The Bees Knees

Up in Devils Lake, North Dakota, yellow fields of canola flowers whizz by the car window. A worker bee buzzes near my shoulder; I crank open the window and let it free. Chip and Simon, whom I have only met in person five minutes ago, are in the front seat of the truck, preaching to me about the gospel, and how God saved their bees and this year’s honey crop. Not being a religious person myself, I automatically tense up whenever the word God is passionately mentioned. I quickly relaxed. With one hand on the steering wheel, Chip reaches behind him to hand me a golden figurine. It was a honey bottle in the shape of an angel with its wings spread open. Chip said that God gave him the vision for these bottles as his symbol for hope during the worst of times. Through that day in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, I learned it was one thing to interview beekeepers through a recorder, but it was entirely different to work alongside one and be a part of the action.

Through a journalism fellowship, spent the past summer investigating honeybee health and Colony Collapse Disorder in the United States and in Argentina. Meeting Chip and Simon in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota changed my travel experience profoundly. It was a different world than the suburban backyard I grew up in with carefully trimmed lawns and flower beds. The green clover and yellow canola were allowed to grow tall and lush In Devil’s Lake. Everything, besides the glowing hum of honeybees in the distance and the soft swishing of canola in the breeze, was still and quiet. There was a riverbed close to this bee yard. Within our second hour of working and interviewing, Chip and Simon took off their beekeeping suits and pulled out their fishing rods. We stood at the edge of the river, the bright sun shining over us and the water. It was as if the nature of time became distorted here into a different kind of animal. Inevitable still, but slower moving and more tranquil. No longer was my mind rushing around to think of all the deadlines I’d have to meet or papers to write. I was in a place so beautiful that the quiet surroundings required me to be still.

While I would not describe traveling to Devil’s Lake, North Dakota as a religious experience, it was indeed a spiritual one. The distant buzz of the honeybees, the quiet trickling of the river, and the hearty laughter from Chip and Simon created a layered harmony of a song I will keep with me as my travel treasurer from Devil’s Lake, North Dakota.