The Hummingbird Hunt

Image courtesy of Dale Darcy, IG @silly_dale

One of my favourite things about hunting is being present as the forest wakes up. I love hearing the ground wake up and watching the dawn roll over the hills to touch the forest edge. It cleanses the soul. What's more is that the forest is full of teachers, from the smallest (and even most annoying) insects to the biggest moose.

One mild morning during a spring turkey hunt, I encountered a small but mighty teacher - the hummingbird. I was camouflaged from head to toe, with my back against a big white oak tree, waiting for the morning bellows of wild turkeys when my presence caught the attention of this small but fierce watcher of the woods.

I am unsure of the direction from which she came but, despite my camouflage, she was certain that there was a strange presence in her home and was staring it down. She danced in the air in front of me, trying to gauge what it was that she was looking at. She then zipped over to my hunting partner to check her odd shape and presence out. After trying to detect my presence once more, the hummingbird decided to fly up into a tree and watch us for a time before disappearing once again into the forest.

This was an incredibly sacred experience. When sharing this experience with an indigenous friend, he inquired as to whether or not I had asked the land for permission to be there. In all honesty, I had not considered this before. He commented that the colour of the hummingbird - green - is the colour of the earth and perhaps this visit was a reminder to offer tobacco (one of the four sacred medicines) to the forest and ask for permission to be there. I do not come from an indigenous background so do not have tobacco readily available but I do have prayers. I firmly believe in a Creator and that nature is the temple in which this Creator has built for us to connect not just with them but with all of creation.

To me, coming face-to-face with this magnificent green hummingbird was a clear pull back to using my time in nature as a way to connect with the Creator and creation in the most sacred of spaces. Upon reflection, it is during hunting seasons that I feel most spiritually energized. This is when I am most connected to the land, animals, weather, others, and my Creator. The awe-inspiring green of the hummingbird connects us all with the lucious green of the temple that we call nature.

Soren Kierkegaard said that "life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living". For me, those forces are very often encountered while hunting/hiking/being in the forest. This one particular day, that force happened to come in the form of a hummingbird who taught me to be wholly present within the great temple of creation.