Do you know anything about bees? The only thing that ever crossed my mind about the yellow and black creature was an unhappy childhood memory. I innocently sat down on the bench of a picnic table too close to a wasp that immediately stung me. I screamed and wailed from the pain.

From that day on any yellow and black insect that resembled a wasp, yellow jacket, hornet or a bee spurred instant fear in me. I have always kept my distance as I watched bees pollinate flowers and respected their space in this world. That is where my knowledge and interest in bees ended…until this week.

I read something that caught my eye about bees, so my curiosity forced me to dig deeper into the life of bees. The first thing I found was that there are over 20,000 species of bees in the world, so I left the 19,999 variations alone and I narrowed in on honeybees. I wanted to verify the fact I read that stated:

   A bee lives a maximum of 40 days, visits 1000 flowers,
    and produces 1 teaspoon of honey.

That statement gave a whole new meaning to the quote, “Busy as a bee,” and I wanted to learn more. I spent an afternoon searching for information about honey bees and concluded that the statement is basically true. The life span varied a little in many articles depending on the time of year the bee is born, weather, pesticides, predators, and the role the bee holds in life. For example, the Queen lives much longer than worker bees. The amount of honey also varied from 1/12 of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon.

My mind couldn’t help but compare the life of a bee to how we live. A bee seems to come here with the knowing and understanding of its place and purpose in life. It is simple – they are here to pollinate and produce honey. In other words, in my words, they are here to smell the roses and create sweetness.

What a glorious way to live. As the poet William Blake said, “The busy bee has not time for sorrow.” They don’t waste time on jealousy, sadness, anger, or any of the trivial problems of life that we humans seem to sit in. There isn’t time for that. I like to think they know their time is short and finite. They know their mission and they get busy!

What if we could live like that? Maybe in bee time 40 days is equal to a 90-year life in human years. Humans also have a finite time to live, but we expect to hit the 90-year mark. We think we have all the time in the world to get things done, but there is no guarantee that we will live to be 22, 74, or 99.

We spend way too much time trying to figure out what our place and purpose is when it is just as simple as a bee’s. At least it is in my mind. I believe we are here to learn, teach, and love. When we have learned what we are here to learn, taught what we are here to teach, and loved and been loved we are done. It is simple.

So why do we waste so much time on jealousy, sadness, anger, and trivial problems in life? Why don’t we focus on what is important and get busy living with intention? Why don’t we pay attention to smelling the roses and the little things that really matter? Why can a bee devote its entire life to creating the sweetness of a teaspoon of honey and we think it is never enough to spread on one piece of toast?

Maybe it is time we learned something from bees.  It’s time to get busy!
                             ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
                                              Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                                      Live your days with intention-
                                           there is no time to waste. 
                               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Are you part of a group, a team, a school, a club, a crew, a family, a religion, or a community?
​Of course you are. Humans have a need for connection. We fear isolation. We want to be included and belong.
 
We mirror the actions of others to gain acceptance and approval. As a teenager, you may have tasted your first beer at a party. You hated it, but kept sipping until the taste was tolerable. You felt like you were one of the cool kids. You felt like you belonged.
 
We shift our shape and adapt our actions to match who we need to be in the moment we are in. One moment we are a parent. At work, we are employees and bosses. With friends, we are confidants and counselors. With a date we may try to be who the other person wants us to be. We go to a concert and become kids again.  Even as an adult when we are around our parents we may act differently- conceding and needing approval. 
 
A different version of who we are exists in the minds of everyone who knows us. Our minds work hard to determine who we need to be and who they need us to be. Their minds work hard to decide if we are who they want us to be. 
 
The need to belong is an instinct. It can push us to act in ways that feel uncomfortable. When we bend and mold ourselves to be a contorted version of who we are, we don’t recognize our own reflection in the mirror. This continual shape-shifting is exhausting - and can become a problem.
 
We are not paper dolls cut from flat, one-dimensional paper. We all have different roles in life and different flavors of our personalities. Many times we hide areas of who we are because we are afraid to share our entire selves. We disguise parts of our personalities that we fear will hinder our belonging and inclusion with others.
 
What if we blended the parts of who we are into a big, bold, beautiful collage that reveals all of who we are? What if we could be ourselves? Our crazy, goofy, wild, authentic selves all the time? Inherently, we understand that we need to be rational and in control of our actions. We can’t be a constant disruption or nuisance and expect to be respected, liked, or welcomed. But we can bring all of those flavors of our personalities with us wherever we go.
 
Henry David Thoreau said, “It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.”
What if we looked at each not with our eyes, but with our hearts and accepted the entire package of each other’s personality… flaws, quirks, and all?
 
Begin using your heart to look at your family, friends, and coworkers. Look deep into their hearts. You may begin to see the layers of their personalities that they have kept hidden – afraid to share. You may see the fun-loving side. The joyful side. The layer of pain they have experienced that holds them back from being the shining light they could be.
 
