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Thoughts Inspired by the Incredible Honeybee, by Ilse Singer, VLCE

My thoughts this very early morning, were inspired by the incredible Honeybee.

Taking, and the myth of human supremacy, is so deeply woven into our psyches, that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider beyond the convenience of the thing we do, or the product we consume.

We steal from the earth every day, in every way, digging deep into her heart, stealing her treasures, altering and manipulating the “resources” which spring from parts of her never meant to see the light of sun.

We blast and flatten her mountains, erase with a single bulldozer her ancient forests, and the wisdom which has stood witness to life for thousands of years.

We dam her rivers, and slaughter and pillage the depth and breadth of her oceans.

We separate ourselves so completely from our family of fin, and wing, and fur, and skin; stealing their food, their homes, their families, their body parts, their dignity and their every single right, including the right to breath, and to life. Without thought.

Sometimes, when we consider ourselves “evolved,” we tell tall tales of how willingly these lives are given, with every word confirming our delusion, our stance of superiority.

Sitting on our pedestal of anthropocentric righteousness, we “give thanks” thus dismissing our responsibility for the immeasurable injustice done.

The scope of their suffering, their anguish and cries, silenced, with one feel-good phrase which allows for bypassing the discomfort of our conscience.

The taking and injustice is often from those so small in size that the distance our conditioned psyche must stretch to grasp the wrong is almost un-travelable.

Take the incredible Bee for example, whose pollen we steal and ingest by the spoonful: Bee pollen is the food of the young bee … Bees gather pollen and carry it back to the hive as food for the colony. It is important to recognize that gathering a one-teaspoon dose of pollen takes one bee working eight hours a day for a month. Each bee pollen pellet contains over two million flower pollen grains and one teaspoonful contains over 2.5 billion grains of flower pollen.
“…she settles herself in and nimbly scrapes off the powdery loose pollen from the stamen with her jaws and front legs, moistening it with a dab of the honey she brought with her from the hive. The enlarged and broadened tarsal segments of her legs have a thick trimming of bristles, called pollen combs.

The bee uses these combs to brush the gold powder from her coat and legs in mid-flight. With a skillful pressing movement of her auricle, which is used as a hammer, she pushes the gathered gold into her baskets.

Her pollen baskets, surrounded by a fringe of long hairs, are concave areas located on the outside of her tibias.

When the bee’s baskets are fully loaded, the microscopic golden dust has been tamped down into a single golden grain, or granule.”

The sheer brilliance and scope of effort required to produce a single grain of pollen fills me with awe and reverence …food intended to sustain families.

How dare we.

#HONEYISNOTVEGAN

I received my Certified Professional Coach (CPC) training from Leadership That Works (ACTP), and hold a certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from eCornell University and T. Colin Campbell. I received my certification as a Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator from Victoria Moran at Main Street Vegan Academy, and am a PMA certified Classical Pilates Instructor.

https://www.ilsesinger.com

My work, at its core, is about values — not the patriarchal, riddled- with-judgment and “should’s” kind of values, but about getting crystal clear on what deeply matters, micro and macro, personal and planetary, and supporting people toward alignment, and dynamic presence, to get on with it. My intention is to further our collective embodied humanity, and a commitment to living passionately, authentically, and values-centered.

2 thoughts on “Thoughts Inspired by the Incredible Honeybee, by Ilse Singer, VLCE”

  1. That was stunning, Ilse. The raw truth, beauty, and magnitude of your words pays much respect for all that are in such desperate need of it. And I couldn’t agree more: #HONEYISNOTVEGAN.

    1. Thank you Alissa! I am deeply appreciative of your kind words.
      My apologies for the delayed reply, I’ve been in the midst of a major move and am only just seeing this now.

      To keeping our voices raised!

      x

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