Debbie Becker, The Bee Lady

Debbie Becker, Bee Keeper, Oak Parker.

It's legal again to have bees in Oak Park and Debbie Becker I believe was first to get her hives up and buzzing this year. We had been waiting all summer for a cooler day to visit Debbie and the bees, how many bees, about 40,000 or 50,000. The whole process of bee keeping is fascinating to me, from starting the hive to winterizing it, and Debbie seems to have all the answers and willingness to share her knowledge. It's the sharing of knowledge that made me want to include her in the 52 Oak Parkers. Once again someone who takes their love for something and shares it with the community. Tomorrow she will even share some of the honey with people attending the Green Living and Learning Tour put together by Green Community Connections. She reminds us that although we live right by one of the biggest cities in the US we don't have to be far removed from mother nature and life. We can share our home.

If, as physical scientists assure us, we all contain a few molecules of Einstein, and if the atomic particles of our physical body reach to the outermost bounds of the universe, then we are all de facto components of all things. There is nowhere left for us to go if we are already everywhere, and this is, in truth, all we will ever have or need. If we love ourselves at all, we should respect all things equally, and not claim any superiority over what are, in effect, our other parts. Is the hand superior to the eye? The bishop to the goose? The son to the mother?”

A Quote from Bill Mollison, permaculturist.