COACH DALE BROWN

COACH DALE BROWN

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Jon Gordon Author of The Energy Bus

9 WAYS TO BEAT NEGATIVITY

1. Tell yourself a positive story. Life is a story. The story we tell ourselves and the role we play in that story determines the quality and direction of our life. Successful people are able to overcome adversity by telling themselves a more positive story than the rest. Instead of a drama or a horror movie, they define their life as an inspirational tale. Instead of being the victim, they see themselves as a fighter and over-comer. You may not be able to control the economy, but you can influence the outcome of your story.

2. Model yourself after success. Are there people in your industry succeeding today? Of course there are. Seek out those people in your industry and ask to meet with them. Learn from their advice and model their attitudes and actions. If they can succeed, so can you.

3. Focus on the important stuff. Tune out the negative voices and start making positive choices. What are you doing on a daily basis to grow yourself, your team, and your business? Don’t focus on the negative things other people and the media are saying. Instead, focus on marketing your business, taking care of clients, and building loyal relationships. Every morning ask yourself this question: "What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help me create the success I desire?" Then take action on those items.

4. Replace "have to" with "get to." This simple word swap can change your mind-set and your approach to work and life. It turns a complaining voice to an appreciative voice, and acknowledges that life is a gift—not an obligation. So often we grudgingly say things like "I have to go to this meeting," "I have to meet with this client," or "I have to make a bunch of phone calls." In reality, it’s not about what we have to do. It’s about what we get to do. Research shows that when we practice gratitude, we get a measurable boost in happiness that energizes us and enhances our health. It’s also physiologically impossible to be stressed and thankful at the same time.

5. Refuse to participate in the recession. Professionals who’ve thrived during past recessions continued to go about business as usual regardless of market conditions. They worked hard and focused on taking actions to grow their business. As others are paralyzed by fear, take the opportunity to charge forward.

6. Boost your marketing and advertising. It may seem counterintuitive to spend more money on advertising and marketing right now. But with so many of your competitors cutting back in these areas, this is a great opportunity to build your brand and gain market share. People are still buying and selling, and they will buy from those whom they trust and see in the marketplace.

7. Create a positive vision. Instead of being disappointed about where you are, make the decision to be optimistic about where you are going. Create a positive vision for your future and the future of your team. Vision helps you see the road ahead and it gives you something meaningful and valuable to strive towards.

8. Invite others on your bus. Invite colleagues and customers to board your bus for a positive ride. Send them an e-bus ticket at www.TheEnergyBus.com. Share your vision with team members and ask them to join you in making this vision a reality. Be a positive influence.

9. No more complaining. Abide by the "no complaining" rule. When you realize you’re about to complain, replace your thoughts and words with positive actions. Let your complaints help you identify what you don’t want so that you can focus on what you do want. The key is to turn complaints into solutions.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

THE POWER OF DISCIPLINE


An excerpt from Brian Tracy
Your ability and willingness to discipline yourself to accept personal responsibility for your life is essential to happiness, health, success, achievement and personal leadership. Accepting responsibility is one of the hardest of all disciplines, but without it, success is impossible.  The failure to accept responsibility and the attempt to foist responsibility onto others has dire consequences. It completely distorts cause and effect, undermines our character, weakens our resolve, and diminishes our humanity.

When I was twenty-one, I was living in a tiny apartment and working as a construction laborer. I had to get up at 5 a.m. so I could take three buses to work to be there on time. I didn't get home until 7 p.m., usually exhausted. I was making just enough money to get by, with no car, almost no savings, and just enough clothing for my needs. I had no radio or television. In the evenings, if I had enough energy, I would sit in my small apartment at my little table in my kitchen nook and read. 

It was the middle of a cold winter, with the temperature at 35 degrees below Fahrenheit.  One evening, sitting there by myself at the table, it suddenly dawned on me that, "This is my life."  It was like a flashbulb going off in front of my face. I looked at myself and my small apartment, and considered the fact that I had not graduated from high school. The only work I was qualified to do was menial jobs. I earned enough money to pay my basic expenses, but little more. I had very little left over at the end of the month.  It suddenly dawned on me that unless I changed, nothing else was going to change. No one else was going to do it for me. In reality, no one cared.

I realized at that moment I was completely responsible for my life, and for everything that happened to me, from that day forward. I was responsible.  I could no longer blame my situation on my difficult childhood, or mistakes that I had made in the past. I was in charge. I was in the driver's seat. This was my life, and if I didn't do something to change it, it would go on like this indefinitely, by the simple process of inertia.

