           “You only live once” and “Live life to its fullest” are both quotes almost everyone has heard at least once in their life.  Throughout the story, “Joyas Volardores” Brian Doyle beautifully describes how one little creature can live life better than any other species. Through comparisons of other animals and factual evidence, the author is able to portray all the things a hummingbird is able to do in such little time and expresses the importance of living every moment with purpose. The average life expectancy of a human is seventy one years, a goldfish is ten years, and a shark is thirty years, but a hummingbird on average lives to be only two years old. Also, on average, the human heart beats once per second while the hummingbird heart manages to beat ten times per second, something that we would never be able to hear even if we tried. This allows hummingbirds to move much faster and get way more done than any average human or even extreme athlete. 

If given a short period of time to live most people would want to do as many things they have not done as possible. Most hummingbirds need to do that from birth, “Each one visits a thousand flowers a day. They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest.” (Doyle 95), as little as hummingbirds are, they manage to get so much done in one single day, like getting food and bringing it back to their homes at least three times a day, than most people do in years because to them seven hundred and thirty days is a full life. Having the ability to do so much without resting at all would make you want to accomplish more than you normally would be able to do in a regular day. If it was possible to run a marathon without stopping to rest any person would want to accomplish something as big as that for they could possibly only get that chance once in their life. Most people get winded traveling five hundred feet let alone five hundred miles without taking a rest. 

Tragic and horrible things can happen all the time out of the ordinary whether it is getting hit by a car or getting shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So why wait? While waiting for one of the good things to happen, one of the horrible things can happen. Hummingbirds are the number one species in the world to die of heart attacks because of their little hearts beating ten times per second, yet they are still able to do many more things in the average day than most people. Hummingbirds could not get their food or fly around all day so that their tiny little hearts would not beat as fast and their rate of heart attack would happen, but they would miss out on their whole experience of life. This same idea could go for people who are too afraid of the ocean so do not swim or people who are too afraid of heights so do not climb mountains. Without taking risks or chances the hummingbirds and humans could miss out on experiences that they need to fulfill a happy life.

The metabolism for all birds, especially hummingbirds is incredibly fast in order to take in all the oxygen they need to keep their tiny little hearts beating at the rate that they do. Their hearts are an eighth of the size of the average human’s heart. The hummingbird’s heart must take in so much oxygen, so that their little hearts can function, allowing them to get to the one thousand places they need to go and live as fast as possible. With the gift of fast metabolism comes the risk of death for these birds, “When they rest they can come close to death: on frigid nights, or when they are starving, they retreat into torpor, their metabolic rate slowing to a fifteenth of their normal rate” (Doyle 95). In hummingbird’s cases, resting and relaxing are more dangerous and life threatening for them than keeping busy with their normal routine. Having a completely normal and healthy body is something a lot of people do not have, like hummingbirds. Having the ability to do whatever you please or even just sleep at any hours of the day is something hummingbirds have to adjust to because of their strange heart and metabolism. There is no reason not to do the things you have always wanted to do like climbing Mount Everest, go to Fiji or even just nap in the middle of the day. 

Living life on the edge and doing risky things can be dangerous, of course, but what is the point in living a reserved long life instead of a quick yet exciting life. Having a heart that beats irregularly fast or irregularly slow should not factor into how you live your life. It is the things inside of the heart, all the little quirks and memories that are going to matter when you die, not the actual size or fastness of your heart. One of the biggest creatures in this world, the blue whale, has one of the largest hearts, being bigger than a car. Having a large heart doesn’t give the whale the ability to do more things in life than a humming bird or human. They function the same exact way and do the same exact things. Being able to look back and think about all the good times and know that you accomplished everything you wanted to in your life is what most people do not have, but would kill for. In some cases, even hummingbirds do die before they get to do what they want in the little span they are given. However, living life to the fullest and on the edge does not mean that people should be frivolous or careless; it means do things that you want and without any regrets. 

Look back and think about the times you brought your kids skiing in Utah or went snorkeling with sharks in Bora-Bora. Even look back and being proud of the little risks you took like having kids and being the crazy soccer mom or living a dream job in New York City with a major fashion company. So, just like Doyle said “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old” (Doyle 95). Depending on how fast or slow your heart physically beats, does not matter how you live your life and what you do in either your days, years or decades. It is in nobody’s hands, but their own to choose between an event filled life that they got the most out of or a slow, dull life that has little to no great memories.