Golden Bees and My Failures

Last night as I was sleeping/ I dreamt--marvelous error!--/ that I had a beehive/ here inside my heart./ And the golden bees/ were making white combs/ and sweet honey/ from my old failures.... by Antonio Machado, version by Robert Bly. This verse from the poem "Last night as I was sleeping" struck me deeply yesterday. After reading it, I couldn't get it out of my mind, and still this morning - I hope it speaks to you also. Oh, the Great Blue Heron is back! I've missed him the last couple of mornings. I've added a new activity to my morning hour of meditation - walking the labyrinth between sitting and studying. It seems inaccurate to say, reading, when it's much more like studying. The lectio divina practice we Pod Sisters did this weekend is creeping into my reading which makes it much more like study. Perhaps it's my age, but reading a profound bit once isn't enough for me. At times I read again because Ididn't grasp the concept. At times I read again because it spoke deeply to me and I want it engraved in my heart. At times I read again because of the lovely sounds of the words. (This happens so often with the poets!) Machado's verse of the bees and my failures set me up to reread for all of these reasons.