A Beautiful Road Ahead

August 1st was a monumental day in my world. It was the day that has been coming for nearly 20 years. It was the day that I picked up my first pallet of bees with my first Avant loader (forklift) and gently set them down on my first proper bee truck. For some, this may not seem like much, but for a woman in her 40's to be in possession and of need of such heavy equipment is truely extra ordinary.

Beekeeping is confronting. It challenges all that you are and all that you think you need to be. I spent a decade and a half in higher education, Bachelor degree, Master's degree, PhD- and as a result, I learned how to learn. How to question, how to dig deep, and how to find answers. Mostly- how to question. However, all of my years of higher education didn't prepare me to fix an intermittent starting issue with my newly purchased 2005 Avant 512. Simple auto electrical trouble shooting guided by a dear friend helped me through that problem. Bad Earth return. Now she starts like a champ.

The thing is- the Avant not starting stopped the whole show. I have to be able to shift (move bees)- to almonds for a pollination check, to canola to for spring build up. My whole breeding program and all of the high level genetics at play come to a standstill without the benefit of a completed circuit. And this is how beekeeping is confronting at every turn, there is something that needs to be known that just isn't. And not knowing something is confronting. Not knowing how to keep the bees fed, or deal with small hive beetle, not knowing how to fix the broken hydraulics, not knowing how to build the wooden pallets, or change the flat tyre, or get the honey pump working, or complete the hidden circuit, and on and on it goes........

But being a beekeeper or a farmer, someone that completes "earth return" is all about learning. Not being defeated by the daily electrical, mechanical, environmental, biological, social, spiritual, and/or ideological. challenges that present themselves but rising above, finding a solution, and meeting the challenges head on is the secret to progress. However, we don't do this alone, but as a community-as a network or web of interconnected goals, desires, and aspirations, we progress.

My bees have been so fortunate to find almond and canola growers that value their life history. By that, I mean they know for their crops to yield almonds, or canola seeds, pollination must happen and they know that bees are pollinators. But what they may not know is that the bees' goal is NOT to help the farmers get their crops. The bees don't even consider what happens to the flowers after they have collected nectar or pollen. In fact, the bees' single goal is to collect food for their family, and in feeding their families, they help feed the world.

See it is this interconnected web of goals, and aspirations, and life histories that helps the world go around. Whether we consider it or not, each of us (bees included) living our best lives ensures that best lives are lived by others. I hope you are living yours!