What does it mean to be a Hummingbird?

You will hear me talking about Hummingbirds quite a lot around here.

It started as a name for the lovely people who receive Teabreak boxes, but it has grown into something a bit more than that.

A Hummingbird is not a person with a perfectly calm house, endless free time or a colour-coded self-care routine.

A Hummingbird is a woman learning to put herself back on her own list.

The list is the problem

Most of us have a list running in our heads most of the time.

Things to buy. Things to sort. People to reply to. Jobs we have forgotten. The thing we really ought to do before we sit down.

And usually, we are very good at putting everyone else on that list first.

There is work. Children. Partners. Pets. Parents. Friends. Admin. Washing. Dinner. The completely inexplicable pile of things that has appeared on the kitchen side.

Taking time for yourself can start to feel like a luxury you have not quite earned yet.

But the list never properly ends.

A Hummingbird is not someone who has finished everything before she takes a break.

She is someone who is beginning to understand that she is allowed to take one before the list is finished.

Hummingbirds are not particularly serene

This is important.

You do not have to become a different sort of woman to belong here.

You can be busy. Tired. Behind on the washing. Slightly frazzled. Someone who has abandoned three hobbies already. Someone who cannot remember the last time she drank a cup of tea while it was still hot.

You can love the idea of slow living while also regularly eating toast over the sink.

There is no requirement to be graceful about any of it.

The point is not to create a perfect life.

It is to find small ways to enjoy the life you actually have, right in the middle of it.

Hummingbirds use the good mug

They might not do it every day.

But they are getting better at not saving everything lovely for an occasion that may never arrive.

The fancy tea is allowed on a Tuesday.

The cake does not need guests.

The nice candle is not too nice to light.

A Hummingbird knows that joy does not need a justification.

Sometimes a good mug, ten quiet minutes and something small to make is enough to change the shape of an afternoon.

Hummingbirds make things badly

Not always, obviously. Some Hummingbirds are extremely good at making things.

But being good at it is not the entry requirement.

You can try something new without knowing whether you will be brilliant at it.

You can make something wonky.

You can leave it unfinished for a while.

You can enjoy the bit where your hands are busy and your brain gets to think about something else.

There is something very freeing about doing something that does not need to become useful, productive or impressive.

Sometimes it can just be nice.

Hummingbirds make room for themselves

That is really the whole thing.

Not huge, dramatic room.

Just enough room for a cup of tea. A candle. A few stitches. A chapter of a book. A slightly silly playlist. A walk. A biscuit eaten without also doing something else.

Small moments count.

They are not a reward for getting through everything.

They are part of how we get through everything.

And if that sounds like you, or like the version of you that you would quite like to make a little more space for, then you are very welcome here.