A+Shirt+Full+of+Bees

Holy Buzzing

(adapted from “A Shirt Full of Bees” by Bill McKibben)

Walking in the woods, hiking off trail, deep in thought - suddenly - a purity of pain washing up my stomach toward my neck. A pure splash of feeling like a tossed pot of boiling water; a flash of white light.

I stepped on a yellow jacket nest. Instantly, bees boiling out of the hill, and me running down a 40-degree slope.

Hives - big, swelling cones. Throat swelling shut; an emergency tracheotomy? My dog was not up to the surgery.

Panic gave way to remarkable emotions: thank you God for this drooping hemlock; thank you God for that living, sparkling creek. Everything seemed dear and noble and complete; Layers of insulation removed - a lesson of desperate clarity. The holy spirit is buzzing.