The Beekeeper's Promise

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Being mindful. Rather than having a mind that’s full,

You smell of honey and sunshine. Even after all that. The darkness of this world can't dim the light that shines from you, Eliane.

Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower, But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee. For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life, And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love.

In the midst of winter, I found that there was within me an invincible summer. Retour à Tipasa, Albert Camus (1952)

Do you remember what I said last weekend? That they’ve taken our voices, as well as our country.’ She raised her eyes to his. ‘They can’t silence us forever, though. The day will come, eventually, when the truth can be told.

I know how living in a state of fear creates an inertia. It saps your strength and drains your energy, until you become trapped like a fly in a spider’s web. The more you struggle, at first, the tighter the silken threads are woven around you, until finally escape becomes impossible.

this is not just a marriage; it’s an affirmation of life and hope, of courage and quiet strength, of the defiant joy that exists alongside the sadness and the fear.

The cross is just as much a part of the oak as its branches and its roots, just as my scars are now a part of me, for ever more. And yet, there is resilience. The body finds a way to close the wounds, to live with the scars. To heal. And, yes, even to grow.

her fingertips brushed his hand for a fleeting moment, a touch as gentle as the brush of a butterfly's wing

Then one by one they raised their faces to the sky. 'Like a field of sunflowers'.

...It's an affirmation of life and hope, of courage and quiet strength, of the defiant joy that exists alongside the sadness and the fear.

Stand tall, Eliane... Don't let them destroy you, too. Promise yourself. We will survive this. We won't let them beat us. Courage, ma fille, courage.

Outside!’ shouts someone else. ‘After all, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass – it’s about dancing in the rain!

And so the last breath he took was perfumed with beeswax, and the breeze that blows across the river. And, even as it slowed, faltered, and then stopped, his heart was filled with love.

trapped like a fly in a spider’s web. The more you struggle, at first, the tighter the silken threads are woven around you, until finally escape becomes impossible.

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass – it’s about dancing in the rain!

I know as well as anyone that sometimes you have to look beneath the surface to discover the secret history of places. And of people.

know as well as anyone that sometimes you have to look beneath the surface to discover the secret history of places. And of people.

Under the sustained stresses of the war, the bonds of the community were beginning to fracture.

Eliane sighed and thought, Just like people. It was easier to be neighbourly when food was plentiful and you were plump and contented; these days it was a case of merely surviving and that seemed to bring out the worst, whether you were a chicken or a human being. By and large, the villagers of Coulliac had stuck together. But,

But Eliane, the war can’t last forever. So what happens afterwards? When it’s over, every one of us will have to live with the things we have done.’ ‘Yes, Mathieu,’ she replied. ‘We’ll have to live with the things we’ve done. And every one of us will have to live with the things we haven’t done, as well.

Whether we win or lose this war, we will have to live with the consequences of our decisions. I’ve asked myself: “What will be on your conscience when all this is over? What will your decision be when you get to that crossing point?” Well, I’m at that crossing point now. And I’ve made my decision.

Will I be up to the work? What if I let them down? What if I ruin someone’s special day because I make some terrible mistake?

to have known love is the most important thing there is.

All of these inspirations, along with a love for the place, the people and their history, have found their way into the books she’s written, which have been translated into German, Norwegian, Czech, Turkish and Slovenian. Fiona now lives in Scotland, but

What a little mouse I was, naïve enough to be flattered, to mistake the attention he bestowed on me for love. I wanted it to be, and so I made myself believe that it was something it wasn’t.