Time to Take a Beat?

My son keeps bees, and this was the first year he rented out a hive to an orchard. The orchard is about an hour’s drive north of us. Basically, in the dead of night, when the bees are peacefully sleeping (do they sleep? I don’t know, so when they are not out collecting nectar), the beekeeper covers up the entrance to the hive to transport them. Once at the destination, the cover is removed.

Not much happens for quite a while, and then one bee flies out and makes increasingly larger circles around the hive. After a few minutes, they zoom back into the hive, and again, nothing much happens for a while. We imagine there is quite an animated conversation going on inside the hive. Then two bees fly out and make the same circular flight path.

Usually this time of year, bees are coming and going from hives at a rate of a handful every second (or more). Not these bees. The move slowed them down. They were taking the time to get the lay of the new land before getting back to work.

For me, this has been a great reminder that when my universe turns upside down, it’s OK to take a beat and regroup. Just like a bee hive on the move, we need time to think, adjust, and get our bearings before racing back out there again.