reality.

For example, I have always found the following passage written thousands of years ago in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata, very enlightening, especially from the point of view of Quantum theory:

From the slowness of our eye
And the quickness of God's hand
We believe in the world.

Thus it suddenly occurred to me in a flash of intuition on a morning walk through the Institute's glorious flower garden as a hummingbird hovered inches from my face that we are each expressions of the other’s consciousness.

I experienced this through actual feeling and awareness, rather than from background reading, this unity of self and creation as expressed in the irrepressible antics of an emerald-backed, iridescent hummingbird.

I suppose all of the foregoing can really be considered notes to the following poem which I wrote during the time I spent at Institute. I would like to dedicate it to the late Rachel Solomon, the visionary founder of the Optimum Health Institute and also to one of the co-founders, Pamela Nees.

With a smile of remembrance, I also dedicate this poem to my late mother-in-law, Donna Dickinson Watson, who loved hummingbirds with a simple love that was perhaps unmindful that they reflected her own beauty and grace.

Hummingbird Summer

Stolen my heart in a hummingbird summer
Of Spanish courtyards and Olive trees
Bird of Paradise and Calla Lily,
Purple trailings of Morning Glory
And grace of palms in a peaceful sky;

Hummingbirds bloom in every blossom’s breath
Flickering of gold dust shook from tiny heads;
Fairy magicians
Glistening the morning light,
A sleight of hazy wings,
A sudden quickening of the heart's delight.

That summer so much too beautiful to bear;
Flying, dancing, humming, being,
Quickening in the cathedral light;
And soaring on some liquor divine,
Divinely mad!
A fool with wings!
The anointed messenger of the gods of play;

For now is the time
Stopped and still in the golden air
I see myself shining everywhere;

Still dancing with those sun angels,
Locked in that emerald embrace
My heart stood still before.

--Thomas Martin, June 2, 2002

Editor’s Notes: The fascination of humans with hummingbirds shows clearly on the Internet with over 454,000 documents appearing in a recent search on Google using just the search word, “hummingbird.”

Here are some of the sites that I enjoy and have found informative:

Hummingbirds.Net which has a great section on identifying the various species of "hummers."
The Hummingbird Society
Hummingbird.Net
The Hummingbird Website