The Year of the Bee
On New Year’s Day I went down to the beach with my family to enjoy a dip in the ocean. After a refreshing swim I was sitting in the sand playing with my son. I went to get up and felt a pain in my calf. I looked down to see a bee had stung me! I quickly flicked it off and pulled the stinger out. Once the immediate pain wore off I started to think how auspicious to have been stung on New Year’s day…it must be a sign. After googling “spiritual meaning of getting stung by a bee” I learned that it can be a good sign. The bee is a very spiritual creature, known to move through both the material and spiritual world. “The bee sting symbolizes that with every pain or obstacle thrown at you in life, good things will come. The good will outweigh the bad, and your suffering will result in reward”.
Man I sure hope that’s true because it feels like I’ve had a lot of obstacles and pain thrown at me for what feels like a very long time. Thats me looking back in hindsight. But also present me is learning to change the way I store those memories in my psyche. This new year I set the intention to experience and feel more joy in my every day life. I am ready to be happy! Like really truly, fully, radiating happiness. I want to raise my everyday baseline state that I return to as one of contentment, rather than one of complaining or criticizing. I’ve spent a lot of precious time in a state of discontent, and I still do from time to time. I heard a beautiful quote tonight in yoga class. The teacher said “stress is the gap between reality and my expectations”. That one cut right through me.
I’ve had such high expectations for what my life would look and feel like as a grown up. But what I didn’t account for was the tremendous work it would take to get from point A to point B. When you’re a kid you have this vision of the future, and its mostly based on what you see in movies or read in books. You also have habits and an inner voice that is its own living breathing entity. For me, both of those were in bad shape coming into young adulthood. I needed A LOT of work to get to where I wanted to be. Ha! I’m still here working. But what I’ve gained from that work is tremendous clarity and a tool bag of magic tricks that bring me back to a present, grounded and centered place. It is from that place that I aspire to live from all day long. Its the mind that sneakily forms these expectations and desires. Perhaps its even creating this desire to be “happy”. I guess I just figured it out by writing word by word. Rather than wanting joy, what I’m really wanting is quiet presence. An openness to each new moment and the ability to be fully truly myself and share that with the world. If joy comes let it come and let me feel it fully. And in the absence of joy let me be equally content than when it is present. Woah, that’s the challenge isn’t it?
Ok so what’s your metaphorical bee sting teaching you? You don’t need to get stung by a bee to wake up and ask yourself what your hopes are for this year. And what are you doing to move towards it?