The Power of the Things we Take for Granted
Most times, the answers or solutions that we spend so much money running around for are found in the simple things around us. If we just pay attention to them. As humans created by a higher Life Force, we are never alone in our life’s journey nor are we without help when we need it. But I think we really need to return to the place of humility in order to be able to pay attention to and also learn from the small and supposedly insignificant things around us. I believe that’s why in the Christian bible, the wise king Solomon alluded to the fact that men should learn wisdom from the ant. I have thought about that passage of the bible for years, and have asked the question, why go to the ants to learn wisdom and not the mighty elephant who should have more wisdom based on size? However, size really is not the thing, content is. I realized, in my meditations, that to learn from the ant, you cannot be on your feet. You have to either kneel, stoop down or even go on your belly to be able to see closely enough to learn from them. That for me was a mighty mind opener on how life really works and how wisdom is passed from one generation to another. You cannot learn wisdom from the ant while riding in your fine luxury car, but when you get down to their level, you will learn and be wise. And for context, it’s really not that wisdom is a preserve of ants nor is it that the elephants lack wisdom even in their massive sizes, but I think the actual wisdom is the ability to be humble and learn, especially from the people and things we rather would call or see as insignificant.
A world of self-deception
We have created a world system that is based on many falsehoods and foolish things, one of them being, “eat or be eaten”. Some even use the statement that life is a jungle and only the strong survive. But that is actually the consequence of our foolish, proud, greedy and egoistic approach to life and not how the Supreme One intended us to live on earth. The One who made everything on the earth in such abundance was aware, from the beginning of time, that there is never any time that there will be lack, if man will only accept to live on earth based on simple laid down principles. But no, the greed and the wickedness in the hearts of men will not allow even nature to thrive within itself. So, now we have fools running around talking about climate change but who won’t stop establishing the companies that emit the very pollution, or destroying the forests, which effects are causing the climate change. How dumb is that?
Back to my initial thought about how solutions or answers are found all around us if we choose to acknowledge them.
Have you recently been noticing something very weird with bees, flowers and nature in general?
Let me share a few:
For more than two years now, we have been noticing bees fly into our apartment and in a few minutes, they are belly up…DEAD. We can’t tell what is chasing them or what is causing their deaths. We don’t use any form of chemicals in our house.
We walk past shops where very beautiful and bright flowers are sold but notice no presence of bees or any fragrance. Which is not normal or natural.
We have been hearing from the internet that animals are beginning to avoid some kinds of foods. I am talking about foods made in the labs, GM foods and the like that are grown with toxic chemicals. Meaning nature, by divine wisdom, understands that there is an imbalance in our environment.
Now, here is the thing I am trying to say. When are we going to pause and re-look at this dying society we call civilization before we all are dead of the very evil trees we have been planting all these years? We take life for granted when we pollute our atmosphere with toxic substances, forgetting that the more there is toxic substance in the air, the less there is oxygen and that is the beginning of some disaster that is about to happen. The dying man on the sick bed with an oxygen mask on his face must understand what it means that breathing clean oxygen without machines is gold worth protecting. But are we paying attention to things around us and how much we are taking for granted the very things that need protection?
Honoring the little busy bees
For some time now, in my house we stopped using white or brown sugar for our beverages. We use more of honey and then recently we added a bit of jaggery which is more healthy than processed white sugar. It was a conscious decision that we made knowing the health issues connected to processed sugar and the many other chemicals that are used for making the sweeteners in food products. The rate of obesity and diabetes should inform you of the health issues we have plunged our society into.
Bees are some of the most, if not the most important creatures that make our food chain possible. From pollination without which no crop will bear fruit or make food for us and the honey they spend their entire lives producing for our tables. But they also happen to be the most unappreciated creatures in our lives. We have national laws that protect the elephants, the rhinos, the other wild animals and even give them sanctuaries for their protection, but forget the little busy bees that make our food possible. So, when they die or are affected by the change in our environment due to the usage of toxic chemicals, we do not pay attention to them. Why? Maybe they seem too irrelevant with their buzzy busyness in our gardens. But while we are less attentive to their plight, like forgotten maids, they are busy trying to tell us that if we do not change our ways and correct the evils in our society, we will soon have no place to call home. But for now, let me say a huge “Thank You” to our friends the little busy bees.
I read a meme somewhere on Facebook that talks about the bee. It says “The bee lives less than forty days, visits at least a thousand flowers and produces less than a tea spoon of honey. For us it is only a teaspoon of honey, but for the bee, it is a life.”
My wife, seeing that I was writing an article about the bee, sent me another meme talking about the plight of bees. The meme says “I’m hungry please plant flowers.” And the picture that was used was a pencil drawing of a bee that looked really hungry with an empty bowl, frustrated and with its belongings tied to a stick like an old pilgrim about to go on a long journey. That journey sounds like some annihilation if we do not do something soon to rectify our dishonor of bees.
These memes may sound funny to someone reading this article, but to me, they are not funny. They are indicators of how much trouble we as humans are already in. But taking a bit of detour from bees, let me talk about the human and spiritual bees in our lives.
Honoring our human bees
I had a rather funny experience many years ago. I usually received a text of jokes from a platform I had subscribed to and which I would forward to a few friends. After a while I think I stopped receiving the sms and thus stopped forwarding to friends. A particular female friend that was among those I sent the jokes to, called me and was asking about the jokes and that she misses them. I don’t remember what I told her that day exactly, but in my mind I was like, if the jokes were things that you liked and would have loved to continue to have, how come you never even deemed it fit to say thank you or even say hello whenever you received them but won’t waste time to ask me why they stopped coming when they did?
That is how unserious we are with the things we know are life-savers but which we take for granted because they come “cheap” or “easy”. But to the one giving it, they cost life and limb.
Life can be very interesting or dull depending on those who we associate with and how much of appreciation we allow to flow from us to those who make life a little bit easier for us. There are no small gifts or small acts of love. It costs someone something when they give gifts or show kindness to us and we owe it to ourselves to appreciate such people who go out of their way to reach out to us. Life is a gift on its own and like the little busy bees who do not rest to both produce our food and also put golden sweetness on our tables, we must be those who give life to others, appreciate those who give out of their lives to us in terms of time, money, gifts, good thoughts and any other things they give. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU to every human “bees” in my life.
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