When you allow your heart to see their hearts you come to realize we are not all that different. We have different talents, experiences, and thoughts, but we all want to be seen, connected, and belong.
                                           ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                    Pennie’s Life Lesson:
           When you allow yourself to be the authentic person you really are,
                        you will attract the people you are meant to be with.
                                                        You will belong.
                                  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. ​

​I wasn’t that angry. On a scale from 1 to 10, I was probably a 2. I felt like I was having a discussion and expressing my concern. The person on the other end of the phone line said,
“When you draw your sword, you leave a long shadow.”

What? What did that mean? I wasn’t yelling. I wasn’t even talking firmly. I was relaying my experience and explaining how it probably was happening to others. I had an easy suggestion on how to change the system. That comment didn’t hit me well, and my number immediately doubled to at least a 4.

That conversation was years ago and ended with a mutual understanding of the situation. But I never forgot that comment. Now when I am higher on the anger scale I think about my sword and the shadow it could cast. I think about how my words, not only affect me, but the person I am talking to, and the people that hear it and share it with others. The shadow can be long, dark, and cloudy.

I am not perfect. I have said many things in my life that I regret. I wish I could suck words back into my mind and never let my mouth give them to the power of the sword. I do try to be more aware of how my spoken words, texts, and emails hit others. Sometimes I fail.

I have also come to realize this concept can work in the opposite way. The power of the sword can work for good. Just as anger, hateful words, and actions cast a heavy dark shadow, love, kindness, joy, happiness, and empathy, can cast a long, bright, clear glow.  

Think about the logical simplicity of this. If you give someone a smile and a compliment first thing in the morning, it brightens their outlook. They in turn may feel better about themselves and are nicer to others. If you allow a driver to move in front of you, they may not be late for their appointment and be more relaxed and kinder throughout the day.

If someone is a witness to your act of giving or volunteering, they may be encouraged to give and volunteer too. And yes, if you buy coffee for the person behind you in the drive-through line, most of the time they will buy coffee for the person in the car behind them.

And so it goes. The glow of love and kindness is long. These actions reflect as if the sun is shining on the polished metal blade of your sword. Words not only affect us but the person we are talking to, the people that hear them and share them with others. Instead of leaving a shadow, you give a bright gift of light to everyone.

Actions are almost always given back to you. If you are angry, anger will be mirrored back to you in the form of defensiveness and aggression. Two swords are drawn.
If you are kind, kindness will be mirrored back to you in the form of gratitude and love. The sword becomes a bright beacon that showers light over all those involved.
During that phone conversation years ago, I wasn’t very angry. Looking back, I don’t think that was the intent of the conversation. As with everything in my life, the conversation was to teach me a lesson. A lesson of caution that I have remembered for years.

The dark shadow of the sword is a real thing. I believe the power of light is even stronger.
                               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                 Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                        When you are ready to cast a shadow of darkness,
​                                    be someone who shines light instead.
                                ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. ​

I don’t remember exactly how it started. One of us did something we thought was great and announced, “I won the day!”

The competition began.

My husband would mow our acre and a half property in between rainstorms, and he won the day. I would try a new recipe and create an amazing meal and I won the day.

This went on for weeks. Sometimes we both did something amazing and had to divide the day… one of us won the morning and the other won the afternoon. We even had a few days where our efforts created an equal tie.

Somewhere along the way we had a revelation. This fun competition resulted in us getting so much more done. We began completing tasks we had put off for months or longer. We were moving more. We were feeling better. We were proud of what we accomplished. This made us want to do more.

That was all great, but what we realized was it went way deeper than that. When we looked back at all the things we had done, something jumped out like a neon sign flashing in front of our faces.

Most of the tasks we accomplished, we did so with the other person in mind. I wasn’t creating fabulous meals for me. I was creating them for him. It brought me joy to see his face when he ate them. He wasn’t detailing the inside of my car for himself. He was doing it because he knows I enjoy a clean car. We were doing things for each other that saved the other person time. Things that made each other smile. Things that the other person wanted done, but didn’t have time to do. Things that were a surprise and out of the ordinary. Things that brought joy and happiness to the other person.

Some of this has been simple and easy. Some of this has been hard, sweaty, I-don’t-really-want-to-do-it work. Either way, this has become a habit, a ritual, a gift to each other, with an award at the end. It is now a big deal to be able to say,
“I won the day!”

Winning the day is a glorious feeling. An inner badge of honor. A reward for gifting love to the other person.

That is really what it is. A way to show love. A gift of love. Usually when one of us sees what the other person did, we announce, “YOU just won the day!” If no one says that we check in with each other and ask, “Did I win the day?”

I believe that is really code for, “Did I make you feel loved today?”

What I know about my husband is that his top two Love Languages are acts of service and words of affirmation. So, if I do something for him it makes him feel loved. If he does something for me and wins the day, he will receive a boost of affirmation. It is a win-win either way. (See The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.)

This process has grown organically into something bigger than we could imagine. No, we don’t get up every day and stand at the starting line with our work clothes on and race to see who can do more and finish first. Most of the time it is done in a subtle manner - no whistles, no standing ovations, and absolutely no walk of shame or label of loser.

I don’t remember exactly how it started, but I do know what it created.  A daily gift of love.
                                ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                     Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                                    Start winning the day – not just for you,
​                                               but for someone you love! 
                                ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

#CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2023 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information. ​