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The pivotal year I went to Hopi, my destination was the home of Thomas Banyacya Sr who had passed away a few years before.
He touched my heart in the 1990’s (and I talk about this in my recording, Fifth World Women Walking Upright). I felt called to drive across country to express my condolences to his family for their loss and to let them know how grateful I was to have met him. I set off on Route 40 from Asheville, NC, arriving days later at the Banyacya family door. I'd brought quart jars of honey to give them as a gift. (There was a beekeeper who lived around the corner from me.) Thomas’ daughter-in-law, whom I had never met, greeted me at the door, welcomed me in, received the jars of honey, and said, “Why I was just telling Thomas Jr. that we were out of honey and that I needed to go to the store to get some more.”

In that moment, unbeknownst to me, something bee-ish, full of grace, slipped under my radar and into the heart of my life. When people ask me when I became a beekeeper, I realized that it was in that moment. By the end of that year, I was in bee school and the bees got me, body and soul. They are some of the greatest teachers of my life and I have been at their feet ever since (all six of them).



If you enjoy the Prasad for Women talks and are so moved to make a donation, it will be gratefully received. Your gift helps to support my bee sanctuary (and holy bee habit).