Drenched

I wasn’t sure if I should help. Was it a fait accompli? Was I interfering in Nature’s Way and natural cycles? But I couldn’t help myself. (Ha… interesting double meaning in that phrase!)

And so, despite the fact that you were upside-down, half immersed in the sand, struggling against the soggy post-wave-goo you were stuck in, I squatted down and offered my finger for your flailing legs to find and utilise if you could. You grabbed on so immediately, that I got a fright and flicked you back down! And then another wave. Oh dear. You were right-side up this time, but still an unlikely victor.

Using a scrap of paper in my pocket, I scooped you up and wondered if I was simply prolonging an inevitable death. You were proper soaked. And it looked like you might have lost one antenna and one wing. I tried to transfer you to a rock, but you turned to stay with me. Ok sweetheart, I’m here, I’ve got you. For what it’s worth, let’s see what time will bring.

So, while I walked slowly along the shoreline, Bee hung onto me, having now crawled from the paper to my hand (and guided onto my jumper for my safety!). I removed some larger bee-sized clumps of sand from a back leg, and then just held him (deciding on the unlikelihood that she was the Queen). He sat still. Drying? Dying? Hard to tell…

And then slowly, slowly, he began to clean and dry himself. The second antennae appeared – apparently only plastered to its head. And then miraculously the same was true for the second wing, and there was true hope in the air!

It was painstaking and meticulous, watching how he tended to every single part of his body, cleaning, smoothing, bringing it all back into place. But he kept at it, going over and over, obviously sensing instinctively whether things were ‘right’ yet, or not.

I think we journeyed together for about half an hour – a long time in a bee’s life – until the glorious heart-warming moment when he flew away! I gasped, and something in me took flight with him! He was ready. He was restored. He did much of the work himself, but he needed an initial rescue from that which was literally overwhelming.

Just like me. Just like all of us at times.

I was so disproportionately proud! Proud of him, of the tenacity and patience and skill to have showed, and humbled by the intimacy of being allowed to share the experience, watching him so close up. A drenched bee is quite a thing to see!

And I was proud of me for choosing to do what I could, just to give him a chance. To believe in the value of his life and following my instinct to reach out.

May we all have the space to tend so carefully to our overwhelmed selves, re-new our wings and fly, thanks to the helping had of the ones who are brought to our path just exactly when we need them.