«Honey Bee Blues» by Mark Conkling

Jeff Corley, DDS, a cosmetic dentist and the eldest sibling of the Corley family was born broken and afraid, lacking what is needed to form a healthy personality. As he grew, family events revealed Jeff’s deadly fear of bees, and he became convinced that honey bees hate him and create his misery. At age seven, he accidentally blinds Emmy Lou, his only childhood friend. That tragedy drives his ill-fated need to overcome shame and to make a new identity. Little Jeff fades away, and a new shadow child takes his place, an obsessed child with a narcissistic personality disorder who grew into a self-centered man filled with damaging spiritual pride. Jeff believes that marrying the perfect woman will solve his problems, but the women he finds do not measure up. Then he meets Elissa Fortuna, a strange medicine woman, who removes his deep pain but sends him away with unrequited love. Heartbroken, he attempts suicide by thrashing into honey bee hives, but spiritual forces work through the bees to keep him alive and to tear away his pride. Jeff’s hopeful transformation arises from both the natural world and his deepest wound, the blinding of Emmy Lou, the sad event where he first mislaid his love and compassion as a child. Includes Readers Guide.