As we celebrate the abundance of the earth that nourishes our bodies and the communities of family and friends that support our souls, I have been thinking about the seeding of abundance performed by honey bees. These small beings work industriously to collect flower nectar that becomes honey in their hives. As they go from flower to flower collecting liquid sunshine for their own sustenance, they inadvertently collect and spread the pollen of the flowers they visit. The seeding process is vital to the life cycle of all the flowering plants, and to the production of most of the food that human beings grow and eat.
Without the work of these tiny genetic messengers, we would have very bare tables at Thanksgiving.
Contemplating the bees what I am struck by is that the vital pollination process is something that they are probably unaware of. They are simply doing their dance of life for themselves and yet this also creates even more additional abundance for the whole web of life the world over.
When we are focused on doing our spiritual practices and work, we do it for ourselves, but this work also has a great impact in the world around us. Most directly with those family and friends that we live with, or meet from time to time, who may benefit from our words or deeds, but always from the example of our being. Our energy of being radiates into the global fields and supports all life well beyond our knowing and physical presence.
I recently watched a movie called Searching for Sugarman about a musician who recorded several albums in the early 1970’s. These albums seemed to vanish into the world with no visible impact, and the musician went back to his life, walking in the power and integrity of being himself and humbly serving those around him.
While he seemed forgotten his music made its way around the world to South Africa where it spoke to a generation of men and women struggling to change the apartheid system there. This man, who was utterly unknown at home and who knew nothing of the fruits of his work, became more famous there than the biggest bands in the rest of the world.
Only decades later, when some of his fans decided to track down the story of the singer who had so influenced their lives, but who they thought was already dead, was he discovered simply being himself. He was able to finally visit the country his music had inspired and be recognized by those he had affected.
Being yourself, doing what your soul is called to do, or even just doing your own soul’s growth work, has an impact in this world. You may never see it, but it is there. Like the bees you may not even know what or who you are pollinating with your essence and being, but that doesn’t change the gift for those that are receiving it.
So in this season of celebrating abundance, take time to celebrate your Self, especially the aspects of your soul that no one else seems to see: validate them, and give yourself permission to make time and space for them just for their own sake, knowing that somewhere, somehow, each time you speak or act from your soul, you are spreading more pollen, seeding abundance into the world.
(© 12/2014)
