Aunt Ruthie’s 1945 Diary tells stories of her daily life,

but it also holds clippings of other things, like a bee swarm . . .

                   

 

Cartoonists of this era tried to cram lots of action into one scene. Here’s a detail:

                 

 

 

Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson and other authors extolled the virtues of even one bee:

                 

 

A Bee scene snuck into my memoir in Chapter 9, “Playing Wedding at Grandma’s House.” Before it was fashionable, my father Ray knew how important bees are to the environment.

When Mom said “Sca-doo,” my sisters and I knew we could chase fun down at Grandma’s house, the other generation of Longeneckers connected to ours with strong family ties. Two vegetable gardens skirted her home, one edged with two beehives, which Daddy kept. Lodged in my memory is an image of him with his white protective hood moving gingerly around the hives. Is there such a thing as a bee gentler, a bee whisperer? If so, my father played the role to a tee. Before he “smoked” the colony with a horn-shaped apparatus to quiet the bees, the Queen and her attendants buzzed and darted in the June sun. They were contained now, though, their white hive emitting a low hum. I watched my dad proceed with slow, respectful movements, taming the wildness inside the hive.

 

Six years ago, the year I started blogging, 

I extracted honey from Sue Monk Kidd’s novel the Secret Life of Bees including 7 practical tips. Most of you haven’t seen this post simply because we weren’t friends back then. Maybe, like the author’s Lily Owens, at one time the jar of your life opened and you flew out into a different orbit!

 

Whatever stage of life you’re in now, being kind is always in vogue as the poet suggests here:

   

 

My son/daughter, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste.     ~ Proverbs 24:13

 


 

* Like my Aunt Ruthie, do you keep clippings in books or notebooks?

* Can you add another quote about bees?

* Share some facts or comments about bees?

* At one point in your life, did the jar of your life open (like Lily’s in The Secret Life of Bees) inviting you into a different orbit?