honey or bumble bee

Some weeks the world slows you down whether you're ready or not. On a new orbit with a new decade opening up for me I wondered what would unfurl ahead. 

Instead, I've been sick in bed, watching life happen from a distance. Over the trees across the highway, I track the light shift with the weather changing as the day passes. 

native bees are vanishing as honeybees take over

As my eyes refocus closer along the balcony rail, I notice a cluster of bees hovering over a curled up one. It alone is still while the restless crowd buzz overhead. 

I read recently that bees are dying in record numbers. There was a 60% loss of bee colonies this winter alone.

This staggering collapse is threatening not only the livelihoods of commercial beekeepers but also the stability of agriculture worldwide. Those dependent on bees to pollinate their crops - including apples, melons, and almonds. 

their worst winter on record - over 60% of managed hives lost

I am staggered by the significance of these tiny creatures and the role they occupy throughout the ages. Homer's Hymn to Hermes describes three bee-maidens with the power of divination. Speaking truth and identifying the food of the gods as honey. 

Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"). Honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees are also associated with the Delphic oracle, and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee. 

young female A. Sericeus enjoys a Gaillardia bloom. Photo: tdlucas5000

Some of the oldest examples of bees in art are rock paintings in Spain which have been dated to 15,000 BC. The image of a community of honeybees has been used from ancient to modern times. 

In English folklore, bees would be told of important events in the household, in a custom known as telling the bees. Honeybees, signifying immortality and resurrection, and were often depicted in royal heraldic emblems.

gold plaques embossed with winged bee goddesses
Camiros, Rhodes. 7th century BC

Experts at Cornell University, working alongside the USDA, are urgently investigating potential culprits - ranging from parasitic mites and disease to pesticide exposure and climate-related stress. Despite a growing number of hives, the health of individual colonies is deteriorating rapidly.

It’s no wonder honeybees have dominated the discourse when it comes to these proverbially busy insects.

The bee world is so much more diverse - there are bumblebees, sweat bees, leafcutter bees, mason bees, carpenter bees and more - with each species playing out its own role in the ecosystem. Unfortunately, many wild bees are in bigger trouble. 

young female A. Sericeus enjoys a Gaillardia bloom. Photo: tdlucas5000

While honeybees are a non-native species introduced for agriculture, their decline underscores a broader crisis affecting wild pollinators as well. Wild bees, which are harder to track and receive no human care, are facing shrinking habitats and possible extinctions. 

The economic impact is already felt in rising honey prices and crop shortfalls. With federal research capacity weakened by past budget cuts, academic institutions are stepping up to fill the gap. 

As one devastated beekeeper put it - “All that’s left are empty boxes.” The health of bees - so crucial to food production and ecological balance - may now be approaching a tipping point. 

The good news is, grim doesn’t mean doomed. There’s a lot we can all be doing to reduce threats and make the planet more hospitable to these and other pollinators.

a study of bee conservation

I have spent decades learning the difference between ambition and depletion. Between moving through life and abandoning myself inside it. What I didn’t expect was what the slowing down would teach me.

Somewhere in the stillness of that, I remembered something I keep having to relearn. The sacred has been waiting beneath the noise the entire time. We don't have to earn our way back to it. We only have to become still enough to let it find us.

What I want - what I think so many of us want - is to feel present and free inside our own lives. Not to escape, but to inhabit life more fully. I will not abandon myself in pursuit of a life that never arrives.