The World Is Ordered by Bees

The world is ordered by bees, by the trembling wings of the butterfly, by wildflowers strewn across the land in the same way stars are strewn across the night sky, by roses held captive in their gardens behind high stone walls, enjoyed only by those who have them, unseen and only dreamt of by the have-nots.

The world is ordered by the cycle of seasons, each in their turn bringing birth, growth, maturity, and death, by the cycles of sun and moon, day and night, by stars constellating across the sky—a sky that looks different to every eye that looks upward.

The world is ordered by rivers that cut the land into pieces so that some of it becomes useful and the rest remains silent at the banks, at rest, save for the bees and the wildflowers and grasses where turtles hide and frogs sing.

The world is ordered by the old church where people gather to sing out their hymns of hope for their own future and their lullabies of rest for those sleeping beneath stones in the churchyard.

The world is ordered by city centers and town squares, by grids of streets and the straying country road, by paths that mark forest floors and the broken grass of the plains, by the crest and wave of each mountain and valley, by the rocks and sands edging the coastlines, all of these covered in the history of disappearing footprints left out of fear or by faith, by necessity, by belief, or by the uncertain tangle of life itself.

The world is also ordered by arms that reach out with palms open flat to the sky, and by hands that would claw stars out of the heavens if they could. It is ordered by eight billion maps that cover the entirety of the earth, where all land and seas and skies intersect with the hopes and dreams and desires of each individual cartographer, even those who have no idea where their map will lead them or what they will find along the way.

The world is ordered in every part by those forces that bring together, add to, and multiply, and by those forces that tear apart, subtract from, and divide.

It has been forever thus and forever will it be.