This revelation changed my life. I was never the same again. From that moment forward, I accepted more and more responsibility for everything...

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

THE ORIGINAL POSITIVE THINKER


Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson was part of a small group of New England thinkers who advocated overcoming self-imposed limitation. Use these positive thinking tips in your everyday life.
By Ptolemy Tompkins, New York, New York
Heading to the great outdoors this summer to recharge your batteries? You can thank a transcendentalist for the idea. Turning to nature for spiritual sustenance might seem like an obvious thing to do, but a mere century and a half ago it would have struck most Americans as pretty farfetched (the woods used to be considered a place of danger and darkness).
How about the statement "I'm spiritual, but not necessarily religious"? You've probably heard that from a fair number of people. Again, it was the transcendentalists—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller and a handful of others—who initially popularized this idea. Even the concept of positive thinking itself had its first champions in this small, short-lived, yet incredibly influential group of New England thinkers.
What exactly were the transcendentalists trying to get at? Start with the word "transcend," which means to move above and beyond ordinary categories and the limitations that come with them. At heart, that's what the transcendentalists were going for. Living in a land that was redefining what a nation could be, they saw themselves as seeking a new, and greater, definition of what a human being could be.
None of them worked harder at this task than their most famous and influential member, Ralph Waldo Emerson. America's original positive thinker, Emerson was a tireless promoter of the basic transcendentalist idea that human beings are larger—infinitely larger—than they think they are. "A man," he wrote, "is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and all good abide." What we need to do is overcome the self-imposed habits of thought that prevent us from fully realizing this potential. Or as Emerson put it, "The only sin is limitation."
Shedding old ways of thinking sounds fine on paper. But anyone who's tried to change, truly change, knows that in practice, it's a whole other matter. How do we go about doing it? Through his essays, Emerson has given us three keys for unlocking the wisdom and goodness within.
Believe in Yourself
There is in each person, Emerson wrote, a "vast-flowing vigor," an energy that we can rely upon in any circumstance. Every one of us can tap into this bottomless spiritual reservoir. But we have a tendency to deny it. Have you ever felt overwhelmed by stress and thought, Things never go my way? Beaten yourself up over your mistakes? Deflected a compliment by saying, "Oh, it was nothing"? These are all examples of self-defeating thoughts, also known as stinking thinking.
And that, so often, is what gets in our way. An unwillingness to have faith in our true potential is the single greatest setback to achieving it. "To believe your own thought," Emerson wrote, "to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men—that is genius." Next time you catch yourself slipping into a distorted thinking pattern, stop and do a reality check. Things just aren't going my way right now. Then act like a genius and give yourself some credit. I might have made some mistakes along the way but what I accomplished is something to be proud of. 
Peak Moments
All of us have experienced times when we're deeply in tune with life and with ourselves, when everything comes naturally. Psychologist Abraham Maslow, father of the human potential movement, called these "peak moments." More recently, psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has used the term "flow" to describe this state of total engagement. Athletes call it being "in the zone."
The problem, Emerson realized, isn't so much how to reach these peaks. It's how to trust what we learn during them. "Our faith comes in moments," he wrote. "Our vice is habitual." The unavoidable humdrum aspects of daily routines dull our memory of how things are when we're at our best. "So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the pith of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours."
That's why we need to burn the lessons of those few hours into our minds. We have to hold on to the perspective and clarity we achieve at our peaks and let them sustain us when we're less inspired. "There is a depth in those brief moments," Emerson wrote, "which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences." The sheer vividness of those highs should make it easier to recall them. That doesn't mean living in the past. Rather, think of your moments of energy and inspiration as fuel packets. Tap into them whenever you need a boost to move forward.
Positive Is Practical—and Powerful
For Emerson, a positive attitude wasn't a passive thing, a mere lens for viewing a sometimes difficult world in a kinder light. He believed it held a genuine practical power. Emerson scholar and biographer Robert D. Richardson, Jr., explains this aspect of Emerson's thought in a wonderfully concrete way.
Consider Emerson's famous adage: "Hitch your wagon to a star." Advice that "sounds impractical if beautiful," Richardson notes. "But it turns out to have an unexpected grounding in the real world. Emerson was thinking...about the tide-mills that used to exist along the East Coast. The incoming tide would turn the wheel one way, the outgoing tide would turn it the other; both ways ground grain and sawed wood, and it was all done by hitching the mill to the tides which are hitched to the moon. So Emerson means his spiritual advice literally."
Don't be intimidated by Emerson's high-sounding language. Take his use of the word "soul." "The soul is not an organ," he writes, "but animates all the organs;...is not a faculty, but a light; is not the intellect or the will, but is the master of the intellect and the will." It is "the background of our being—an immensity that cannot be possessed." He isn't talking about some daunting metaphysical abstraction. He's talking about your true self—the person you are when you're at your best, your boldest, your most alive and real.
Emerson believed that "the learned and the studious...have no monopoly of wisdom." Much as he admired scholars, he knew they were often less likely to find their way to an experience of the authentic self than an ordinary person was. "Great is the soul, and plain," he wrote in that populist spirit that one of his early readers, Walt Whitman, so loved and celebrated. "It is no flatterer, it is no follower...It always believes in itself." In this and so many other ways, Emerson is the quintessential American philosopher: deep yet democratic, sophisticated yet simple as a glass of cold water on a summer day.
His views didn't always play well with his contemporaries. He came from a long line of clergymen and started out as one himself. That made the churchmen of his day particularly critical when his thinking diverged from theirs. They found in Emerson's rhapsodies on the mystic soul the evidence of a troublingly unorthodox sensibility.
Emerson did read deeply in religious writings outside the Judeo-Christian tradition. He studied the Bhagavad-Gita and other Far Eastern spiritual classics decades before it became fashionable. What Emerson's studies brought him to was a greater understanding that God is in each of us and in the natural world around us—an idea that we almost take for granted today. It explains Emerson's unflagging faith in the self's native sufficiency and rightness, his belief that if we find our true spiritual center and act from it consistently, there is nothing we won't be able to accomplish.
Still, that's not to say that Emerson saw life as an easy stroll down the street. He was no stranger to hardship. By his early 30s, when he began writing the essays that would make him famous, he had already lost two brothers and buried his wife. He eventually remarried, only to lose his firstborn son at the tender age of five. These tragedies didn't rob Emerson of his faith in life's essential goodness, however. They only strengthened it. For him, thinking positively was a way to overcome life's hurdles, never a means of escape from them.
If you read Emerson's essays—"Experience" and "The Over-Soul" are excellent ones to start with— you will be amazed to see how many of the insights that fill today's books and programs on self-improvement originated at his writing desk. From 12-Step programs to this magazine, there isn't a single contemporary tool for learning how to think positively that wasn't originally crafted, at least in part, by our greatest American philosopher.
"To finish the moment," Emerson wrote, "to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." Emerson and his fellow transcendentalists would be thrilled to know we are seeking—and experiencing—that wisdom for ourselves.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Chippewa Indian Tradition


