Newsletter Articles written by Tera Thomas
Issue 2
What Exactly Is Hummingbird Farm?
by Tera Thomas
A year ago I filed the paperwork to give birth to Hummingbird Farm. At the same time, my best friend, George, was in the process of leaving his body. Fifteen years earlier, when I went into my vet’s office, there, in a little cage on the counter with a “please adopt me sign” on it sat a big, gangly grey tabby kitten. It was love at first sight, and George and I were inseparable from that moment on. It was George who asked me to make a commitment in my life—something I had never done before. It was George who asked me to open my heart, and it was George who supported me and gently guided me on this path of working with animals and humans that fills my life with more love than I ever thought possible.
When I was first formulating the dream of Hummingbird Farm, I was encouraged by a few very special human friends and by a whole hoard of animals to set up the non-profit corporation and let it begin unfolding. I was unsure, feeling I needed to wait until I could afford to buy some land, get it set up with all the accouterments, populate it with twenty or thirty fabulous animal teachers and then I’d be ready to go.
George pointed out to me that Hummingbird Farm was not a place, that it was a dream about a way of living with all beings realizing their connection to each other and holding a reverence for all of life. He said that the nonprofit corporation would be a vehicle through which information could be passed, people could learn, and a network could be built to create this dream all over the world.
I have been living this dream of regarding all life as sacred for many years and in many places. It actually began in Los Angeles and moved with me to New York City, to Michigan, back to New York, and then to North Carolina. In every place I have lived for the past fifteen years, I have created the dream of Hummingbird Farm in my own special sacred space. I have talked about it, written about it, prayed for it. I am fortunate to now live on some beautiful land in a hand built log cabin. I have woods and pasture and a sturdy barn. The land is alive and present and full of wild animals who share their space with me. And yet, all that I have here, I had when I lived in a studio apartment in New York City.
I realized that George was right, I didn’t need to wait until I had 100 acres of land and twenty teacher animals. Humming-bird Farm was ready to be born to share the vision of a world where all life is honored and to encourage others to create their own sacred world of reverence in their own homes.
George left his body on August 17th of 1998, the twelve-year anniversary of the Harmonic Convergence. In October, two llamas, Inka and K’uychi Rainbow, came to live with me as Hummingbird Farm’s first teacher animals. Maia and Daisy, my two female cats, agreed to also be teachers, as did the many wild animals who live on this precious land. My two wonderful friends, Jan Spiers and Dave Gulick, agreed to be cornerstones with me for the vision of Hummingbird Farm and became members of the Board of Directors. In December of 1998, Hummingbird Farm was approved as a nonprofit corporation and the dream became official.
In my daily life, I continually interact with nature and learn more and more about how to consciously participate with all the plants, animals, rocks, soil, and trees as partners. Both Jan and Dave live this vision in their own homes. As Humming-bird Farm, we are continually looking for ways to bring this dream alive for others, knowing that the more people who focus on it, the closer the reality of this way of life will be for all of us. If each of us live our own lives with this reverence for all beings, we will create a network of light, a vision of wholeness, a role model for a peaceful world.
In service to Hummingbird Farm, my home is a small version of the center that we will one day build. Though not open to the public, I am able to hold small workshops here so that participants can be in this alive natural setting as they are learning to communicate with animals.
Our monthly meditation is being joined by people all over the United States to call in the vision of a peaceful co-creative partnership with all of life. Please join us the first Sunday of every month at 8-8:30pm EST and 5-5:30pm PST.
This quarterly newsletter will print stories and ideas to keep people connected to this dream and to support those of us who wish to walk this path.
Next year we will be sponsoring workshops on many related subjects—TTouch, Holistic Care of Animals, Reiki, Flower Essences, Care of our Natural Habitat, etc. We are looking for a space to rent that is large enough and where people can bring their animals to participate.
We are developing a website with a special section for children.
We are tossing around ideas about videos and other community projects that we can sponsor, create, and make happen to bring people into the awareness of the healing potential of partnership between humans and animals.
We welcome your ideas, suggestions, wild dreams, experiences, and your financial contributions.
Some day there will be a center for Hummingbird Farm. The vision for this is grand—a home for twenty or thirty teacher animals to work with people of all ages, many acres of wild woods with nature trails to walk through, a large workshop space, an information library, a network of people, a place that can be open to the public, a place where animals and humans can interact and heal and re-establish their connection to All That Is. This center will be a place to experience working and playing in partnership with all life and to learn the tools to support that lifestyle wherever we each may live. We will have this center some day and it will be a cooperative effort, built step-by-step by all of us, humans and animals, who believe in this dream. In the meantime, we all have this center in our hearts.
George, my love, is no longer here in his body, but he is present in every part of my life. I feel him in every blade of grass, I see his face in every flower. I feel him watching me, encouraging me, and laughing at me as I learn how to work and play with the llamas. He is with me as I mow the grass or mend the fence, as I meditate, dream, teach workshops. And as I write this letter for Hummingbird Farm and George, who are not separate from each other, I feel them as one great love in my heart, so close, so dear, the very best part of me.
