Summer Solstice, Big Moon, Again

Pivotal moments. Cycles continue. Summer solstice, another super moon.  Next cyclical event of interest to me will be the late August return of the kolea from their hopefully fruitful summer in Alaska, heralding my own planned departure for a cyclical China retreat.

The trees that were trimmed a couple years ago have burst forth with new growth; you can't tell that they were cut. And the condo association is marking new trees and shrubs for drastic pruning.  It's a good thing, I guess, but I always feel the tension in the battle of chain saw and leaf blower against the natural burgeoning of the trees.

The beautiful if invasive albizia have been exceptionally profuse and fragrant this year.

These are REALLY big trees, this viewed from my 10th floor balcony.

Despite a mild allergy which gives me sinus headaches and a vague asthmatic feeling, as does the vog (lucky we live Hawaii), I still revel in the blooming.  But something is wrong this year.  Usually I can see and even hear the honeybees as they work the tiny white blossoms. Sometimes they even wander into my apartment though the open lanai door.  But there are no bees in the trees this year. This is truly disturbing. And this morning I found this on the news feed...25,000 dead bees in an Oregon parking lot, likely because of pesticides.

I treasure the cycles of sun and moon, the migration of birds, my own in and out breathing, the constancy of change, but when we disrupt the cycles, we invite danger and disaster.  How I long for the sting of a bee.