Do you know the legend of the Chippewa Indian youth's rite of Passage?
 
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him an leaves him alone.
  
He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the
blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it.
  He cannot
cry out for help to anyone.
 
 
Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
 
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad
must come into manhood on his own.
 
The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild
beasts must surely be all around him . Maybe even some human
might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook
his stump, but he sat
 stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would
be the only way he could
  become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his
 blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.
  
He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.
 
We, too, are never alone.
Even when we don't know it, God is watching over
  us, Sitting on the
stump beside us.
When trouble comes, all we have to do
  is reach out to Him.
 
 Moral of the story:
Just because you can't see God,
Doesn't mean He is not there.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 



Friday, October 22, 2010

THE JOYS OF JURY DUTY - IT IS ALL ABOUT YOUR ATTITUDE

The Joys of Jury Duty
By Edward Grinnan, October 22, 2010
From Guideposts
Jury duty.
The words strike dread in the bravest heart, right along with root canal and tax audit. Some people simply ignore the summons and risk facing the consequences (which include…what? Have you ever known anyone arrested for not appearing? Really?). Most of us show up hoping and even trying not to get picked. We hope and pray and have faith that we won’t be assigned to a trial. That would mean days down here.
By now you’ve correctly surmised that I am at jury duty, called to civil court in downtown Manhattan, where I sit and sit…and sit. No inspirational or uplifting stories here. Just people complaining about how much work they have to do and how mad their bosses are at them. Some just hate the whole idea of serving even if they have nothing else going on. Now there’s a positive attitude. I mean, this wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t so busy.
    
