Fly Like a Bee

 I've been stung twice by a bee, and I remember both vividly. 

The first time, I was a fifth grader visiting a Shinto shrine with my family, in Japan, in or near Tokyo where my father was stationed after World War II. It was during warm weather, I was wearing a cotton blouse, and a bee flew up one of my sleeves and stung hard. 

The second time I was in my twenties, playing nine holes of golf in Cincinnati and because I hadn't played in a long time my golf shoes wore a blister on one foot, so I took off my shoes and planned to finish the round barefoot. Almost immediately, I stepped on a bee and it stung the bottom of my foot! Yikes!!! 

Already loving bees for their honey, in more recent years I've also come to understand and appreciate their crucial role in the ecosystem, which far outweighs any negative memories of bee stings. And when this totem appeared among my isolation doodlings I read more about bees, discovering that--structurally--they shouldn't be able to fly. Of course they fly anyway, and thus my Bee Totem reminds us to believe in miracles.