the pollinators

The okra is as high as my elbows, as are some of the weeds, but I wade through quite content, bugs and all. I'm so thankful for our garden that refuses to quit giving this year. Tomatoes, corn, peppers, squash, zucchini, pattypan, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, eggplant, peas, okra...it's all been in there. Today I picked peas and okra amidst mosquitoes, (which I tolerated since the enjoyment of being in the garden is greater than the disturbance the mosquitoes cause me) but also in the company of many hardworking helpful insects. As I finished up, a rain shower came along to cool me off and relieve me of the pesky mosquitoes. I walked back up to the house with my horn of plenty...tonight's dinner and some for the freezer.

In recent years, it seems we've had a shortage of the "good" six-legged critters to help keep our garden healthy, but this year they returned. Every morning when I visit my thoughtful spot to pick our supper, I've shared that space with tens of tens of bees, buzzing from one flower to another. As I disturb them, I watch their fuzzy black pollen-covered bottoms fly away and I learn to appreciate pollen.

Pollen causes so many people such problems, but I am immensely thankful for the stuff. Those little critters certainly don't realize what they're doing as they search for their nectar, flying from one source to another, depositing what each of my garden flowers needs for growth, but I know they are making food grow in my garden and I welcome them.

People are like that too, at least a lot of them I know. My children benefit from many of them. Just people buzzing about doing what makes them, well, them, not realizing the effect they have all about them. Depositing little bits of what He put in them on others which starts a chain reaction of blessings for the unsuspecting. I'm so thankful for the pollinators.