Okay, so it’s really not as awful as all that. First we got to watch a nice informative video with Ed Bradley and Diane Sawyer (a three-time Guideposts cover, I might add) that actually is a pretty inspiring video, with interesting and even uplifting stories about the history of the jury system (I particularly liked the scenes where the archaic punishment of dunking was reenacted). Moreover the clerks and court officials are exceedingly diffident since they know how much people hate coming here…a positive attitude I appreciate.
Last time I was called I remember feeling dissed because I WASN’T put on a jury. Why bother going through all this for nothing? In fact working for an inspirational magazine like Guideposts can apparently get you disqualified. My colleague and positive thinking blogger Amy Wong says she was once rejected from a jury when the lawyer defending a large corporation learned who her employer was. “Oh, you work for that magazine that publishes all those real life David and Goliath stories, all those inspiring articles about people beating the odds and achieving their dreams. I don’t want you on my jury!”
Apparently that is not going to happen for me today because it looks like I’ve been—gulp—chosen, and I am sworn not to say anything about the case so I won’t. I have no reason now to complain about being rejected. Well, maybe the parties will come to their senses and settle before this goes any further.
The fact is, though, once I’m down here—and it’s only every seven years in New York—I become fascinated with the workings of the justice system, especially the human workings. What is more basic to human society than our search for justice? It is an amazing albeit confusing and imperfect system, and when I stop and force myself to think about it, contributing to the process can be a very inspiring experience. Because the system is made up of people, with all their strengths and frailties, trying to do the right thing. If ever you want to experience real life and real life stories, come to the courthouse.
Last time when I complained about not being picked for a jury, I said to a lawyer friend, “What’s the point?” He told me the point was that I showed up, and that alone helped made the system work, even if I didn’t get put on a jury.  “Just show up when called,” he said.
It’s either that or go back to dunking.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

THE ART OF COACHING



"You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself."
– Galileo Galilei

Effective Coaching

By: Vadim Kotelnikov



Coaching Defined
Coaching is the art and practice of inspiringenergizing, and facilitating the performancelearning and development of  the player. (Myles Downey)7
Each word in this definition is a key word:
art – though there is science to coaching, coaching is an art in the sense that "when practiced with excellence, there is no attention on the technique: the coach is fully engaged with the player and the process of coaching becomes a dance between two people, conversationally moving in complete harmony and partnership. At this point the intelligence,intuition and imagination of the coach become a valuable contribution - rather than being interference for the player."7
inspiring – coaching is about helping the player to unlock his or her true potential through raising awareness, inspiring new ideas and encouraging creativity
energizing – coaching is about energizing the player through effective communication, soliciting suggestions, and building a can-do attitude
facilitating – implies that the player has the capacity to have an insight or creative idea and to think something through for himself
performance – anything a coach says or does should be driven by the intention to improve performance, i.e. to achieve greater effectiveness or efficiency of the player
learning – refers to a broader domain, how to approach a task or master a new technology; looking beyond immediate objectives, the future performance of the organization depends on learning
development – refers to personal growth and greater self-awareness.7
The Goal of Coaching
The goal of coaching is to guide vision, urge excellence, and empower the one being coached – the player – through establishing a firmer connection with his or her inner authority.

MYSTERIOUS WAYS - THE IMMIGRANT


The Immigrant

By Lucia Cipriano, Hainesport, New Jersey


In 1972, I emigrated to America from Italy with my two small children. I had no job and spoke no English. It wasn’t easy finding my way at first, but over the years, I created my own successful housekeeping service. Recently, I was at a new client’s home when the doorbell rang. “I’m friends with the man who lives here,” the man at the door said. “I’m here to fix his computer.”
“Yes, of course, I was told you might be coming,” I said.
“Are you Italian?” the repairman asked. He must have recognized my accent, one thing that hasn’t changed much over the years. “Yes,” I answered. We started talking. “My grandfather was an Italian immigrant,” he said. “If it weren’t for strangers helping him when he arrived here, he wouldn’t have made it. So he did the same for others. He used to drag me and my friend along to help.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. I told him about the time I was standing with my two small children in the arrivals area at the Philadelphia airport. I searched for my husband, Matteo, who I hadn’t seen since he left our hometown of San Paolo, Italy, ten days earlier. He was staying at my cousin’s house and I had telegraphed him my flight details. But he wasn’t there.  Six hours passed. It was night and the airport was almost empty. My two children—one three, one 14 months old—were hungry and restless. I had no U.S. money, just a few dollars worth of Italian lira. I had my cousin’s address and phone number scrawled on a scrap of paper, but I didn’t know how to use a pay phone.
“Then two teenage boys approached me,” I told the repairman. “I was afraid, and threw my arms around my children. But then they asked if I needed help.
“The two spoke just enough Italian to understand me. One headed to a food stand and returned with milk and pastries for my children. The other paid for a limo ride to my cousin’s New Jersey home. Matteo had never received my telegram.
“I wish I could have repaid the boys.One of them said, ‘Give each of us one of your Italian bills and sign it, so we’ll always remember you.’ I was happy to do so.”
I finished my story and the man looked at me, stunned. He reached into his pocket and pulled a bill from his wallet. On the back was a faded signature—mine.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

