Harmony in the Key of Bee

A gorgeous day in Northern California, I was out trimming and raking and hauling pine needles, enjoying the sun and the fall foliage. I like to stand under certain trees in the yard because the bees like them, and I love the sound of their buzzing. They used to scare me, but not anymore. Usually they are many in their numbers between the branches, and so form a sort of eerie chorus. But this morning there was just one... and then another. The first was honey-bee sized with a medium pitch buzz and when joined by a larger variety who's bumble-buzz was lower and deeper, it created an amazing musical harmony. Then one buzzed off and I was left thinking...

I've oft wondered about where our music goes when it leaves us. So many living room and campground jams-- sending our notes into the night. (Even when our songs are morose, the notes we send seem somehow joyful.) I like to think it has an elevating effect on our cosmic collective consciousness--or something greater than we. I know it feeds the souls of the players, the singers and the listeners. It crosses all of the (ab)"normal" human barriers of gender, race, age, economics and social status. Music is the bond, and the average jam is equally likely to have a lawyer, a truck driver, a doctor, a teacher or a hairdresser. We can jam for countless hours with someone we "run into" and never know anything more about them than that they are hot on guitar and know a lot of tunes. We come together, sometimes at complete random. We play, and then we buzz off somewhere, and it leaves me thinking...

So many times every day we come together for a common reason, or some symbiotic relationship like a checker and a customer in a grocery store. We might chat a little, but rarely do we know the stories of the people we run into in our daily routine. Still, we quickly connect with a smile or a glance, using humor and anecdotes even though we may not cross paths again. Living life is the bond, and most of us have more in common than we do not and at least some compassion for our untold stories. I like to think it, too, has an elevating effect on the greater scheme of things. Another kind of music-- harmony in the key of be.