Student of the honey bee

For years and years, I have been a student of the honey bee. I love the buzz of busy. I love to stick my nose in the fragrance of a rose's nectar. I am enamored with the bee's sense of direction, clarity of purpose, and connection to the hive. Last week, our writers in residence in Arts in Medicine shared the following writing. enJOY.

Joy
by Julie Cadwallader-Staub


Who could need more proof than honey—


How the bees with such skill and purpose
enter flower after flower
sing their way home
to create and cap the new honey
just to get through the flowerless winter.

And how the bear with intention and cunning
raids the hive
shovels pawful after pawful into his happy mouth
bats away indignant bees
stumbles off in a stupor of satiation and stickiness.

And how we humans can't resist its viscosity
its taste of clover and wind
its metaphorical power:
don't we yearn for a land of milk and honey?
don't we call our loved ones "honey?"

all because bees just do, over and over again, what they were made to do.

Oh, who could need more proof than honey
to know that our world
was meant to be

and

was meant to be
sweet?