Bee Sting

Bee stings hurt!

I learned that fact yesterday

After one of my sister’s pet-honeybees stung me.

 

I was standing in the yard,

Thinking about bees,

Watching them fly,

Listening to them buzz,

Pondering their lives together in the hive,

When one of them flew a little too close to me and

Got stuck in my hair.

 

I didn’t freak out.

I simply said,

“I think I have a bee in my hair.”

My sister tried to get her out,

But in her frustration at being trapped,

The bee deployed her one defense mechanism:

Her stinger.

 

It hurt!

 

And then I heard,

“Yeh…she’s going to die now.

She won’t sting you again.”

And I couldn’t be mad.

Instead I was sad.

 

Poor bee.

Poor Dee.

 

When the bee stung me,

It was her last resort.

She was scared.

She was mad.

She was desperate.

So she did the only thing she instinctively knew to do:

She stung me,

Which ultimately led to her demise.

 

I think sometimes we do this, too.

When we get stuck,

When we feel frantic,

When we are scared or mad or desperate,

We do the only thing we instinctively know to do--

Whatever that is in the moment--

And it’s sometimes not the best choice for the long run.

 

Oh God: When we get stuck. When we are in a bind. When we are frustrated and don’t know what to do. Help us to use our abilities to breathe and to think and to make decisions that do not lead to our demise. And God? Thank you for people like my sister who have a heart for the bees. Help us, as a human race, to stop destroying the peaceful pollinators and to provide an environment where they can thrive and do the work that You created for them to do. Amen.