Gardening is nearly impossible right now, but I still wanted to get out there for a while today. After a few hours weeding, fighting the destructive beetles on the eggplants with large doses of non-toxic plant wash, mulching the tomatoes heavily in what will probably be a fruitless (and I mean that literally) effort to get some fall tomatoes, I started to trim off the budding flowers on the basil plants, one of the things thriving in the heat.
As I approached and prepared to clip, it became obvious that my need to clip off those flowers stood in direct competition to the honeybees need to get pollen from those very flowers. Now, I know that I’ll get a lot more basil if I keep those flowers cut back so the plants can’t set seed. But the bees . . . apparently, at least in my backyard, the great bee die-off from several years ago has been reversed. On one plant alone there were at least 10 honeybees happily doing their work.
It took me not even seconds to decide here–the bees get priority. I watched them for a few moments, noting also the dragonflies darting in and out, the mud daubers doing their thing, other insects of some sort going after the sunflowers, and for that moment, recognized again that I’m just one part of the whole natural world, and need to respect the large picture while pursuing my own goals.
I also noted that as miserable as this summer heat is, life tries to go on and reproduce itself. The heat will pass. Several weeks from now, we’ll feel the cooler breezes of fall again. As I get older, and the years get shorter each year, I find a bit more patience with the uncomfortable moments and more willingness to agree to nature’s rhythms rather than fight them or try to control them.
I am minuscule; the universe is huge. God holds it all, even those even tinier bees and their drive to make honey and nurture the next generation of bees. Puts life momentarily in perspective.
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