Our lives are a series of experiences and encounters.
Each new encounter is a blank canvas upon which we can paint the experience we create.
Acts of kindness—random or intentional—create powerful energy fields where both parties come away from the experience feeling uplifted and with a renewed sense of meaning. Some research suggests that the giver, or doer, gets more from giving than the recipient does from receiving.
We are now in the season of giving, sharing, loving, reaching out to others… of looking beyond our own lives to our greater community to see what is going on and how we can help.
Not all kindness involves doing something for another human. Sometimes we are presented with a chance to save or help a creature that is quite unlike us.
Take this delightful little 8:24-minute video by Atomic Shrimp called I Speak for the Bees. Following a storm, this fellow was suddenly presented with the opportunity to assist a sweet little bumblebee in need of warmth and food.
Acting quickly, he places the bee on a warm surface and gives it some sugar water. Just 45-minutes later, it seems he has succeeded in saving the life of this bumblebee.
In the video he ponders whether it makes a difference to the world that he saved a single bee… he thinks probably not, but that he got a lot out of doing it.
It does matter. Not because of how much that single bee might contribute to crop pollination or honey production… In demonstrating his unconditional kindness, waves of caring ripple out into the world. A bond was formed in that moment when one being helped another, due to good will and an open heart. A video was created and shared with thousands of people, broadcasting that gentle act of kindness. As we see the small insect struggle to survive, and then grow strong enough to fly away less than an hour later, we wonder did anyone miss her? Where is she going? Back to her nest, perhaps, to place food there for her young that will hatch in the spring.
So please, share this video with others, and don’t hesitate to reach out to perform your own acts of kindness as you move through life. The joy will be yours.
Let us all see this as the season of giving, no matter where we are in the world or which faith we practice. Let kindness be our currency, to one another and to all creatures of the earth, for we all co-exist here together.
Let's BEE KIND to all bees, to whom we collectively owe so much of our own wellbeing. Watch this blog for more ideas in the coming weeks on what you can do to help bees in 2020.
Happy Holidays!