A plastic hula hoop was the portal between dimensions when I was little. I don't recall what, if anything, prompted me to spend my quiet time after school playing in the "fourth dimension" as I called it, but I knew that I could enter this place at any time, as I often did.

After walking through the portal, I would invariably wind up in the giant grapefruit tree in my back yard where I would meet with imaginary beings who inhabited the unseen world where I played. They encouraged me to try new things and to let go of my preconceived ideas. I remember always coming back from the fourth dimension (of course, I had to walk back through the hula hoop) all excited to eat or try something new. I'd get my grandmother to take me to the grocery store and we would get something like broccoli or brussels sprouts. When we got home she'd cook them up and I'd devour them like they were the most delicious food I had tasted. And they were.

One day when I was about seven or eight, a huge swarm of bees poured into our yard and constructed a gigantic hive on a sturdy branch in my favorite tree. The hive was so massive that its base rested on the ground. It must have been at least 3 feet from top to bottom. My father, who was a professor at Arizona State University at the time, got a colleague from the Agriculture department to come over to help us figure out what to do now that we had a colony of bees that made our backyard their home.

With protective gear and armed with smokers to pacify the bees, they and my two older brothers worked to get them into man made hives, where they lived and produced award winning honey until we moved away. I loved having the bees. To me they were an extension of my family. I remember petting their fuzzy little backs when they would land at the edge of our swimming pool to get a drink of water. I marveled at their advanced organizational abilities and their remarkable form of communicating with one another. I remember doing the "bee dance" and wishing I could figure out their language so I could speak to them.

Whatever it was about the 4th dimension that allowed me to be so adventurous, I am grateful for it. I believe it enriched my life...I know the honey did.