BEEing in Love
“For bees, the flower is the fountain of life. For flowers, the bee is the messenger of love.
-Kahlil Gibran
The other day I got a text from a dear friend that read “A bee just followed me for like 5 minutes, made me think of you”. When I saw this I giggled to myself and honestly got a little giddy. You see I love bees and hearing about them, seeing them, and learning about them is one of the simple things that brings me joy. I actually want to be a bee keeper one day, this summer I even bought a book on how to start and reached out to a few bee keepers wondering if they’d BEE interested in giving me the latest BUZZ, of course I said I would BEEHIVE…if you’re not at least smiling a little bit that really STINGS…sorry sometimes I get carried away when I WING it. Okay weren’t those jokes pretty SWEET though? As good as HONEY? Eh, debatable. Anyway, the point here is I love bees, but the friend who sent me that text and many other people I know and love fear them very much. I mean it makes sense, they have the power to sing us and getting hurt in any way naturally evokes fear in all of us. But as I taught this friend a few days prior while we were sitting at lunch and then joined by a bee, bees can feel our energy and they will match it. If we fear them and try to hurt them they will do the same back but if we love them they will love us…and couldn’t we all use a little bit more love right now?
One of my favorite quotes is from Carrie Bradshaw and it is “When I first moved to New York and I was totally broke, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I felt it fed me more.” Now I think this quote is absolutely hilarious and I love how she articulates how something other than food could “feed her more”. I really feel this and for me, especially this summer, I was deeply fed by love. This summer I read, listened to, wrote about, pondered, and discussed at length about love any chance I could. The idea, the feeling, the experience, and just everything about love feeds my soul. And although I too fear rejection, heartbreak, loss and grief, the extent at which I love everything about love is far greater than those.
This summer was one of the most transformative summers I have ever had and since being back at BC I have seen and felt so much growth among my peers. The most beautiful growth for me to see has been the ways in which my close friends have blossomed in their understanding, outlooks, attitude, and perception over the past few months, they never fail to amaze, teach and inspire me. But I also have seen people who I don’t know well enough to see their internal growth, walk around campus with noticeable growth in their physical strength, especially among the boys.
COVID-19 has presented day to day challenges for pretty much everyone, but it is truly amazing to see the degrees of strength my friends, family, peers, and myself have gained as a result of this virus. Personally, the muscle I exercised and grew more than any other time in my life was my heart. But just like to build your quadriceps or triceps one must do a physical activity that exhausts the muscle so much that the fibers that make up that muscle break apart and then build back stronger. For my heart to grow in the way that it has it too had to break. It broke for a boy, it broke for everyone who has been hurt and affected by racial injustices, it broke for the people who lost their lives or lost loved ones due to COVID-19, it broke for the people who had to quarantine in unsafe environments, it broke for the seniors, and it broke for the people who lost their jobs, businesses and savings as a result of COVID-19. My heart was hurting deeply from all these breaks but slowly as the weeks became months I found my heart growing with love and gratitude. And to the people who shared with me little parts of their hearts to help heal mine, I cannot thank you enough.
So when the bee circles back and comes to join you I hope you welcome it with love and gratitude, I recognize the stinger is scary and fear provoking, but as some of you may already know, once a bee looses its stinger it no longer can live. Bees pollinate flowers, fruits, and vegetables, they help create life and are vitally important in creating so many of the things we love and enjoy. At the cost of loosing the things we love It doesn’t seem worth while to live in fear of the stinger. So choose love, because like with bees, the people around you will match the energy you put out, and couldn’t we all use a little bit more love right now?
P.S. I know this is such a hard time for so many people, if there is any love I can give you, please do not hesitate to reach out. I grew my heart this summer so I could love more deeply and if love from me would help you in anyway please let me know.
Love Always,
Casey
