Be A Bee Champion

Our bees are rapidly going extinct. 

So will humans soon after if they do. 

I know that's alarmist and melodramatic sounding, but I'm not trying to be. It's the truth. These insects are the ONLY way many of the plants we depend on for food can reproduce.

Pesticides, diseases, parasites, and GMO plants are destroying our honeybees. If you eat honey, haven't you noticed how expensive honey is these days? That's because bee keepers are watching helplessly as the entire hives and multiple hives collapse and die. 

But there is still hope. Don't feel helpless...there is a LOT you can do. 

If you keep a garden, that's a gigantic start. I know you started it just because you enjoy messing around in dirt or wanted to grow cheaper food (Ok, I might just be talking about myself here), but gardens are critical for keeping our towns and cities healthy! Including some of these plants when you hit the garden stores this spring is one of the easiest things you can do to help the bees. 

If you don't garden or can't garden, that doesn't mean you still can't help! I'd like to point you to investigating and keeping Mason bees...even folks who live in apartments can keep them! 

Mason bees are tiny little bees that do not produce honey. They build their nests in reed holes. They gather and shape mud to create a multi-roomed nursery (which is how they got their name of “Mason” bee). They create a wall, fill the room with pollen, and lay one egg. Then they seal the room up and create the next one. After their work is finished, the parents pass away. The babies are born, eat the pollen, and then make little cocoons (called pupae) and sleep the rest of the year until they wake up again the next spring as adults to start the cycle over again. 

They are WONDERFUL for children! They're seriously cute and fuzzy little things, and they are such little sweethearts!  I could play with them in my hands for hours. They so docile that you can pick them up and hold them gently without fear of getting stung. While they do have the ability to sting, it's really difficult to get them to do it...unless you're squeezing them or hurting them somehow. Unlike honeybees, they aren't territorial and have no real need to defend their nests. They're generally safe to have around even if you or your family are allergic to bee stings (investigate and decide for yourself on that one, you know your medical needs better than anyone).

They are very cheap to buy, are incredibly easy to keep, are hardier and more resistant to diseases and pesticides, are powerhouse pollinators for your garden and the gardens of your neighbors, and because they do not produce honey, there are no hives to upkeep (which is a LOT of work). 

All you need is a little bee box and some reeds or skinny tubes of cardboard for them to make their nests, and a tupperwear to keep the cocoons somewhere safe and cool after Spring is over till next year.

Check this wonderful website for more information: 

http://www.crownbees.com/mason-bees/

If you can't keep bees or a garden...then you can STILL help. Open your mouths. Talk. Speak. Raise awareness! 

The next time a friend asks, "So what have you been up to lately?" tell them, "I've been learning about bee keeping!" THAT will almost certainly spark a conversation and you will have done an incredibly huge thing to make the world a better place. 

Or move your mouse and share this post. Put it on your Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or whatever you use so others can see. That's a big thing too! You have the eternal thanks of the world if you do.

No act of kindness, no matter how small, cheap, or meager it may seem is ever wasted.

Finding Courage

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the 

judgement that something is more important than fear." 

~ Ambrose Redmoon

It takes a lot of courage to get through life. Nobody goes through life without facing major life-changing events. A loved one dies. You lose your job. Your marriage is dissolving. A pregnancy comes at an inopportune time. You experience violence. You're in a terrible accident and are injured. A fire claims your home and all your belongings.

The creeping cold of fear settles in your chest and you freeze from the inside out. You're numbed; the question "What the hell do I do now?" echoes in your skull. 

And you don't know what the answer is. You just don't know.

You might pray. You might turn to others for advice, perhaps you sit and read self-help books and articles—like this one—to try to find a way to haul your wounded self up and keep going.

That takes courage.

Most people envision courage as exemplified by a hero in a movie getting up at the last second—when it looks like his end is imminent—and finding a huge surge of energy to complete his task with an awe-inspiring calm and clearheadedness. On top of that, the hero comes up with a fantastically clever way of escaping unscathed and saving everyone with panache.

That's spectacular movie fodder, but it has no application to real life. In real life, we often get beaten. We don't save the day. We don't win.

When my mother died, it was up to my brother and I to clean out our beautiful family home of 30 years and get it ready to sell. I had hoped to inherit it—my mom had always told me that it'd be mine. It was a peaceful home with a little creek out back and a garden full of rhododendrons that would bloom so beautifully in the spring along with the cherry trees. I loved that home intensely.

But my mother had left us with 15 judgements against her estate that had to be paid off. If we didn't sell the home, the creditors would descend like vultures and tear it apart, leaving us with nothing from the sale. There was no escape. 

Ultimately, I had not only lost my mom, but my home as well. I felt like Freddy Krueger had come with his horrible claw and taken me to his nightmare. 

I still had to get myself back up, go to work every day and pay my bills while I was losing everything dear to me. I felt crippled by fear. 

