"Hummy hum hum!"  A song drifted down into OldTree's senses.  "Stuff yourself and eat your filler."  There went BittyBee again! She was teasing some poor caterpillar.  OldTree listened carefully to Bee's song, for she enjoyed the energetic expressions of her friend.   BittyBee was only five feet above number forty-seven oldie root, where Tree could hear extremely well.  Tree breathed out her spicy fragrance to the friendly Bee, for that is how the two companions spoke to each other.  BittyBee's pollen sifted down gently, caressing the root of the friend who was both near, yet very far away

"Your hummers are in a fine fiddle today, Bee!"   Tree told the magical insect.

"Yes, indeedy, Tree!  My heart is full from the joy and knowledge of life!" Bee answered.

"Yet I perceive that you are a bit tired,"  Tree whispered, her apple blossom fragrance dipping a bit, discreetly.

"Yes, sometimes I long to go somewhere new.  My cousins always beg me to lead them in games and in hunting.  I do not have enough time to explore!"

"But," reminded Tree, "Your life is a blessing to them!"

"It surely is!" agreed BittyBee, blowing Tree a kiss. "Yet I hear a call.  Learn, Bee, learn.  Be the caterpillar, be the honey-suckle.  Be the wind.  Be the sky!  Be the universe!  Oh, Tree, do you ever get ennui?"

"I surely do.  For I have much healing to offer those in need, yet I am left alone on this hill.  Often I feel out of sorts and useless, and then the ennui seeps in, all heavy and clinging, like the coldest dew. That is the loneliest time in the world."

"Tree!  I know what we can do!  I will come to visit you!"

OldTree gulped and shuddered a little.  The lovely, magical Bee coming to see her?  She could not imagine it!  Tree had never pirouetted in her life!  Tree had never led a group of friends anywhere! Tree had never even been noticed at all.  She had not an ounce of magic.  Her trunk was covered with ugly scars.  One autumn, she had almost died in a fire.  Bullets had lodged in her.  Raccoons and skunks used her for their passing urinal.  Pine cones littered her duff. For the last few years, the conifers had blocked much of the sun, and Tree had produced precious few blossoms upon her crown.  What would BittyBee think of her?

Tree tried to remember her place in the universe.  She was one of a Whole.  She was one whole being.  She was here for a reason.  If she were not important, she would not be here.  A little of her shyness and fears fell away.  They fell away faster than she thought they would.  She must be getting better!  But she shared her concerns with BittyBee, so that BittyBee would know that she was not unfriendly.

"BittyBee!"  Tree's fragrance undulated on the breeze, which shared the sloughing off processes of a long living tree.  "BittyBee, I love you, but do not come to visit me!  I fear you will be disappointed, and never wish to talk with me again.  For I am old and plain, with very few blossoms."  OldTree started to feel sorry for herself then, but did not shed a tear, fearing that the majestic conifers that surrounded her would scorn her state of being.

BittyBee listened to the quavering words of the ancient, plain old Tree.  BittyBee laughed, and remembered how often she had been plagued by her own shortcomings.  For Bee was a dreamer and schemer, her schemes interfering with her dreams and her dreams interfering with her schemes. And she was a wayward wanderer, or wished to be.  She longed to travel far away and to learn and be new things.  Yet she was needed at Hiveyhome.  BittyBee knew she was not a proper bee, with all this getting distracted.  Her friend, Tree, did not have these problems, Bee was sure.  Yet Tree would understand.  Bee knew somehow, with her magical sympathetic awareness, that OldTree would understand.

So in the instant these thoughts crossed her mind, BittyBee laughed, and her wing vibrations increasing by one eighth!  Bee said to Tree, "Silly!  Of course I am coming to visit you!  I don't care what you look like!  You could be purple with pink polka dots, and I would still love you!"
 
OldTree listened to the words so easily cast out, yet representing the learned processes of a hundred thousand kindness.  Tree's fearful heart melted in the warmth of the accepting words.  Tree knew then that Bee knew the wonderful Secret!  All are part of the Whole!  All, even Tree, would not be here if they were not important!  Tree, feeling much better, answered her friend, "BittyBee, you are the most beautiful and magical bee I know, and yet you wish to be my friend?  You may come to see me, and let the leaves fall into the wind!"
 

BittyBee zipped down to the forest floor, and buzzed a root.  Her coloring took on the graying brown tinge of the outgrowth, and Bee did not move for one second.  She felt tired, and patient, just like an old plant. She ached for more sunlight, and dreamed of water, sweet water.  She stretched out and breathed, and all the nutrients of the universe flowed into her. She contracted and expanded, and all the nutrients flowed out again, speaking "rest, and glory!" to the sad and discouraged in the Whole. BittyBee was discovering the life of the trees.  She felt as if she had become a tree, and could understand much about her friend on the hill.

Frantic whining reached the prone bee, and she knew that Hiveyhome was running low on beebread for the little queens.  BittyBee sent a good-bye on the wing to her rooted companion, and hurried home to fulfill her obligations.  "I will visit you, friend Tree, said Bee, "When the 116th honey suckle in the thirtieth row by the stump, has lost her savoriest nectar.  You shall see me then, OldTree!"
 
