Mother Bee

asknature.org

Solitary mother bee, who strikes out on her own.

makes her nest so carefully,

sprinkles it tenderly with coloured blooms:

blue, purple, yellow, pink.

She carefully lays her precious egg

in its tender bed,

then flies away.

When born, her daughter will do the same-

beautify a blossomy nest,

then fly into the blue.

Imprinted in instinct and cellular memory,

is our inner drive to give and nurture life,

in whatever manner is modeled by

the matriarchs of our tribe.

My feet, since childhood, have been rooted in

family, the nurturing of children,

my own and others'.

My nest has stayed full of growing children, 

young adults, grandchildren, 

and now great-grandchildren,

and there has been laughter,

and much joy.

But my heart, through the years, 

has often contemplated the sky,

gazed beyond the distant horizon speculatively,

assessed the unknown landscape with longing.

Times, I felt the bones 

at the base of my wings

begin to lift,

my feathers begin to flutter,

just a little.

Omnia avosetta - the solitary mother bee -  constructs her beautiful intricate nest with varied hues of blooms and petals. She bites them from the flower, flies back to her nest, (a small indentation in the ground), and weaves the blooms, plasters them with mud, more petals, sets in provisions of water, and pollen, then places one precious egg carefully into the nest.  And then she flies away.

The egg later hatches, eats the food Mama Bee left, spins a cocoon arund herself, goes to sleep for  ten months, then awakens to weave her own beautifully coloured nest, in turn. Wow.

source: While Glaciers Slept, Being Human In a Time of Climate Change, by M. Jackson. A fantastic read.