Les and I would like to kick off this blog and adventure with some words reminding us why we need to be mindful in beekeeping and more generally in our lives..

We are all interconnected, and every piece of our world is linked in some way. So when we pull too many strings from too many parts of this interwoven life fabric we are a part of, it begins to unravel. Our job is to remember to carefully and mindfully take care of our world and all the creatures that live in it, so we can start mending the fabric our world, finding ourselves back to an awakened mindfulness in the process., enlightened and at peace with our conscious.

As we progress in our journey of recovery and healing, we will discuss many topics,in this blog, some very pragmatic and practical, directly linked to beekeeping and specific techniques that can be used in all apiaries and all bee hives; others more conceptual and at time philosophical.

Stick with us: our hope is to find a path to a better, more sustainable and natural way to beekeep and live in harmony with our beloved pollinators and the rest of our ecosystem; and to build a combined mindfulness to help all of us together mend and heal our world, and ourselves in the process.

In the meantime, I am leaving you with the wise words of my favorite beekeeper and mindful, gentle soul, my mentor and friend, Les Crowder:

""No man (creature) is an island, entire of itself; every man (creature) is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's (creature’s) death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind (life), and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

The purpose of poison is to kill. They give various poisons different names to sell them for different purposes. But PESTicides don’t just kill pests, herbicides and fungicides all commit collateral damage, because life is all "collaterally" connected.

There is no them. The only way we are going to rise is if we ALL rise together.

Honeybees have a financial and nutritional value that forces us to see the value of the connection we have to pollinators. We have been blindly breaking that connection and would continue until it was too late if it were not for beekeepers with money invested demanding compensation.

We are smart. We can figure out how to raise enough food and not poison ourselves and the other creatures we live with. We don’t have to sterilize our waterways in order to reduce mosquitoes. Lots of creatures eat mosquito larvae. Our microbiome is telling us the same thing. A thriving biology lifts all life and poison sinks all life.

If we seek ways we will find them. We can find ways to enliven the earth, or we can kill THEM/each other/us."