All that early spring, Captain BittyBee expended herself, working to resolve the needs of Hivyhome, though she longed to leave, if only for a little while.  For Her Majesty was failing a bit, and the Hive was not at it's peak energy, as it had been for the last four years.  Bees were dropping a day sooner, and the eggs were not all developing as they should.  The meadow was getting smaller, and BittyBee needed to lead her charges farther afield, in search of sweetness and life.  Rumor had it that Hiveyhome had recently been invaded by a couple of huge, stupid bumblebees, and there were some other interlopers in the area. Food must be provided and stored, or they would not survive the winter!  One day, Bee glanced at a wing, and observed a slight tearing at the edge.  She hoped she was not going to become tattered and old soon!  She had so much more to learn and do and be!  Her magic spiraled out from her, wasted here and there. It would be wonderful to be a rabbit and taste the clover in that way!  It would be so illuminating! And if she could only cross the creek on the stepping stones, like a deer, surrounded by sparkles and mossy rocks.  One day, she planned to do this.

"Come!" a train of bees clamored to her.  "We cannot stay here sipping lady slippers!  The Queen is dying!  The Queen is dying!  The new Queens are untried, untrue!"  BittyBee sighed and swung her slightly ragged wing into service.  No time for to play games with her cousins now. Her throat ached with sadness, for she desired to fulfill her unspent magic.  "Why was I given this gift?" the exhausted Bee wondered.  There was no time to enjoy the glory of it.  New gardens must be found, for the honey must be improved, and it's preservative qualities must be increased by a factor of  3.6 percent, or the dwindling would continue into oblivion. BittyBee buzzed down one more time, near the sprawling root and breathed in the spiciness of it all. But the ever present train of cousins followed, and she knew she had to be about her business.
 

"Soak, soak, stretch, soak!"  Tree umphed up her sap and turned her leaves to the light.  Her baby fruits were gaining sweetness and plumpness, and calling for light to increase!  Each year, Tree must go through the cycles of providence, giving and giving to one and all that needed her.  Yet no one gave a thought to her, and her loneliness and separation wore on her each day.  The conifers around her carelessly imbued the soil with their constant acidity, laughing in their harsh way, swaying, and never bowing to the Whole.  They dropped no blossoms, tended no baby fruit, yet their limbs reached to the strongest light, and their root sought out water more quickly than OldTree could even think!  As she opened to thoughts of moisture, Tree felt the presence of BittyBee, that magical hoyden, zooming near the cracked root, down by the lady slipper patch.  BittyBee could rise above the cranky, aloof conifers!  She could go anywhere she wanted, indeed, she could BE anything she wanted!  Her youth never failed her, and her spirits and humor never left!  Her magic awaited her, and enchantments followed wherever she went. Tree sent her spiciest fragrance to Bee.  "Stay and talk to me for a while, my friend.  For though I may seem old and wise to you, I am truly lonely and isolated from you."  No reaction from Bee.  As usual, she was off and running.  No time for an old friend. Tree felt her sap falling and diminishing.  She must not allow these negative thoughts to rule her.  "Rest and glory, rest and glory," she affirmed.  But it all seemed so futile.

The rain fell on Bee and Tree, and one went for cover, one expanded and gloried.
 
But the morning dawned with pinked clouds, jewels of dew hanging on the spider skeins, and musty soily smells, all bathed in the sunlight.  The cousin bees danced their little dances, and displayed their equipment.  The moisture from their wings was soaked into the atmosphere, until, at exactly 10:38, the wings retained the optimum moisture for for flying and carrying.  BittyBee and her charges headed into the west meadow, where they had not been for a week.

BittyBee, energized by the crystalline magnetic charges in the air, felt a little of her playfulness return.  She swooped and frisked, singing a little song:
 

Bluebird was bathing and rooting in the crack of the old stump, sticking his little tail in the air.  BittyBee, amused by his lack of decorum, buzzed him and smelled an iridescent feather. BittyBee's fuzz split into fine feathery fronds that reflected the blue of the sky.  She expanded into an exact duplicate of Bluebird, mimicking his every move.  She exaggerated the movements of the tail feathers, however, quivering her equivalent of an avian rump in the air.  Her action sent down showers over her head and that of the confused bird, who thought he might be looking at a brother of some sort.  The cousin train of honeys coughed with laughter as they buzzed. Their Captain was finally paying a small price for her hijinks! BittyBee heard the derisive chortles and her focus returned to the job at hand.

BittyBee's morphing magic coursed through her cells without a lot of conscious thought, and she returned to her true form, somewhat soaked.  Shaking off the stumpdew, she flew up to the sun, warmed herself, and sped down to the honeysuckle that was the tallest in the first row she sensed.  She walked her dainty legs over the plant, and inspected the goods.  A little taste of honeysuckle nectar would swiftly inform her if this food would help Her Majesty rejuvenate.  Pew!  a slightly rancid edge to the sweet liquid put BittyBee off her buzz!  This would never do!  Hiveyhome would not survive the year on inferior beebread and jelly made from this!  On to the east meadow!  BittyBee marked the location of the flowerhead, and prepared to move on.  The bee leader told herself, "Remember to stay away from the 116th honeysuckle in the thirtieth row by the old stump, if we would have our Queen protected."

