It's the middle of summer, hot and humid. The Rose of Sharon bushes in the neighbor's yard are blooming, pink, purple and white. These are large plants - probably 15 feet tall or more, and they are covered with blooms - some open, and some tightly furled.
One of my great pleasures is stopping to watch the bees working the flowers. Bumblebees seem to predominate, but there are many types of smaller bees, wasps, and butterflies as well. The bumblebees are my favorites - wings humming - flying from blossom to blossom with legs and bodies coated with pollen. They land in a flower, look for pollen to collect, and then their wings move in a blur and they lift off to fly to the next blossom. Busy with their life, performing their role of service to the plants even as they gather the food they need, they pay no attention to me.
Pollinators - just one example of the complex relationships among the different forms that life takes, that are essential to its continuation. The flower is beautiful, the bee a marvelous creature - but one cannot exist without the other. They depend on each other, as we depend on myriad forms of life for the air we breathe and the food we eat, and even the ability to digest our food. It is a huge mistake to think of ourselves as separate from the rest of life - to not acknowledge and nurture our relationship with the rest of nature.
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