I live in beautiful Santa Fe, NM. Northern NM is for me. I love it here. I grew up in Ohio & then through Maine, D.C., Boston, I am lucky to have landed here some 10 years ago. There is no place else that speaks to me of home as this, with it’s mountains, mesas, big sky, and red earth. I’ve wanted to have bees all of these past 10 years & finally, here I am. I hope you will enjoy my story as much as I enjoy telling it. 5/28/2011
These bees have opened me. Opened me to beauty in the world. Allowed me to see clearly how that beauty pulls me into the earth itself and fills me. Bees did that. Bees slowed me down enough to allow me to witness my own truth. And I find that my truth lies in extremes. I’m certain now that one can only experience as much joy as one can feel sorrow. That is to say, the degree of joy one feels is directly proportional to the depth of sorrow that one has the capacity to experience. One is only defined by the other. Joy and sorrow. Beauty and ugliness. Strength and vulnerability. As my heart opened to this truth, the words flowed from me onto these pages. In the guise of writing about beekeeping, out pours the results of intense introspection, self-analysis, and personal growth. Bees did that. Ok, I might have been there in the mix somewhere. Me & a couple Black Widows. 9/22/2011
Jo
I would really love to hear from you…
honey at meandthebees dot com
Much sweetness.
Me and the Bees 
Mary Jo,
Love the site, blog post, and I , oddly enough have been doing bee keeper paintings for the past five years. And really had zero idea why I was, just found them to be in the most fantastic relationship with man than most creatures. If your interested in seeing the paintings let me know.
I look forward to getting to know you more and my paintings more through your written expression. Thank you and hugs,
Amazing, Randy! I would love to see the paintings! As you’ve read – I could just go on & on about these creatures & our relation to them – or my relation to them. There have been more books written about bees than any other topic other than religion! There is something there for us. I’m hooked. They speak to me on a deep level. Cut through all my nonsense ego talk & get me at my core. Thank you. xoxo Mary Jo
Glad you have met the bees. They do amazingly wonderful things to the soul and I’m sure they don’t even know.
Hey Steve! Aren’t they incredible? They’ve been waiting a long time for me. But they are so patient, they didn’t mind the wait. And they knew just what to tell me when they arrived. Amazing.
A fellow blogger and beekeeper told me that beekeepers are the most amazing people. I think Cat is 100% correct! I don’t know how one could be in the presence of these little beings and not be completely awestruck.
Yeah! Community gardens, so great. I wish I had the time & energy for a garden. I am way blessed with friends who gladly give me the fruits of their gardening labor & love. Lucky, lucky me.
Hey Mary Jo,
A while back, I was thinking about your Guadeloupe picture. Juan Diego was born in 1474, before Columbus sailed. I had listened to an NPR piece on the book, “1493 Uncovering the New World Columbus Created” by Charles C. Mann. It was a remarkable time.
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/08/138924127/in-1493-columbus-shaped-a-world-to-be
In your “A bit about me” you don’t mention Tennessee. You were here. We listen to NPR regularly, I read the NY Times every day, Lisa and I do our neti pot every day, and we make tabouli with quinoa and ume plum vinegar at least once a month.
your writing is just so beautiful, I feel very honoured to have found this blog. I hope to keep bees myself one day, for now, I sleep with the farmer’s bees only a stone’s throw from my bedroom window. It is winter in the mountains here at the moment in France and we have LOTs of snow. I love the fact that the bees are keeping their queen warm in the farmer’s hives.
I have heard the ‘call’ of the bees for a while now and I am looking forward to following this blog to find out more about your bee spirits.
Louisa
Wow, Louisa! Thank you for the incredible compliments! I am so honored that you have found something in my writing. Again, I encourage you to get bees of your very own. Your girls would love it! And I’ll venture a guess that the beekeeper next door would be delighted to share the trade. I’ve found that beekeepers are the most incredible folks. One cannot help but be transformed in some way by these amazing little creatures!