Weaving the Web of Life

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:25:43 +0000

Last year, while on my massage table, a client of mine recounted an experience she had while her ankle was healing from a sprain. She couldn’t move quickly to do anything, so for a month she sat. One spring day she had the good fortune to sit outside in the backyard overlooking her garden with a cup of tea in her hands and the sun beaming down on her. Normally, if mobile, she would have been puttering around making a mental list of all the things she had to do to get her garden in order. This particular day though, because she couldn’t readily move, she noticed a spider in its web with beads of dew from the night’s rain weighting it down as it swayed gently off her rose bush. Both web and spider were dusted with golden pollen and reflected the suns rays so strikingly that she could not help but see it. Because she was unable to go about her busy ways she was afforded the opportunity to simply watch this captivating miracle of nature taking place in front of her. Awed and inspired by the grace of that moment, she swore that from then on she would make the time every day, if only for a split second, to take in the world around her rather than storming through it to its end.

More recently, while again on my table, she recounted the many eagle and peregrine falcon sightings she’d been privileged to witness this past month. Having grown up in a “lets get ‘er done” family, with a daily to-do list a mile long, she had been wondering what she would do and who she would be when she retired. She told me that had it not been for her forced period of sitting out the game on the bench while her ankle healed last year she likely would not have been as aware of the many opportunities that are continually available to her - if she but stopped to “smell the roses”.

Said she: “I am old enough to have experienced a multitude of intersecting moments in my life to know that magic happens. The spider’s web is both beautiful and functional, even after it’s been repaired numerous times. Whether it’s an event, meeting a person, or crisis that shakes us awake, our web appears to capture those things or people that we were meant to experience. Life, Mother Nature, and our own personal choices may leave our web torn or shredded. But, like a determined spider, we patch it up again, sometimes over and over. It may not be as pristine as the first time we wove it, however, with each repair our web becomes more uniquely our own. I may not know yet exactly what I want to be, now that I’ve retired, but I’m not in such a panic to find it. More than ever I’m willing to yield to opportunity instead of trying to force it. I am open to taking time to look around to find my best options for a satisfying and purposeful life.”

As an astrologer I have long thought of the birth chart as a web, with its own “one-of-a-kind” pattern and signature. Every web attracts events, people and experiences in order to sustain us and grow. This explains, to me anyway, why we might capture one person’s heart and another’s wrath without feeling the same way about them, and vice versa. Then there are those happy synchronicities where we capture one another in a way that is so harmonious and compatible that we can happily coexist and work together. These connections may be only a chapter in our book, perhaps a lifetime, or periodically weave in and out of each other’s web.

The point I am trying to make is that whoever we are, and whatever we are here for, we intersect and interconnect with others throughout our lives. If we are lucky, we might be fortunate enough to find opportunities to notice these connections. If we are smart, we might create opportunities for connections by actively looking to unlikely people, in unlikely places. Moments of grace are available to all, but for those who can take a moment of time to reflect on them it can make a world of difference. If we have some understanding of how we weave and what we attract it becomes easier to fathom the “whys” in our life. Like my client, we then become freer to weave our paths more consciously, navigating the pitfalls and embracing with gratitude our own unique journey.

“Give Bees A Chance”

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:38:18 +0000

Do you ever stop to think about bees and their contribution to our lives, other than when you get stung or they come after your picnic fare?

The Sweet Deal:

Honeybees provide us with honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bees wax.

When raw and un-pasteurized, they are nutrient dense and exhibit an amazing array of health benefits. They boost energy and enhance the immune system with anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. But the bee’s gifts to humanity don’t stop there. We are indebted to them and their tireless work for most of the foods we put on our plates every day. For over 100 million years bees have been doing their thing; pollinating crops, securing bio-diversity in plants, gifting us with plentiful and nutritionally powerful food sources.

The Players:

Bees are a perfect blend of form and function. Their bodies are uniquely designed to travel long distances, pollinate plants, store and bring their bounty (and driving directions) back to the hive. They have a keen sense of direction, and are able to share this with their hive mates via an intricate dance. Think of it as “Map Quest” for bees, or should that be “Nectar Quest”?

The Problem:

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is the term describing the declining bee populations worldwide. Farms and bee-keepers have found themselves going into bankruptcy due to declining hive numbers, with bees infected and dying from overexposure to our increasingly toxic planetary environment. This isn’t just bad news for those working directly with bees, it also has far-reaching consequences for each and every one of us – now, and into the future.

Bees are up against an increasingly larger array of concerning factors worldwide. They are suffering from many of the same things we are. Research is showing us very clearly that as the bees go, so do we. Numerous culprits are responsible for the decline in hive vitality. Pesticides, fungi, viruses, parasites and a variety of toxins are, perhaps separately and definitely in combination, taking their toll on the bees. Not to mention industrial beekeeping practices which work these insects to exhaustion.

If there is anything good that has come from CCD it is that the spotlight has been placed on the situation. Extensive studies are underway to address the problems currently facing bees, and measures are being taken to keep them healthy. Not to mention that we humans are becoming more aware of our actions affecting their health.

The Solution:

Bee-come aware. We live in an increasingly global community with far-reaching affects and consequences. It is crucial that we are aware of our habits and how our actions and choices affect the world we live in.

If you are satisfied with a diet consisting of wheat, corn and rice on your table (i.e. non-pollinated crops), then by all means ignore the problem. Nutritionally speaking that would be bad news, for all of us. For just as science has confirmed that getting more, not less, of the health-giving benefits of an abundant and varied diet (from crops requiring pollination by bees) is ideal for us humans, we are faced with not having them available at all.

Unless you want to pollinate your crops yourself (and it isn’t as easy as the bees make it look!), it is important that you take steps to a) become more aware of the current situation, and b) support the bees in any way you can. With a little care and tending, bees do a job that takes humans 100 times the effort to accomplish. There is no good substitution for animal pollination, and NOTHING works as efficiently as a bee.

Bees = cross pollination = crop diversity/abundance = healthy and tasty food on our plates.

If you still want to have flowers, fruits, vegetables and nuts available in your lifetime and for generations to come (in your pantries/refrigerators/garden plots) please do your part. Spread the news with family and friends, support sustainable businesses, spend wisely, consume locally, contact government agencies on behalf of the bees, write a letter to the editor and/or your local state representative. Better yet, learn how to keep bees yourself on your own property. Or get together with neighbors to help them thrive in your community. If they can do it on rooftops in NY City, you can do it most anywhere.

What will happen if we ignore the problem and continue to pollute our environment as we have for the past several decades? Do you really want to find out?

What you can do:

How you can help the bees:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/silence-of-the-bees/how-can-you-help-the-bees/36/

Watch the following videos:

“Silence of the Bees”:

http://video.pbs.org/video/995224587

“Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees telling us?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoeQodrVoM&feature=player_embedded

Brooklyn’s Urban Beekeepers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJq0vLhn4o8&feature=player_embedded

Save the Bees petition:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/epa_bees/?r=5535152&id=35258-4508339-z1ww2Yx

What's Your POP?

Weaving the Web of Life

“Give Bees A Chance”