gratiTUBE: I will be like the hummingbird

I love this story. It’s a beautiful animation of the inspiring tale of the little hummingbird telling us to keep doing our best even under seemingly interminable odds. I am so grateful to a dear friend who had this movie in his signature! 🙂

And what makes it even special is that it’s told by Wangari Maathai, one of the most inspiring women of our times.

Here’s a transcript of the story:

“The story of the hummingbird is about this huge forest being consumed by a fire. All the animals of the forest come out and they are transfixed as the watch their forest burning. They all feel very overwhelmed; very powerless. except this hummingbird, that says

“I am going to do something about this fire”

so it flies to the nearest stream, takes a drop of water and puts it on the fire and goes up and down; up and down – as fast as it can.

Meanwhile all the other animals, much bigger animals like the elephants that could much more water in their trunk, are all standing there. They are saying to the hummingbird – “what do you think you can do? You are too little, this fire is too big! your wings are too little and your beak is too small, you can only bring a small amount of water at a time.”

But as they continue to discourage it, it turns to them and without wasting any time, it tells them

“I am doing the best I can”

In the end Ms. Wangari says – And shouldn’t we all be like that? We may be insignificant but it’s a choice we have – to be like the animals and watch the planet go down or be like the hummingbird.