Same spot, different perspective: What a dying bee taught me

I watched a bee die today. I noticed it writhing on the ground and thought maybe it was wrestling an ant. Do ants bite bees?

I contemplated the circle of life and wondered if I would soon see a trail of ants coming to cart it off. Do ants eat dead bees? (This was getting more weirdly morbid by the moment.)

I kept watching.

Felt a little guilty.

Maybe I should try to help it, but I really didn't know what was wrong and I couldn't really detect an ant, so maybe it was a figment of my imagination amoung all the waving legs of the bee.

I suddenly gasped and jerked back...

A gecko appeared out of no where and startled me!

It too seemed interested in the bee and I pondered whether I was about to see a gecko eat a bee. 😜

The gecko tilted its head to look at me eye to eye, kind of felt like a miniature Jurassic Park moment.

The bee kept writhing.

The gecko left.

I turned over, shifting my attention to the sky and the clouds, the sounds of a lawn mower, wind chimes, and cicadas in the trees.

I guess this bee is going to die next to me, ironically nestled up against my Case of a Creator book, I thought.

I took a deep breath and made my peace with the bees pending demise.

The next time I checked, it was STILL there writhing, but slower now. "It's probably close to the end," I thought.

I peered over the side of my lounge chair.

The bee's legs pushed and pulled, righting itself, it wobbled a few steps forward and much to my surprise immediately took flight and was gone! 😮 My jaw literally dropped... what?!

I stared after it in disbelief.

And then I did what any modern day person would, I immediately took to the internet to find out what I had just witnessed.

🐝Apparently bees can overwork themselves into a state of shut down and after they have rested, or cooled down they are good to go. It seems what I observed was a natural process of foraging fatigue and reset, or as the internet suggested "a front row seat to one of nature's weird little miracles."

Perhaps if you have been overworking, or are finding yourself flooded with all the emotions, you are experiencing a bit of your own foraging fatigue.

Maybe this is a sweet reminder, a message in a bottle, rolling up on your social shoreline to to give yourself permission to flail about in the shade awhile and get some needed R&R.

Just like in Psalm 131 maybe you'll say...

My heart is not proud, Lord,

my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters

or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed and quieted myself,

I am like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord

both now and forevermore.

Because...

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:30-31

And if you're watching someone else flail about in the shade and you don't quite know what to do, bear witness, be near and let them.

Sometimes no one really needs to "do" anything, but offer space for the exhaustion to be expressed and let the person come to a place of rest.

Flailing bees (or humans) may not be dying (in a place of utter hopelessness, though it might feel that way for a while) they may just be recooperating.

"Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5

Realistically, it might not be a literal overnight turn around, but "I remain confident of this, you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psalm 27:17 💗🙏

So flail, rest, weep, writhe, sleep, and then.... soar! 😉

Carrie Breedlove MS, LPC