Moonlit Apiary

Have you ever been to a honeybee apiary? There is one such place in a dreamy pasture in Cozy Acres, tucked between the lavender fields and the twilight forest. There, the forager bees swirl throughout the day among the roses, sunflowers, and tulips. You can hear them now, humming as they stretch their wings and float out over Blackberry Pond. At night, they took peacefully into their hives while a cool breeze carries cricket song over the apiary, the beekeeper's cottage and the gardens. Before we explore, let's take a moment for a brief wind down exercise. Tonight's wind down is a visualization. When you're ready, let's begin. So, just take a moment to get comfortable, letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped, of having nothing left to do. We are going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body, watching as the muscles in the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So, starting down at the toes and feeling a sense of the muscles switching off. The feet, the arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. Notice any tension being let go of as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension melting away, being let go of. Into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscles shutting down for the night. Completely at rest, everything from the waist downward is heavy, at ease. The muscles in the lower back and the stomach are now switching off. Middle of the back, around the diaphragm, the upper back, and the chest. So, any muscles not needed, shutting down, switching off for the night. The shoulders switching off, the upper half of the arms, and the lower half of the arms switching off. The hands, fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the eyes, any last areas of tension melting away as the muscles shut down. Switch off. At rest for the night. And allowing thoughts to come and go, allowing the mind and body the space they need to rest. Today was a honey harvesting day, and Hamish thinks back happily on the successful harvest from two of the hives. He has a process he always follows. First, he dons a protective suit and a beekeeper's veil. In his suit, he looks like an astronaut moving slowly through the apiary. Bees glittering like stars around his head. Then, he burns pine cones in a bee smoker, which looks like a tin can with a spigot at the top. Moving around the hives, he lets the smoke curl delicately into the air. This allows Hamish to deconstruct the hive and work from the bottom back up to the top. He removes the honey-dense frames from the boxes. A few bees...