Honey-bees Order

“For so work the honey-bees, creatures that by a rule in nature teach the act of order to a peopled kingdom. ”

— Shakespeare

Legacies - Beekeeping

I have a distinct memory of being around five years old in the backyard and finding a bee drowning in our pool. I instinctual rescued it with my bare hand and low and behold it stung me and it died regardless. As an adult I looked back on that memory and considered the valuable lesson involved. Sometimes, despite my best intentions, I may get the sting of natural defenses. My fascination with bees remained in tack though. In Mexico, my father kept a beehives at the far end of a dirt road near our ranch. I can still remember the smells and textures of the leftover beeswax in his workshop after the honey extraction was complete. A few years back I went to visit his brother and had a chance at looking through old family photos. I was so intrigued to find this photo of several beekeeping boxes and my uncle began to tell me all about the booming honey business my grandparents had. My father, a strong silent type, never mentioned it before. I felt like a had reclaimed the sweet nectar of legacy and its magic for my soul. Now whenever I enjoy honey or see a bee hovering over a flower in my garden I am overjoyed by the beauty and majesty of the alchemy and sacred work embedded between humans and nature. 

So moved by this Tastemade video that touches on the value and threats to this tradition in Kars 🐝 

Needs

“If you aren’t getting what you need from life, there are only two possibilities: either the world doesn’t have it or the world does have it and you aren’t taking it”

— -Ron Kurtz

There is a Wonderful Game

There is a wonderful game we should play,
And it goes like this:

We hold hands and look into each other's eyes
And scan each other's face.

Then I say,
"Now tell me a difference you see between us."

And you respond,
"Hafiz, your nose is ten times bigger than mine!"

Then I would say,
"Yes, my dear, almost ten times!"
But let's keep playing.
Let's go deeper,
Go deeper.
For if we do,
Our spirits will embrace
And interweave.

Our union will be so glorious
That even God
Will not be able to tell us apart.

There is a wonderful game
We should play with everyone
And it goes like this...

Are You With Me Know? by Cate Le Bon

A song about grief.

Defense by Sarah Jaffe

Curating a life - Kahlo

One of the most inspiring homes I have ever visited is La Casa Azul, the home of artist Frida Kahlo in Mexico. It is truly Kahlo's considered expression of selfhood through art, home, and clothing. 

Sacred Sites - Teotihuacan

The place where people become gods. When I came to visit Teotihuacan for the second time, I couldn't help but be struck by its mythological power. It was constructed with temples to honor the thirteen full moon cycles, with two pyramids of worship, one for the sun and the other for the moon with adjacent the housing for the shamans. Generations layered constructions upon previous constructions. While the paintings that covered the stone works have eroded, the imagistic legacies stir theory and imagination on these pre-conquest pre-Aztec peoples that were advanced enough to have irrigation and plumbing systems long before other societies. The profile of the mountains were mirrored in the constructions. So considered to relate to the above, around and below, were they. Yet when the Spanish came, they assume this place was a citadel or fortress against enemies instead of a sacred site. The mystery was what led these ancient people to the awareness that they had to abandon it. So often we visit these places as tourists but to visit this place with reverence, a chance to commune with the sacredness, with the imagination of these people, starts to become a little more tangible.