Joy

Who could need more proof than honey—



How the bees with such skill and purpose


enter flower after flower


sing their way home


to create and cap the new honey


just to get through the flowerless winter.



And how the bear with intention and cunning


raids the hive


shovels pawful after pawful into his happy mouth


bats away indignant bees


stumbles off in a stupor of satiation and stickiness.



And how we humans can’t resist its viscosity


its taste of clover and wind


its metaphorical power:


don’t we yearn for a land of milk and honey?


don’t we call our loved ones “honey?”



all because bees just do, over and over again, what they were made to do.



Oh, who could need more proof than honey


to know that our world 


was meant to be


and 



was meant to be


sweet?

—Julie Cadwallader Staub

via among the pines