Bees
BEES By the bee's example taught,enrichthy mind, Improve kind nature's gift, by sense refin'd; Be thou the honeycomb—in whom may dwell Each mentalsweet,nor leave one vacant cell. from Eva Crane's The Archaeology of Beekeeping in the middle of Zero's field, covered from head to toe with bees, I thought I was having a heart attack. I had been up at the edge of the field working the hives. Checking for new honey. In trying to lift the uppermost super gently off the top of the hive, I had inadvertently lifted not only the top super but the lower one as well, as the bees had sealed the two supers and the queen excluder divider with wax. The lower super stayed glued to the upper super for only a second before it came loose and went crashing down on top of the brood chamber, which together with the lower super housed the majority of the bees. Thinking that they were under attack, the hive of wild black bees (the most aggressive of all honeybees) came out in a great swarm, covering me within seconds. As the first wave of bees attacked with stingers activated, I took off running. Bythe time I had reached the middle of the field, I was covered in thousands of bees. Luckily Ihad dressed for the occasion—with bee veil and cap,gloves, coveralls, and high-top boots. By now the bees were so thick on the upper part of my body that I couldn't see through my veil. Not able to see where I was going and therefore not able to retreat farther, I stopped amidst the blooming buckwheat and began flailing my arms like a misaligned windmill, swatting at bees I could no longer see. I had been besieged by what must have been almost a whole hive of bees and was in a state of pure panic, with my arms waving, my legs kicking, and my heart racing to such an extent that I could hear its beating in my ears and feel a growing pain in my chest. I had already been stung by a fewbees whose stingers were able to penetrate my heavy denim jeans. Feeling the stings, I feared that Td soon suffer hundreds, if not thousands, of stings and would be stung to death—a 99 I thought that, combined with my frantic movements, had caused my heart to start racing out of control. Just when I thought I had taken my last breath, and with the collective and resounding buzz of a couple thousand bees in my ears, I experienced an unexpected moment of clarity In that moment a voice within me said: "If you don't calm down, you are going to die." Knowingthat the voicewas right, Iimmediatelybegan to calmmyself. I stopped my flailing and my dancing and stood still, letting the bees do what they would. I then began to concentrate on my heartbeat and my breath—breathing more slowly, hoping to lower the flow of adrenaline and quiet my heartbeat. As, in increments, I became calmer, there came a kind of lucidity, and I also became more aware of the bees and their activity.It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. Within a very short time (that felt like a very long time under the circumstances) I could feel my heart rate decreasing and my whole state of mind shifting to a place of acceptance andbalance, rather than a state of hysteria and flight. With this shift of consciousness and behavior, a most amazing thing happened. As soon as I began to shift my attitude and behavior and to become calmer, I noticed that simultaneously the loud buzzing made collectively by the bees blanketing my body began to subside. Also I was noticing that the energy of the bees wasn't as vicious and aggressive . A few of the bees that covered the veil in front of my face actually flew away, so that for the first time in what felt like hours, I could see a little bit of the field in which I was standing. Getting my bearings alittle better, Iwas able to progress with my meditative ritual even further, untilfinallymy heart rate was almost normal. The bees must have somehow picked up on my sense of quiet and calm, for as I stood there in the middle of the field breathing quietly and thinking thoughts like "Bees,you can go back...
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