NEVER GIVE UP - "WE RISE"



I received this video from my former player, Ernest Brown. This outstanding clip is from Atlanta's Booker T. Washington High School 2010 graduation. The first male Valedictorian in 10 years.  Proof that if you never give up, YOU RISE!


CLICK ON THIS LINK

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

BREAK OUT OF A COMPLAINING RUT

To help you break out of a “complaining” rut here are five things you can do instead of complain. These tips will help you realize you are not powerless. You have the power to choose your beliefs and actions. And in your focus on the positive instead of the negative you'll find the faith, strength and confidence to take on life’s challenges and identify the solutions to your complaints.


1. Practice Gratitude

Research shows that when we count three blessings a day, we get a measurable boost in happiness that uplifts and energizes us. It's also physiologically impossible to be stressed and thankful at the same time. Two thoughts cannot occupy our mind at the same time. If you are focusing on gratitude, you can't be negative. You can also energize and engage your coworkers by letting them know you are grateful for them and their work.
2. Praise Others
Instead of complaining about what others are doing wrong, start focusing on what they are doing right. Praise them and watch as they create more success as a result. Of course, point out their mistakes so they can learn and grow, but make sure you give three times as much praise as criticism.
3. Focus on Success
Start a success journal. Each night before you go to bed, write down the one great thing about your day. The one great conversation, accomplishment, or win that you are most proud of. Focus on your success, and you'll look forward to creating more success tomorrow.
4. Let Go
Focus on the things that you have the power to change, and let go of the things that are beyond your control. You’ll be amazed that when you stop trying to control everything, it all somehow works out. Surrender is the answer.
5. Pray
Scientific research shows that daily prayer reduces stress; boosts positive energy; and promotes health, vitality, and longevity. When you are faced with the urge to complain or you are feeling stressed to the max, stop, be still, plug-in to the ultimate power, and recharge.

Monday, September 13, 2010


Mattie J.T. Stepanek
1990 -2004
On Being a Champion

A champion is a winner,
A hero.
Someone who never gives up 
Even when the going gets rough.
A champion is a member of
A winning team.
Someone who overcomes challenges
Even when it requires creative solutions
A champion is an optimist,
A hopeful spirit.
Someone who plays the game, 
Even when the game is called life.
Especially when the game is called life.
There can be a champion in each of us,
If we live as a winner,
If we live as a member of the team,
If we live with a hopeful spirit,
For life.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

