Feminist Beekeeping: Trust yourself

Trust yourself. Trust yourself. Trust yourself.

Look, if we’re going to do better as earth stewards, we’ve got to practice trusting the inner voice more. There is no manual for how to listen to your bees. Or your body. Or your heart. You have to do your very best to go with that gut feeling. Or womb feeling. Or heart feeling. Pick an organ. They all feel. But trust the feeling. Whether it’s a feeling to open your hive and check on them, even though they seem fine. Or a feeling that they are struggling with a predator even though you see no signs. Or the feeling that your bees are grateful to you even if you can not speak their language.
So often when we open our mouth to say we just “have a feeling”, we get the eye roll or the proverbial pat on the head, while “experts” tell us what’s really going on. Sound like beekeeping to you? How about being a woman at the doctor’s? Same story? Or in politics? Or the music industry? Or in science? Or or or.... how often do our feelings get spoken of in dismissive terms, by ourselves and our peers. What would happen if our society wasn’t so contemptuous of “it’s just a feeling.” What if we gave the feeling as much credit as a “hunch” or a “stoke of genius” (re: male intuition being celebrated). 
Once a female cop told me I was just a frightened girl making things up when I called the cops about a stalker. I wasn’t.
Once a doctor told me I wasn’t anemic. I was making things up. Turns out, I was.
Once a dream told me there was a black widow eating the bees inside my hive. There was.
Once, I turned down a street on my birthday because I “felt” there was a swarm of bees nearby. There was.

The first step to using our voices is to trust our inner voice. Sure, do the research, educate yourself, use all your faculties, and when all is gathered and combed through, set it aside and let the inner voice speak first.