Greetings to all in our beautiful hive, both near and far. We hope you are doing well, taking the time to notice the small things in life and sharing the strength of goodness wherever you can.
I must admit, I have been buzzing back and forth about what I wanted to share in this newsletter. I’ve been trying to figure out if I could put it all into one month, or save part of it for the next one. I think you’ll be happy to know I exercised self-restraint and will write about only one thing here. 😉🐝
You might remember that back in March we shared the exciting news that native stingless bees and their habitat won the right to be seen as legal subjects with right to exist, thrive, and be defended in court. In case you’d like to read that newsletter, you’ll find it here.
It was a stunning, ground-breaking ruling that not only served to protect the bees and the 400-500 indigenous tribes living there, but the whole of the Amazon, and therefore humanity, wherever we might be living.
Why am I bringing this up again? I was reminded of them after reading a comment on one of Krystle Hickman’s Instagram posts. I wrote a bit about her over 2 years ago in the Who Is Endangered? newsletter. She’s a brilliant National Geographic Explorer, community scientist, and conservation photographer based in Los Angeles.
Someone replied to one of her recent Instagram posts, telling her they thought she would enjoy going to the Yucatan to see the Melipona bees there. I was, of course, curious about this species of bee. This delightful 1-minute video of these amazzzing creatures transports us to Yucatan to see them up close.
And while none of Jazi’s Amazonian cousins have written a memoir quite like Bee-Coming Strong — at least not that we know of! 😉🐝 — here’s a lovely 2½ minute video of the Amazonian Melipona bees changing the lives of Indigenous women from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia.
I love learning about Jazi’s cousins on the other side of the world. As MamaQueenzieBee told her, we’re all connected, so that again, a win for the native bees in the Amazon is a win for all of us.
These tiny, mighty bees remind us just how interconnected all life truly is — a truth that feels especially poignant as we mark World Environment Day, celebrated every June 5th since 1973. It’s more important now than ever before that we support our precious environment. From the tiniest bee to the enormous blue whale, from the little dandelion to the towering oak, every form of life is precious. From the way we recycle our plastics to how much water we carelessly waste, it all adds up. Maybe you and your young ones can figure out a new way of supporting the environment and its inhabitants, whether it be planting some pollinator-friendly flowers, donating to a worthy cause, or even picking up trash. Each of us can make a difference, one small act at a time.
Next time we’ll focus on new studies showing that bumblebees are remarkably intelligent creatures — smarter than most of us could ever imagine, given their brain is the size of a sesame seed! 😯🐝
Until then, please know that we value your interest and support, and we wish you a month of peace and delight. May you thrive!
Jazianzza Azzaza Buzzabee 🐝 & Anandamayi 🙏
And as always, please feel free to share this newsletter with friends who have children or grandchildren, or are teachers, caregivers, bee lovers, or anyone else you think might benefit/delight from reading this. They can subscribe by simply going to AnandamayiBaker.com and filling out the form.
We would be very grateful if you would consider taking the time to leave a review of Bee-Coming Strong on Amazon and/or Goodreads.
“Not a single bee has ever sent you an invoice.
And that is part of the problem – because most of what comes to us from nature is free, because it is not invoiced, because it is not priced, because it is not traded in markets, we tend to ignore it.”— Pavan Sukhdev, United Nations report,
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.