Just Bee.

So many of us are suffering from mental anguish right now. There’s the long, seemingly endless road of the pandemic. There’s the long, seemingly endless road of the presidential election. There’s the long, seemingly endless road of battling cancer or fearing the worst when thinking about the health of our loved ones.

We tend to turn to prescription drugs like anxiety meds to help us sleep or we self-medicate with illegal or semi-illegal drugs like marijuana. The pharmaceutical companies are enjoying the surge.

It’s a vicious cycle. We take more drugs to counteract the side-effect of the drugs we’re already on, and on, and on…

When will we learn to walk again on our own without these crutches? Crutches that were meant to be temporary, but have sadly become the norm. Where’s our inner strength and fortitude to get us through difficult times? Where’s our faith?

Our perceptions and beliefs tell the story.

Today, with a paper cup and a junk mail flyer (no pun intended), I caught a bee who had gotten into our house. The bee frantically buzzed against the window, recognizing its home environment on the other side of the glass. It desperately wanted to get back to some sense of normalcy.

When I put the cup over him and slid the card underneath, his buzzing intensified. He panicked! His world had suddenly gone from bad to worse! It had shrunk to the size of a Dixie cup! Oh no! How did this happen?! Now I’m pissed! This is the end!, he must’ve thought.

What he didn’t know, what he couldn’t know was that he was headed for freedom, fresh air, and sunshine!

It’s the same with us. Our misperceptions can wreak havoc on our stress response and weaken our immune system. When circumstances are out of our control, our thoughts run wild with assumptions of doom and gloom.

The more likely scenario is that the Universe, God, the All-Knowing Creator has bigger plans. I believe that things happen for a reason. Not to test us, not to punish us. They just happen and we are changed by them, for the better, if we employ faith.

We can choose to come to terms with the uncertainty of the future, and accept what we don’t know, and trust that soon–or later–all will be well, as planned.

Take a lesson from the bee. Stop struggling. Bee-come aligned with a Higher Power who has your best interest at heart. Breathe. Stay in the present. Just Bee.