Be the Bee

Last year, in my front yard “Farm,” I planted four limp plum tomato plants from Home Depot (where they’d almost died of dehydration and mass-market starvation), and they ended up yielding over 300 tomatoes by the time the frosts came. I was shocked (though my friends were grateful to share my bounty). Part of the growth was certainly due to the unseen co-creative action and balance, but part was also due to a more physical form of co-creative action: Beeing the bee. Once the tomato plants started to flower, I got the inspiration to take one of my artist brushes (which just the week before had been loaded with matte medium) and flit from flower to flower, pollenating my way around The Farm. “Be the bee,” I said to myself, “Be the bee.” It worked! Every flower morphed into fruit, and I felt such a deep connection to those tomatoes (and to the bees, who I felt needed my help in getting the work done last year, since their ranks had fallen dramatically). I plan to practice the same “being” this year, and with more crops than the tomatoes. Just like working with the slugs, this is an opportunity to work quietly, methodically and purposefully…though not in quite as slimy a way…