Broad-tailed Hummingbird : Facing Forward
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
This is a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. He’s in Colorado for breeding season. In just a few weeks, he’ll begin a 1,500 mile journey down to Mexico for the winter. It’s a daunting trek. Science has discovered that shortening days trigger hormonal changes that kick-off the migration event. These flying jewels are always anticipating the cold. Regulating their internal body temperature is an energy-intensive process, and they can bulk up a third of their body weight each day in preparation for cold nights. They can even go into “torpor,” a type of intensely-deep sleep as a way to conserve physiological resources during cold snaps. They track their food sources: specific flowers and wee insects, always on the move toward sustaining calories.
On the Jewish calendar, each 24-four hour day begins at sundown. This non-alignment with the sun can cause confusion, but tradition teaches that it tracks with God’s creation of the world. “And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.” New days starting in the evening, given humans’ diurnal nature, inherently builds in an element of expectation. Think of the often-mad scramble during Friday’s daylight hours to ready things for sundown and Shabbat. Our new day “dawns” not after we wake from sleep but rather emerges adjacently from the time we are most active and aware. Such timing creates a forward-looking bias and natural tilt toward looking ahead. Anticipation is a structural element of the Jewish day.
Each of us looks both forward and backward, to envision our future or to dwell on our past. What’s our natural bias? Do we emphasize opportunities ahead, or do we lament the passing of the “good old days?” To what degree do we consciously choose? Are we aware of our orientation, or do we succumb to slumbering habit? Failing to learn history’s lessons is a tragic oversight, unquestionably. But equally disastrous is failing to realize that history’s value is its ability to inform and to enhance our present and future. The Hummingbird prepares itself against the challenges of the future it faces. The Jewish day reminds us that we too should face forwards, anticipating and readying for the goodness that’s to come.