By Sulana Stone

Zoooom! Plunging from fifty feet high, the hummingbird dives headfirst towards the ground. Turning at the last moment to avoid crashing to earth, her precision aerial maneuvers bring her close to my head. She hovers in front of my eyes. Now she has my attention!  

She’s giving me a sign. “Incoming message from Spirit!” The iridescent courier repeats her acrobatics at least a dozen more times until I “get” the specific guidance that Spirit is sending.  

The moment I understand the message my Higher Self is relaying through the hummingbird, she lands in a nearby tree. Motionless, she watches me saunter out of the dry riverbed.  

An hour earlier, I began a mini vision quest through the lush desert hills near my home. A vision quest is a spiritual journey with a purpose: getting guidance about “what’s up” in our lives. On this particular quest, “what’s up” for me is discovering how I can have more love and passion in my life.  

Spirit is always talking to us. Responding to our request for more a more joy-filled life, Intuition sends countless helpful suggestions. Messages of comfort. Inspiration. And steps we can take that will move towards our personal and professional goals. Yet, because our attention is tied up on other “phone calls,” the guidance is often blocked from reaching our consciousness.  

What’s a compassionate Spirit have to do to get through to us? Since assisting us to be happy is its only purpose, our Intuition keeps relaying the message in various forms until we “get it.”  

Birds, bugs, plants, animals, clouds, wind and water are emissaries from our Higher Self. These Spirit-guided couriers offer solutions for any life challenge. So, when we don’t hear the messages from our Inner Guidance, the natural outer world delivers the beneficial bulletins. Nature is in cahoots with our Intuition! Pretty cool. 

You can find out anything from Mother Nature. If you yearn to find the job of your dreams, ask Nature to show you how. Pine for more prosperity? Ask the Mother of Abundance for guidance. Hanker for more health? Ask Nature’s emissaries for vitality. Long for more love? Ask the birds and the bees for the secret. Really! 

My vision quest begins by seeking an answer to, “How can I let more love into my life?” Knowing my Spirit will send guidance through some aspect of Nature, I watch for signs of an “incoming call.” 

The main purpose of signs from the Higher Self is to get our attention. Once Spirit gets our attention, Spirit wants us to “Stop, Look and Listen!” It wants us to stop doing the behavior that we’re doing unconsciously. Look inside. And listen to our Intuition for a more conscious, nurturing course of action for ourselves.  

How does our Higher Self grab our attention? It attracts our awareness by presenting to us an event in our life that is obviously unusual. Out of the ordinary. Inexplicable. A phenomenon that stands out from our normal reality.  

• Different Appearance than normal. For instance, an object that’s a sign might have more rich, deeper or brighter colors than usual. Or the object or person glows. Or the object may seem larger or smaller than it “should” be. Or the object or scene is in sharper focus or more defined than normal—perhaps even appearing surreal.

• Different Feeling than normal. You may feel a “resonance” with the object or person. Or they may give off “electricity.”

• Different Noise level than normal. An example of this sign is that certain words in an overheard conversation may be louder—or quieter—than the rest of the words. These particular words jump out at you—or draw you in.

• Different Timing than normal. Events may occur faster or slower than usual.

• Different Sequence than normal. Events are out of sequence, out of usual or logical order.

• Different Pattern than normal. Our Higher Self loves to get our attention by presenting synchronicities. A synchronicity is a meaningful “coincidence” of events. The coincidence is meaningful by the fact that the events occur in a manner that is beyond mathematical probability. That is beyond a pattern that occurs in life by chance. For example, the same event might repeat three or more times in a row. Or repeat in the same exact order more than once. If the repeating pattern is not beyond what occurs in life by chance, it’s not a synchronicity—it’s not a sign.

Through its unusual, repetitive actions, the blue-throated hummingbird is a sign that indicates I have a message from Spirit.

Now that the hummingbird signals me that I have an incoming message, the next step is intuiting what the message is.   

Farmers read the signs of Nature to know when to successfully plant and harvest crops. Tribal people read signs to keep themselves healthy and safe by being able to predict what Nature’s going to do. In the recent Asian tsunami disaster over 200,000 Westernized, non-tribal people lost their lives. Yet, the non-Western tribal people all survived! How? By following the signs from Nature. Tribal folks received signs from their Intuition and Nature to move to high ground just before the giant tidal wave hit.  

Since most of us weren’t taught to read the outer messages from our Inner Guidance, we might need a little primer. The following ways of viewing a sign can help us interpret a message from Spirit. You can read a sign: 

On my vision quest, my feathery friend flies up into the air, zooms down, pauses, and then flies up again. The guidance I get is to check out my life from a higher point of view. When I look at life from this expanded viewpoint—rather than from the narrow focus of my personality—I see that love comes in many forms. I can find rapture with my work. Passion with my activities. Intimacy with my environment.  Affection with friends. Acceptance with myself. By expanding my definition of love, I can increase the number of “encounters with love.” After all, what do I care what form love comes in? The experience of a loving connection is what I’m after!  

Hummingbirds are often associated with drinking the sweet nectar of plants. In turn, the birds help plants reproduce by distributing pollen. Similar to my airborne ally, I sustain myself through drinking the “sweet nectar of Spirit.” Then I help Spirit grow by writing about the practical ways Intuition helps people live healthier, abundant lives. The sign encourages me to drink even more deeply from life’s well of sweetness—to explore more thoroughly how Intuition brings people prosperity. Spirit’s supportive message gives me courage to share what I discover—to “pollinate” the world more through writing. By taking these actions, I’ll open to more opportunities for feeling passion through my work!

This happy helper zips into my life when I get too serious. She reminds me to find the humor within “crucial” situations. To lighten up. Have fun! After all, how can I let in love when I’m being so up tight?  

The glistening guide jets about at a high vibration symbolizing living with passion. She reminds me to focus on what makes me hum! Zing! Feel alive! Fly high! Keep the creative juices flowing in order to keep love flowing through my life. The more I live with gusto, the more I’ll attract the loving experiences I want.  

Through the hummingbird, I have become aware of specific actions I can take to assist myself to bring more passion into my life. And my colorful ally shows me that I’m not alone—that divine guidance and support are available for me on each step of my life journey.