The bee swarm we “rescued” last week off the curb at the corner of a main thoroughfare didn’t make it. And I don’t know why, although I have some theories.
And as writers, not all the words we write are going to make it out into the world. It doesn’t stop us from trying, from stringing words together into sentences born of observations and ideas, some cohesive and some less so, knowing that many written words will be left behind, or left off the final stories.
As a writer you just have to be okay with that, right? And as you get better at it you may be able to save more original words, but writing that first draft will always be an act of exploration and discovery.
That’s part of the fun.
It was fun, and a bit inconvenient to go get bees. Stop what you are doing and change directions, fast. Suit up and grab materials. The hub didn’t want to do it, but he went anyway. I coach myself into doing things with my pseudo-motto: Carpe Diem. Over the years I’ve been trying to balance it with what appears to be a clear case of FOMO (fear of missing out). The balance I’ve worked out usually involves asking myself if this is part of my calling- writing. But not always. Family comes before writing, right?
But not every minute. And then too, there are those bees. For some reason they were close to the ground, on the curb of a busy street. This is not normal behavior for bees who generally prefer to be up in trees. Maybe the queen had eaten too much honey and couldn’t get lift-off, one bee friend suggested.
It rained after I got the bees home and re-hived, so I didn’t see much activity for a few days, even when the sun came out. When I went to investigate there were several dead bees near the entrance to the hive. Sadness. But not enough to keep me from going again if I get a call. I’m ready.
And I’m ready to write. Everyday I sit at my desk and write, even if these words are destined to die, I will write. I will explore and discover what the story is.
Will you? Are you making a writing date with yourself everyday, or however often you can, showing up to write? The words are there. Best not to let them die inside you without ever seeing the light of the paper.
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