"Have you ever seen the feathers of a hummingbird? I have. Their wings, their body, and especially the top of their chest, have the most wonderful and most beautiful feathers you could see in the world.

The hummingbird I saw had feathers of copper, red, green, turquoise, and sometimes purple and ruby. It looked as though it glowed, and in the sunlight it reflected even more colors; blue, gold, silver. It was an inspiration of color.

When I saw this hummingbird, I thought, “It can't be real. Why doesn't it fly away?”

I discovered it was damaged. It had a broken wing and an eye was missing. He had probably been in a battle with another bird. I knew he would not survive the way he was, and so I held my finger out to him in hopes that he would come with me and maybe be helped back to being healthy.

You can not imagine what it was like to have a hummingbird, live, on your finger. Wounded, yes, but still the prettiest thing you could see. Seeing him that way broke my heart. But at the same time I was amazed at how beautiful he was, even so damaged.

Nature is like that now. Once magnificent, still beautiful, but dying.

If people could truly appreciate the beauty of the environment, they wouldn't be able to harm it so badly. To harm so much beauty would simply be unethical, and it doesn't make any sense for anyone to do that.

We can react to what we see, or not. We can restore the beauty of our natural world, or we can destroy and devour it.

I think it's time to save the world and accomplish great things. It's a big idea, but it can be done by doing something as simple as trying to save a wounded hummingbird. Saving any small part of our natural world can save the universe's ability to create and restore.

We have two choices. If we choose not to help, the only way to remember the beauty will be with words and pictures."

Andrew Wilson, 9 years old