Cover Photo: Photograph by Massimiliano Latella/Unsplash
Photograph by Massimiliano Latella/Unsplash

Learning How to Be Gentle in the Face of Trauma—Others’ and My Own

Bees do not attack—just as trauma survivors do not attack, but rather defend. She will not sting you unless she believes the colony’s life depends on her defense. Because when she stings you, she dies.

This is Backyard Politics, a column by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee that sees the world through the lens of urban farming and agriculture.

Author of  Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember  (Ecco/Harper Collins).  Her short fiction and essays have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Guernica, The Rumpus, The New York Times, and BuzzFeed, among other publications. Her novel is forthcoming from Ecco / Harper Collins.  Beekeeper.  She/her.

christinehlee.com

twitter: @xtinehlee