But that's where Redmoon’s "judgement that something is more important than fear" comes in. In that heavy defeat, I had to deem something was more important than the fear, the despair, and the sadness in order to find the courage to keep going. 

For me, that was deciding that I would have a home of my own. I couldn't have my beloved family home, but I could make a beloved family home. I could rebuild family back in the face of loss.

We sold the home, paid off the debts, and processed the grief. The situation wasn't easy or graceful. It was like being walking wounded for a long time. It went really slowly. What kept me going was my dreams and working on them. Doing that brought me light in the darkness—and hope out of the sorrow.

I met my husband around that time. He helped me through a lot, and I am happy to report that we'll be buying our home this summer. 

So that's the key to courage. When you're afraid and feel like you can't do what you need to, start thinking about things you really want to do in your life. That's what is more important than fear and where you will find your courage.

Photography by BJWOK

How to Start Any Project in 8 Easy Steps

I'm certain you've all heard this advice when you've complained about wanting to start projects that you never seem to get around to.

"Well, just sit down and start it."

It's not bad advice. The "just do it" idea has been famously used by Nike with great effect for sales of their shoes. It doesn't take much energy to start doing something—just enough to swing one leg in front of another and start walking. We all know this, but why are we still—years later—just wishing about that garden we want to put in, that bedroom we've wanted to paint, or taking that dancing class we've talked so much about—instead of actually doing it?

Accordingly, here are some quick tips to help you figure out how to stop procrastinating and finally start on what you want to do:

1.) Find out why you want to do it. What exactly is it about this project that appeals to you? Wanting to paint your bedroom because you "hate the color" might be a bit too vague. After all, if you hated it that much, you would have done it by now. If you never go into your bedroom except to sleep, maybe it's not as big of a deal as you thought and not really worth your time.

2.) What's in your way? Why have you been procrastinating? Procrastination is an interesting beast. It's more than simply being lazy or avoiding responsibility. Procrastination always has motivation behind it (ironically enough, that's exactly what you're looking for!). Take the time to sit and really think about why you are not starting. Are you too tired? Too busy? Do you have too much else you need to do first? Or are you really afraid? Be honest with yourself; fear is a very powerful instinct in all of us and directs our actions subconsciously. Indeed, you might not know you are really afraid. For example, if you aren't taking up your dream of dancing because you're really afraid of embarrassing yourself, that's a significant barrier to consider.

3.) Learn. One of the most inspirational things you can do for yourself is to sit and learn about it. Even if you're already an expert at what you want to do, just looking at pictures and videos of other folks doing the things you're interested in can be plenty to get you excited and inspired to start working with gusto. If it's something really worth your time and money to do, it's worth learning about and getting inspired over.

4.) Make a plan. Write out the stepsDraw out diagrams. Start writing out a journal of your feelings about the project, and any questions you have about your project. Physically writing your questions helps get them out of your head so the answers can follow. Write those answers down too—this helps you organize, improvise, and get it all together before you go out and spend money and time.

If you've done this much, congratulations—you've just started your project!

5.) Start small. It's really easy to fall into the trap of "I have to do the whole thing now," or to radically overestimate your time and abilities on a project. If you have time constraints from a busy career and home life, then starting small and keeping it manageable is the way to go.  It's also best to start small if you are a novice at your chosen project. Take gardening, for example.  It will likely be a disaster to try to plant an entire plot at once if you don't know how to care for it. Start with picking and potting just one plant and placing it where you want to go in your garden. Practice with it, make mistakes,, learn all you can about it. You will see if you really are enjoying taking care of it. If you are not, then the damage done is minimal. If you do enjoy it, add another plant and repeat the process. It won't be long before you have a thriving garden!

6.) Recruit.  If your project is big and you need help, then ask for it. Talk to your significant other and tell them it's really important to you to do this. Ask your friends to come over and help you, and make them dinner afterwards as a reward. Hire a professional to come out and do part of the project along with giving advice. Hire a babysitter to watch your kids while you take the time to work on your dreams. Dreams are worth sharing with others.

7.) Make the time. If you're really having trouble finding the time, then you need to consider how your life is structured. Going small and simple is a good way to start. However, if even that feels like too much, then it's time to seriously examine your life and find the (often nonessential) stressors that can be delegated  or eliminated completely.

8.) Rest and eat well. This might be a surprising step, but the foundation of all our activities in life is grounded firmly in our health. There is no point in signing up for that dance class you want if you're always too tired to enjoy it. Sleep and a good diet rich in whole foods like vegetables and lean meats will go a long way in giving you the energy to work and play the way you want.

These steps might seem like no-brainers, but that's the insidious nature of procrastination. It's like a thick fog that you can't see through. Our negative thoughts and emotions flood our minds and make us feel overwhelmed, anxious, and finally too tired and discouraged to the point where we go and do something else and forget about it for another day.  The steps outlined here are some of your guides through that overwhelming cloud; you will find others as you go along. The most important thing to remember is that working on one step at a time is enough—the rest will come.

Before you know it, you will have "just done it!"