Bee keeping - whatever happens is the only thing that could have

[Alan Stewart]

Carol  Loughrey wrote:


"In my previous email I described a session with youth and adults where the
question was "How do we increase and strengthen youth/adult collaboration to
improve our community?"  One session posted by the 85 or so year old man was
"beekeeping".  Since his retirement 25 years previously he had been keeping
bees and that was what he wanted to talk about.  I wanted to ask him how
that related to our theme and whether he really thought it was appropriate
for our session, but I managed to control myself, as well as control the
sponsor who was having similar concerns.  I have to admit that I was
somewhat worried that no one would go to this session and the elderly
gentleman would be embarrassed.  Much to my surprise, the session was very
well attended with about 15 to 20 participants, and went so far into the
time for the next session that a convener actually changed his own session
to a later time so he could stay to listen to more about beekeeping.  On the
comments sign posted it was suggested that the next open space be totally on
beekeeping.  I know it was the highlight of the day for many of the youths
and was a real, living example of the mentoring that the O/S was trying to
encourage.  I'm sure (hope) that as a result of that session, he and other
seniors will be invited into the school system to share their stories and
wisdom.  And to think I might have kept that from happening!  Trust the
process!"


Seemingly there is more to beekeeping than meets the eye! Here's another take on it.


                                                            From: The Joys of Beekeeping*
Richard Taylor**

 .... The joy of beekeeping is no passive delight. Keeping bees in a serious way, with concentration and art, is toilsome, sometimes exhausting, frustrating and discouraging. But is also made the more joyous for the overcoming of all this. The image of happiness is not that of a patron of an amusement park, nor is it that of someone burdened with galling work, nor that of greed measuring up its gold. Part of the image, at least, is that of a challenge met, a purpose achieved - and achieved with great effort. 

The basic reason for any pursuit is to find happiness. Many people seek it through wealth, power or prestige, and while some do find these things, it is doubtful if they ever find more than the most specious happiness. The ancients, who thought more about happiness than we do, were unanimous in rejecting these goals as sources of it. They thought that happiness consisted in having a good demon so they called it eudaemonia. There is no doubt that the honeybee has been my demon, and an immeasurably good one as long as I can remember. Happiness cannot depend on upon the gifts of our fellows nor upon their approval, for what they bestow today they can as easily withdraw tomorrow. 

 We are all creatures of the same nature, or as some perceive it, of God, and share this lovely earth with a multitude of things great and small. We were not given the world to dominate it, to subdue it or exploit it as though it were a warehouse placed are our disposal and for our exclusive benefit. Rather, we were given it to make our home in it, to share it, to glorify it and to glory in it.

One's happiness is, of course, something personal, something more his or her own than any possession. We do not all find it in the same way. Some never find it at all. Possibly most never do, even when the means are at hand. But I have found my bees and all the countless things I associate with them a constant and unfailing source of it. I know that not all persons are of this temperament. Some look upon this obsession of mine with incomprehension, some with amusement or curiosity, while I in turn pity them, for they lack the capacity for these particular joys so fulfilling to me. 

* Linden Books. Interlaken, New York. 1984.

 ** Richard Taylor says that 'the knowledge that I could have depended upon my bees for at least a meager livelihood has given me a sense of independence, which is itself a joy.'

Alan Stewart



 

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