Come to find out, bees are inherently and relentlessly local.

Native bees might wander 1-3 feet from their nest.

Honeybees can fly up to a five mile radius, but usually stay within

a mile.

• 

• 

• 

And so I noticed. Where I live everyday.

The New Mexico I love and traverse,

from the mountains to the rivers and

my small neighborhood.

This place I live

With arroyos and rivers that run green and brown

Thunderstorms and winds that whip up on a dime,

the sweet smell of piñon and sage

released after the rains.

• 

• 

• 

This place I live

with sunsets

flaming orange and magenta

furling out across the western sky

Mornings of azul skies, brightened by the

arid sun.

This place I live

with coyotes and road runners

in the street.

over 1500 native bees

like shiny Cinderellas with their finery

dancing on the high desert flowers

• 

• 

This place I live

with 19 sovereign indigenous pueblos

and the vast nation of the Diné

Their sacred ceremonies honoring our watersheds and land

Holding the web of life together

teaching us to live lightly.

This place I live

of downwinders, breathing the sickness

of the radioactive dust of

plutonium, uranium, selenium.

and decades of radionuclides

in the channels of our waters

colonized by the U. S. Department of Energy.

This place I live

a gracious, enchanted land

with cherished waters

sucked by fracking, spewing out over 1200 toxic chemicals

A methane cloud the size of Rhode Island

hanging in the air.

This place I live.

So much heartbreak.

So much beauty.

Tell me about yours.

• 

• 

• 

• 

“As a bee seeks nectar / from all kinds of flowers, / seek teachings everywhere.” (Dzogchen tantra)