Lessons from bees

A swarm of bees took up residence in a tree beside my home. Having never seen such a thing, we found the buzzing cloud of stinger-toting pollinators rather unsettling.

My instinct: get rid of these things before my family gets hurt.

But before acting, we did some research and contacted a regional beekeeping association. We learned that bee swarms are a natural phenomenon that occur when a colony reproduces. The bees would only stay in our tree until the scouts found a permanent location for their new hive.

And sure enough, that’s what happened. After the colony arrived in their lively swarm, they settled in for the night in a compact, quiet mass. Less than 24 hours later, they had moved on without leaving a trace.

Here’s the lesson: some problems are temporary. They’re not even problems, really. They’re occurrences that show up unexpectedly and they resolve on their own. No intervention necessary.

Sometimes the trouble comes when we leap into action out of fear … when the best thing to do is to observe with curiosity.