Witness 02: Busy As A Bee, Resting Like A Bee
Challenging the idea that rest must be earned.
A QUIET JOY
FROM YOU
As a mum, sometimes it's hard to find quiet time, especially guilt-free. To notice any simple joys. I was rushing, off to the supermarket, something needed for breakfast the next day, listening to disco music to help me pick up my speed. Then I saw it, a trumpet shaped flower, blue as a robin's egg, peeking out from a front garden, and in the centre, curled up, tired from his own busyness, a fuzzy bee. Covered all over in dusty, yellow pollen, fast asleep. A sign, for me to take some time just like him soon. Simple rest.
Rachel, London
A REFLECTION FROM ME
A bee doesn't ask if it deserves rest. It knows it does. As the ultimate hard-worker, pollinating its way around town, bees aren't burdened by human conditioning that says rest must be earned. Bees have a vital role to play, one that they didn't ask for. It just is. Because of that, do you think a bee is questioning if they deserve to sleep if they didn't get to enough flowers that day? Absolutely not.
That's a human thing. One that is inherited by all the things we consume that shout at us to keep moving. One that is sold to us by capitalism to keep us in a dizzying loop of working harder and harder, as our worth feels so tied up in it. While we all know that we need sleep to survive; rest and slowing down can sometimes be seen as cute optional extras with a side dish of gnawing guilt when we dare to take it.Â
We forget that the only condition attached to us slowing down and resting, is our existence. Just as bees exist, they deserve to rest, they are a part of the whole. The whole crumbles without them. The same is true for us. We are not the leaders sitting outside of the ecosystem. We are not separate to nature. Or above nature.
We are nature. We are vital. We are needed.
Part of the whole.Â
 As of yesterday, there are 8,055,538,209 people on this planet. Isn't that phenomenal? 8 billion hearts, souls and minds all existing right here on this giant blue marble. Each one having a role to play. Each having an impact on many precious lives.Â
Imagine if no-one fancied making art that would inspire us so deeply? Imagine if no-one fancied becoming a dentist? Imagine if no-one fancied growing vegetables? Imagine if no-one fancied smiling, holding or loving anyone? Imagine if no-one complimented anyone? Or delivered food. Or drove trains. Or wrote the books that move us. Imagine if no-one fancied singing the music that transcends us? How different this world would be.Â
We are all needed.Â
With all of that said, with that being part of our existence, with all of us having vital roles to play, do you really think that you don't deserve that ten minute micro nap? This isn't about the practicalities of rest or packed schedules. I get it. We have responsibilities and bills to pay. Time is a privilege. So, let's make slowing down a perspective. Let's find mini moments to rest and breathe.
This is about the foundational idea that as a human being with Earth as your home address, you are allowed to rest, because you are needed. From this place of knowing, we can then figure out the how's.
When someone asks how I've been, I no longer say that I've been soooo busy, just to make conversation. I say that I'm here, living, learning, growing. When we change our dialogue, we change our collective narrative.Â
Liberation comes from us releasing the idea that we have to earn rest through ‘doing', and realising that rest is earned from just ‘being’.
You deserve to snuggle up under a blanket like a pollen-dusted bee in a flower.
Because you exist.
Part of the whole.
4 Little Practices For…
QUIET HEALING
MAKE…
This incredibly comforting bowl of Thai Mango Sticky Rice.
Let cooking be a meditation. Feed someone. I eat mine in my pyjamas.
LISTEN…
To this song for 1 minute, with a hand on your heart.
As you inhale, repeat the word ‘in’. As you exhale, repeat the word ‘out’.
ANSWER…
This question in your journal/notes app:
What does my mind, body and heart really need right now?
FIND…
A space outside to sit in contemplation for at least 10 minutes.
Feel the sun on your face. Relax. Take everything in.