Bee Love
By: Steven Andrew Schultz
There are no gardens without bees. I used to be afraid of them. Being a boy growing up in the 1990’s and watching the bees kill Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin in the movie My Girl, I figured one sting and I was a goner. But until recently, I learned something about bees and about honey, that changed my relationship with bees. I’m in awe now.
My nine-year old boy Jaxen is always starting his stories with “Did you know” and then he will tell me some fact about nature. I finally got to give him a Did You Know the other day about bees and it was his first time hearing what I’m about to tell you.
Did you know that it takes twelve bees to create one single teaspoon of honey? Did you know a single bee devotes its entire six-week life to producing that 1/12 of honey for you? Did you know that a single bee will fly around 30,000-50,000 flowers to get the nectar needed to make the honey? Without those takeoff and landings, the flowers wouldn’t bloom. Did you know 70% of the food you eat comes from the pollination efforts of bees? If the bees die, humans will die, too. And the bees are dying in droves.
It’s called colony collapse. As the name states, it’s the catastrophic end to the entire family of bees. The main culprit seems to be all the pesticides being pumped into our water and soil. It’s been said that if bees go extinct, human beings will be too within two years. So, you and I need to start doing something on purpose in service to the bees.
My metachrosis on bees from fear to affinity was sparked when I saw myself in them. Maybe you’re like me and have felt small. Maybe you wondered if what you do in life really matters or will last? Maybe you’re like me and because you suffer from OCD you check expiration dates on everything you eat and are always afraid of getting sick from contaminated food. Did you know honey never expires?
When I first heard that I questioned it. What do you mean by never? And to my dismay and delight, you could hide a jar of honey in the ground and a hundred years from now your great grandchildren could dig it up, open it up and be nourished by the work of those bees. It made me ponder what else never expires? And the only other substance of life that lasts forever is love. Like the honey, the love you give away today can be consumed by your offspring one hundred years from now who may never know your name, but they can know your love.
I often debate my writing students that love is the only word that doesn’t have a past tense. You never loved someone, but you love them. Love is active, present, and like honey, can’t expire. You can fall out of like with someone, but no matter how much they hurt you, your love is still there. Like honey, love isn’t generated by where it’s going but by where it’s coming from. You don’t need to know anything about anyone to love them, you only need to know who you are and that you are someone who loves.
No bee ever knows your name, but twelve of them gave away their entire six weeks on earth, traveled through hundreds of gardens to touch thousands of flowers, giving each garden rebirth and giving everlasting life through the honey they collectively produce. All that effort and the bees never eat the honey it makes or asks for anything in return. Did you know that honey has been used for centuries as medicine because honey has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Honey, like love, literally boosts your immune system and can heal. Honey doesn’t just taste good; it makes you feel good.
You need to assemble your eleven. If 12 bees produce one teaspoon of honey, find eleven other people who can serve alongside of you serving society with a teaspoon of love. Jesus had twelve disciples, and twelve bees produce a spoonful of goodness. You might feel small but take away one bee from the twelve and you can’t fill the spoon. So, assemble your eleven and get to work doing the work of Jesus: loving all by being all-loving.
Your impact can reach thirty thousand people and bring them the same beauty the flowers do. Bees raise up gardens, produce our crops, and leave something that lasts forever. So, bee love. Bee immortal. One small thing can be everlasting. And what a blessing that you get longer than six weeks to do the job of growing gardens that will produce flowers seen by people not even born yet.
You don’t need to know someone to love them, you just need to know you are someone who loves. Love is honey because honey never goes bad and love only does good. Just like honey never expires, love defeats death and travels across time. There are enough awful people out there who behave like pesticides, causing colony collapse of high-character people, so assemble your eleven and realize the immortal impact your small acts of love given compounds over centuries.
Often, when someone dies, they refer to their body as the remains. But our body doesn’t remain, it decomposes. Only your body of love given while you live continues on after you die.
Honey is forever and so is love. The only success that stays is the love you give away. Your love grows gardens. Where your love is, you remain.
Bee love!
Steven Andrew Schultz is a nationally published author with his stories published in over 12 books and multiple national magazines and local newspapers. He also wrote a monthly magazine column for eleven years in Fountain Valley Living Magazine. He has twice been elected to the School Board of FVSD and is a teacher at FVHS.
