Zoom out, zoom in.

When I was studying biomimicry and natural systems, we’d do a neat and simple exercise for observation: zoom out, and zoom in.  Take a moment and scan a whole forest, and from a plain swath of green some amazing patterns start to emerge. You might see a clump of trees near a stream that’s different from all the others. You might notice exactly where the trees start to give way to rock on a mountaintop.

Then zoom smaller. Choose a square foot, or a square inch, and sit still. It might look like blank space at first, but in a forest, nothing is blank. You might see a tiny mite crawling across a leaf, or a minuscule scrap of moss, astounding in its beauty.

This same exercise works for life. Zoom out, try to consider the last year or five or fifty in its grander sweep. What can you see?

And zoom in, to this moment. This one. Right here. Isn’t it wonderful?  Wonder. Full.

Dear honeybees, as you zoom back and forth, I wish you the grand sweeps and the tiny miracles both.