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Bee on a Rose



© Aine Maura, 2016

 I took this photo at the LDS Oakland Temple in California when my husband took myself and our 3 year old son there to celebrate our birthday (he was born on my 42nd birthday) in May 2016.  I love bees.  When I was young, not so much.  Their stingers hurt, and left me with welts on my skin.

Funny how growing older can change your opinion of things.  When I had a nervous breakdown a few years ago, it was the bee that inspired me out of my depression.  Industry, thrift, harmonious activity within the home (hive)...  these values helped me realize I still had worth after the trauma of a breakdown.

I think about how bees seek the beauty out.  They collect the nectar from gardens of beautiful buds, from trees, to plants, to flowers.  Then they return home to make something delicious and sweet out of the nectar they have collected.  Not only that, but their work to create actually benefits a ripple effect of many - the plant life is pollinated, the farmer receives crops, the birds, bugs and critters enjoy a summer's worth of food.  The air is perfumed, the eye is pleased, the belly is nourished.  How beautiful is that?

It makes me wonder:  Out of all the beauty I have seen, what can I create that is sweet?  What experiences and substance am I collecting to use to create with?  How can I, like the bee, bless while being blessed?

That is what I think of when photographing a bee on a white rose.

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