{"id":5962,"date":"2013-05-20T15:44:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T19:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=5962"},"modified":"2013-05-20T15:44:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T19:44:50","slug":"bees-and-going-with-the-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/05\/bees-and-going-with-the-flow.html","title":{"rendered":"bees, and going with the flow ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"brushy<\/a>I’ve always wanted to keep bees. Perhaps it’s my Uncle Russell’s fault, although I’m pretty sure that my fascination w\/ bees predates Uncle Russell’s beekeeping days…<\/p>\n

More likely it’s from reading the French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre<\/a> as a child. And following bees around. Like I did ants, and snails, and spiders. I don’t ever remember being really afraid of ‘bugs.’ Fabre’s work on bees (he did at least a couple of books) was anthologised in a children’s book of science & nature writing I had.\u00a0 And since I lived by a French library, I was able to go check out the other books, labouring through the Latin names to learn more about bees.<\/p>\n

This spring I enrolled in a beekeeping course. About half-way through I dropped out; a possible upcoming move reminded me that bees are a long-term commitment, and difficult to transport hundreds of miles. At least for amateurs. So my lovely copper-roofed Brushy Mountain hive will have to wait until our family plans are firmer.<\/p>\n

But sometimes when you want something for a long time, and you work towards it, other paths open. Two years ago, my sister gave me a small mason bee<\/a> house. Last year I was ecstatic it had THREE bees in it. Over the winter, I forgot all about it. Until yesterday…\"mason<\/a><\/p>\n

Cutting roses before the rain, I saw it: filled<\/em>! Full of mason bees! The holes you see filled in have mason bees inside. Cool, huh? Bees!<\/p>\n

So here’s the deal: I might have missed these, focused as I was on the absence of my copper garden hive roof. I could have continued grieving for the bees I don’t have, and totally missed my mason bees. How dumb would that be?<\/p>\n

But we do it all the time: obsess on one thing to the point we become blind to what’s around us.\u00a0 Not to belabour the point, but it’s an American trait. ‘Work towards the goal!<\/em>‘ It’s just that goals can be flexible. And we need to be able to identify the larger goal within the specifics. Bees, in other words. Not a beautiful copper hive. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always wanted to keep bees. Perhaps it’s my Uncle Russell’s fault, although I’m pretty sure that my fascination w\/ bees predates Uncle Russell’s beekeeping days… More likely it’s from reading the French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre as a child. And following bees around. Like I did ants, and snails, and spiders. I don’t ever remember…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1234,1188,11,1181,1187,262],"class_list":["post-5962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bees","tag-attachment","tag-bees","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\nbees, and going with the flow ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've always wanted to keep bees. 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