The beeline flowed east and BittyBee felt her responsibilities settle heavily on her heart once again.  She felt a slight irritation near the sacs on her legs from the traces of the inferior honeysuckle nectar. She could use some brushing, but no time to think about that now.

OldTree's roots starting observing a more frantic clamor from the cousin honeys.  "No time, no time," she seemed to hear from them.  Yet Tree had all the time in the world.  Time to dream, time to glory, time to feel the Whole and forget about her troubles.  She did not need to feel the lonliness, yet why did it persist?

BittyBee almost stopped in midair.  The line of cousin bees barely missed slamming into her, which would have been an unheard of breach of decorum.  The words she had spoken to OldTree so long ago came sliding through her consciousness:

"I will visit you, friend Tree, said Bee, "When the 116th honey suckle in the thirtieth row by the stump, has lost her savoriest nectar.  You shall see me then, OldTree!"
 
Words are magic, and because BittyBee was a magical entity, she could not deny them, nor would she wish to do so. The very thought of the covenant made between the two living and greatly diverse creatures sent sparkles of arcane energy zipping through the bee's essence.  Nodding to Lieutenant Harmony, she informed her that she, instead of Bitty, would be taking command of the cousins.   Bee breathed deeply, increased her wing vibrations, and flew away from the line of honey laden insects.  Here was OldTree's root, here was OldTree's smell.  BityBee breathed again the healing scent of her friend.  "I'm coming, Tree.  The honey suckle blossom has lost it's savoriest nectar, and it is time to visit you."
 

Tree saw and heard Bitty, for she sensed all that happened around her roots.  The reach of a tree's senses is more than can be imagined by most living creatures.  Tree had been waiting for this time.  She had thought of a surprise for her friend that was coming to see her. She began.
 
Out she stretched her old branches to the sun and the sky.  The healer tree dreamed of pink tinged clouds in the springtime that matched the shade of cherry blossoms at their peak.  Breathe, dream.  Breathe, dream.  She dreamed of roses and mouse tails and shells by the river.  Breathe, dream.  Breathe dream.  Areas of her bark and leaves were slowly taking on the pink and rosy hues of nature before her and she dreamed of them, empowered by Love.  If she was one with all things, as was Bitty, why could she not learn something of her magic?  The now pink and green tree went in to reverie.  Midnight and violets,  and hushed purple shadows strewn through grapevines melted through her imagination and manifested themselves throughout her arboreal cells.  Purple tints burst thought the brown and pink and green.  Breathe, dream.  Breathe, dream.  Tree stretched out to sunlight and breeze.  "Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory," Tree murmured.  A silver mist settled around her, and light sprung from her.  Her roots stretched and crackled and rested from their ceaseless search. "Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory."
 

"Tree!  Tree!" Bitty cried,  "I'm here at last!"

"Bitty!  Bitty!  I see you.  You are here at last!"  Do you still love me even if I am purple with pink polka dots?"

Bitty remembered then her own words of tender assurance to Tree in her moment of need.  Bitty began to quiver and shakes with gales of laughter at the great cosmic joke of greeting perpetrated on her by the friend who had waited so long for this visit.  The giggles and guffaws of the two diverse creatures sounded throughout the valley, and all shyness and ennui left that day.  Their discussions went deep and their words cannot be told here, for they extended to the beginning of the world and to the end of time. Healing and magic sparkled through their beings as they talked. A silver mist surrounded them and hid them from the world.

OldTree reverted to the greens and browns of her heritage in a few more moments, and Captain BittyBee, rejuvenated, her ragged wing no longer aching, returned to Hiveyhome to fulfill her duties. A miraculous change came over the hill, meadow and valley from that day forward.  When springtime came around, OldTree blossomed exuberantly, and the petals' intoxicating fragrance was imbued with a heady effect of exhilaration.  Hiveyhome's queens were almost exclusively nourished from the royal bread and jelly extrapolated from OldTree's nectar and extruded from the enlivened bees.  OldTree's blossoms were carefully pollinated from the richest sources, and her healing influences were strewn far and wide over the valley, along with a strange silver mist that appeared at unexpected times.

Legends of  a mysterious enchanted forest began to be told.  A solitary fairy, Serafina, whose heart was full of longing for that which is ineffable, traveled there in search of the legends.  When she behold OldTree on the hill, she recognized her destined home, and entered the Tree.  A door mysteriously manifested for her, for this was her own place of abode, intended for all time.  Treeheart she became, the Dryad she became, and her forces combined with the miraculous vibrations of the recognized Whole.  Healing and magic reigned adamant throughout that time and that place for all the weary travelers who should happen to come that way. If they will listen with their hearts, they might hear Treeheart call to them, "Welcome, weary travelers, for here in this place you will find that which is ineffable."