OUT OF THE ORDINARY



Out of the Ordinary

A hummingbird makes friendly with Advocate staffer
Every once in a while we stumble upon an experience so rare and so out of the ordinary that we know there has to be something we are supposed to learn from it. My lesson came in the form of a hummingbird.
After arriving home on a hot and muggy afternoon this summer, I climbed the stairs to my apartment hoping to find relief from the heat inside. But what I found instead was a hummingbird flying frantically back and forth and it appeared to be trapped on the second level of the building.
At first glance I thought it was merely a large dragonfly. But once I realized what it really was I stood and watched in awe of this tiny creature's aeronautical abilities.
Each time she took her flight she would fly from one end of the building to the other and always come back to the same spot on the wreath hanging from my neighbor’s door. I inched closer and closer to her landing pad, hoping to catch a closer glimpse.
After a few minutes, she seemed to figure out that I wasn’t going anywhere so she stopped attempting to allude me. As she became more comfortable with my presence I was able to get closer to her.
Next, I had the crazy idea to see if this bird would land on my finger. So during my tiny friend’s next trip to the other end of the building I put my hand up near my neighbor’s wreath.
On the first few tries she simply avoided me, flying around or above my hand. But eventually, to my surprise, she actually landed on my finger. And she continued to land on my finger time after time. The more comfortable I felt holding her, I began bringing her up to my face to look at her closely.
I noticed that her eyes were blinking and that she was actually about to fall asleep perched on my finger. Amazingly, I noticed that her tiny little eyes showed no sign of fear or terror. She even began looking at me as if she were trying to figure ME out! Realizing that no one would believe this when I told them (because I scarcely believe it myself!) I ran inside my apartment and grabbed my digital camera. I returned outside and the bird continued to land on my finger.
So I held my camera out in front of me and snapped several pictures in order to preserve this unbelievable experience.
I’m not even sure what gave me my next idea but I decided to try to walk her down the stairs since she seemed to be so lost. And once again the first couple of tries failed but on the third try she patiently stayed on my finger as if desperation had taken over her tiny body. We reached the bottom of the stairs and yet my winged friend stayed with me a few moments more…long enough that I was able to snap a few more pictures.
She stayed with me until a car pulled up into the parking lot near us and startled her. But she immediately flew directly back to my neighbor’s hummingbird feeders which had drawn her there in the first place.
Once the experience was over I could hardly believe what had just happened.
So the next day I began researching hummingbirds in order to find out whatever I could to bring some meaning to this experience.
I discovered that hummingbirds are not afraid of any predators, which explained the lack of fear I saw in the bird’s eyes. I found that they have even been known to chase off eagles!
Throughout this experience, I couldn’t help but be reminded of something I had read in Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book, Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling. The passage I’m referring to comes from the chapter entitled “The Language of the Spirit.” In this chapter Dr. Dyer discusses how we can recognize when our “Spiritual Source” (or God) is trying to teach us something or to get in touch with us. He points out that we often dismiss God’s messages to us because they sometimes come in a rather inconspicuous manner.
Dr. Dyer suggests that God sometimes communicates with us through seemingly “inexplicable alignments,” such as alignments with 1) feelings, 2) nature, 3) events, and 4) people. “Noticing the same folks showing up in different settings, running into people we haven’t seen in awhile after we’ve just heard their names mentioned, and repeatedly seeing an individual’s name in magazines, on television, or at the local bookstore” are all examples of God’s way of speaking to us through alignment with people.”
But it was the story Dr. Dyer shared about his personal experience of aligning with nature that I was reminded of by my hummingbird friend. Dr. Dyer states, “Everything in nature is in-Spirit – it isn’t spoiled by ego, nor can it ever be. So when nature speaks to us, we should listen intently. When a wild bird touches us, for instance, or a fish brushes by when we’re swimming in the ocean or lake, I believe that it’s a direct communication from our Source of Being. Since these creations of God instinctively keep their distance, when they depart from their DNA patterns to actually contact us physically, I think we should pay attention.”
I have even had “alignments” with events since this occurrence to encourage me to write this story. I have procrastinated on writing it and just today my boss handed me a magazine with an article concerning hummingbirds because he thought I would find it interesting.
And that is not the first article that had been pointed out to me like that since this had happened to me. So here I am…writing this story.
Dr. Dyer told of the day he had a butterfly land on his finger and stay with him for the next few hours. And this happened to him during the time that he was working on this particular chapter of his book. As soon as that hummingbird landed on my finger I was reminded of his story.
I choose to believe that my experience with this female ruby-throated hummingbird was God attempting to get my attention and speak to me.
I haven’t narrowed down exactly what I feel He was trying to convey, yet when I researched the hummingbird I found many positive symbolisms associated with the bird, such as their lack of fear, their association with the healing properties of flowers and herbs, the figure 8 pattern they create with their wings as they fly which is a symbol of Infinity, and my personal favorite…their physical lightness serves as a reminder to us to “lighten up.”
Perhaps this experience was an avenue through which God can lead me into my passions…writing. Or perhaps this bird chose me to save its little life since I read that a hummingbird will quickly die if trapped or encaged. There are so many possible explanations, it’s fascinating! But I hope that God has been able to use me through this story to inspire others to listen for the little messages He sends us throughout our days. I hope it has opened someone’s eyes to greater possibilities and greater hope. I believe the main message God wants to send our way through these types of occurrences is that He is with us all of the time and He hasn’t forgotten us. It is a great feeling to know we are not alone.
Sophia Richards is a graduate of Troy University and currently works for Greenville Newspapers, LLC as a Graphic Designer.