Sunday, July 28, 2013

the legacy of home invaders






A group of trespassers invaded our home about a month ago.

Thankfully, these aggressors had no particular interest in any of our material belongings. They were simply looking for a place to crash. (And no, our uninvited guests weren’t out of town family members: They actually got here the day before yesterday… and we invited them!)

As it turns out, a swarm of bees found our real estate an ideal choice for their new digs. And it is a fine place, to be sure. “Sexy as crap,” my son says - although, I’ve never thought our house to be particularly bee-worthy.

In any case, what we think really doesn’t matter, because bees have a pretty one-pointed intelligence…“Save The Queen!” And while they are amazing little engineers, their single-mindedness sometimes gets in the way of their innate skills, because their first attempt at a new honey factory was a raucous scrum under a small beam in front of the living room plate glass window. (Great visual I’m told – I’d flown out of town just the day before.)

After a week of ‘not vacationing’ in Northern California, my hubby arrived home and reported that it appeared the mob had taken flight to what must surely be more appropriate lodgings. You know, a secluded place out of the wind where the blue-collar bees could get their work done, and the queen could pump out newbies.

Wrong! Those resourceful little buzzers had actually found a bee-sized crack between the house’s support beam and the fascia board under the outside overhang. Busy, busy, busy! Buzz, buzz, buzz! They worked that crack hard for what turned out to be over three weeks. Oh dear!

Now – our family has had quite enough of death, destruction and the aftermath this past month and a half – and, being of the tree-hugging, nature-aware folk that we are, it was a definite that we weren’t going to obliterate the apiary.  However, none of us were willing to deal with a gaping hole in our ceiling when the honeycomb grew too heavy, nor to cohabitate with roaming bees when they took over the entire house. So - the professional bee charmers were called in to save us all.

The growing hive
Sadly, we had to trade the inevitable hole in the ceiling, for an immediate hole in the roof. This reclamation effort took a bit of time to coordinate, and cost a decent chunk of change to remove what could have been a much larger architectural calamity. And, fortunately, or unfortunately (depending upon your point of view), I missed the entirety of this phase of excitement.

Currently, we no longer have an infestation within the confines of our walls. Instead, we have a nice bee box atop our living room overhang that allows the entire worker bee network to much more successfully maintain their industry. And, soon our little canister of pollinators literally will be put out to pasture to provide support for the agricultural needs of our State.

So what exactly does this newest rambling post have to do with anything?

Well, first of all, it gives our family peace of mind knowing we did something positive for some of the smallest, yet most important members of our global community. We could have gassed them out, without a second thought, and moved on with our lives. That would simply have contributed to hastening the demise of humanity. Or at least for those of us who eat food.

Truth is, the ancient Sanskrit phrase, “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” resonates deeper within our hearts these days.

Loosely translated, this powerful adage means,
“May all beings in the world be happy and free, and may my thoughts and actions, in some way contribute to that happiness and that freedom for all.”
 You see, when a heart gets broken open - for whatever reason - astounding things happen. Just like the bee-sized crack in our roofing allowed us to see into the dynamic, living organism that is the hive; a crack in our heart allows the inner-Self to expand profoundly. It allows our energy to be similarly free and motivated by love.

And may we all open up to recognize we are happy and free.


Please Save the Bees!
Here’s more info:


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