The Hummingbird Story

This story is probably going to be a little weird and gross to people but whatever.

First let me say that I watched and read The Velveteen Rabbit a lot as a kid.  If you've never read it it's a really depressing kids' book about a little boy who gets a stuffed rabbit for Christmas.  The fancier toys don't really like the stuffed rabbit, and a kind rocking horse tells the rabbit about being real vs being a toy.  A toy becomes real when its owner really and truly loves it.  Eventually the rabbit becomes the little boy's best friend and he gets shabbier and shabbier.  Then the little boy comes down with scarlet fever, and the rabbit is in his bed during the whole ordeal.  Once the boy recovers the doctor orders all of his clothes and bedding and things burned to avoid spreading the disease--including the rabbit.  But the rabbit falls out of the trash pile and avoids being burned, and he cries a real tear because he's so sad about the little boy having thrown him out.  Then a fairy comes and turns him into a real rabbit, and he gets to live happily ever after with the other real rabbits in the forest.

This story affected me deeply as a child.  It made me cry and it made me believe that all of my toys had souls, and would be sad if they were thrown out.  (This is why I have such an extensive stuffed animal collection . . . because I really can't throw them away).

Anyway.  I also believe that all real animals have souls and should be properly laid to rest, which brings me to my actual story.

The other day Jerbs and I were walking along the sidewalk in between Pita Jungle and Wildflower, and we saw a dead hummingbird.  I have never seen a hummingbird up close, and this one was so tiny and bright, and his neck was broken.  It made me so sad.  I decided he needed a better resting place than a sidewalk.  So I scooped him up with a bag I had in my purse and I put him in one of the big flower pots nearby.  So this little hummingbird had a beautiful resting place in the flowers and it made me feel like I'd done a good deed.

Then a few days ago Jerbs randomly told me that in Aztec lore, the heaven that Aztec warriors go to is different than the heaven other Aztecs go to.  The normal Aztec heaven is just heaven, but the Aztec warrior heaven is all flowers, and the warriors live on there as either butterflies or hummingbirds.  So the Aztecs believe that hummingbirds hold the spirits of their warriors.

I think that is so beautiful!  And what made it even more beautiful was when Jerbs explained that there are two kinds of Aztec warrior.  One is the actual Aztec warrior.  But the Aztec also consider women who die in childbirth to be warriors, which is awesome.

So I like to believe that little hummingbird I gave a beautiful spot to was the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth, and that I helped her spirit to move on and feel free.

Like I said, I know that anyone who reads this will think I'm gross for just touching random dead animals, and crazy for thinking all that about souls and resting places and spirits.

But to me it was a really beautiful thing and it makes my heart happy.