Like a Bee

What comes to mind when you see a bee? Run for dear life, or admire nature’s little helper?

Happy New Year to you, dear reader. I hope 2021 is going well for you. I never get tired of hearing or saying, Happy New Year! If I say it long enough, perhaps the year will be new. Old problems will pass away. Hope will be reborn and all the troubles that tormented us in 2020 would be no more. A mother can only hope for the best.

So, do you have an answer to my question? Do you see honey bees as a potential threat or selfless creatures? You might be wondering where I’m going with this. I crave your indulgence, just keep reading. Imagine if there were no bees to embark on the multiplying task of pollination.

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Flower lovers like me, who enjoy the angelic display of delicate rose petals glistening under the morning sun will be left heartbroken. Pinning for nature’s floral loss and hoping to watch flower petals detach from the flower buds once again and fluttering in the wind like soft winged angels, whose wings are flapping promises to protect and catch me if I fall.

Honey bees are champions of pollination.

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They promote food security by helping flowers and some crops such as clover, reproduce by transferring pollen from one plant to another. The relationship between bees and plants is symbiotic. Bees feed and survive on nectar from plants. As they feed, they deposit pollens for reproduction.
This year, we should try to be more like the honey bee. Turn away from parasitic relationships and embrace a symbiotic one. Learn to support friends and family. Don’t be that friend or family member that keeps taking and requesting for favours without ever giving back.

Without pollination, many flowers and flowering plants would have gone extinct by now. Thanks to the busy bees, more plants will escape the list of endangered species. A part of our new year’s resolution should be to help protect Mother Nature and our immediate environment.

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We start by keeping plastics off the streets, out of drainage systems, and away from water bodies. In the words of former US president Barack Obama, “climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now.”

In the same light, let us stop passing off adulterated honey as pure honey.

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I have lost count of the number of times I’ve picked up a fake bottle of honey from a shelf in a supermarket. The label on the bottle bore promises of no additives, and 100% natural honey. But when tasted it turned out to be a mixture of honey with sugar syrup or high-fructose corn syrup, modified to look like real honey.

Honey bees give us unadulterated honey freely, without expecting rewards. It is worrisome that humans, who are above animals and insects are sometimes more beastly than them in behaviour. Why should we intentionally sell fake honey as the real deal? Now, that’s appalling.

This is a new year, let us treat each other as we would want to be treated.No passing off fake products as authentic ones. Like the honey bees, everything that comes from you should be genuine. If it is faux, let the receiver know. Let our activities and lifestyles help to preserve and protect our immediate environment and the world at large.

Wishing you a Healthy, Productive, Safe, and Happy New Year.