Think about our daily habits and you can’t escape the fact that bees are an important part of our lives.  Morning coffee and tea, honey on toast, an apple in our child’s lunch, mid-day snacking on almonds or grapes, a cranberry martini after work or apple pie for dessert at a dinner party. 

Our holidays wouldn’t be the same… lacklustre dinner plates with just turkey, potatoes and stuffing without the “stuff.”  Sadly, candied yams, apple cranberry stuffing, roasted brussel sprouts, squash and pumpkin pie would vanish from the menu.  The recipes handed down from grandma would be relics of the past.  Empty pumpkin patches could mean plastic jack-o-lanterns littering the streets on Halloween night.  Depressing?  

To give you a sense of the magnitude of our food supply and its link with bees, here’s an extensive list of some of the crops they pollinate:  

Almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, beans, blueberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cantaloupes, cashews, cauliflower, coffee, cranberries, cucumbers, eggplants, grapes, herbs, honey, kiwis, mangoes, okra, onions, peaches, pears, peppers, pumpkins, spices, strawberries, squash, sweet potatoes, tangerines, tea, tomatoes, walnuts and watermelons.

On the upside, this Thanksgiving, let’s celebrate and show these beautiful bees our gratitude for all that they do to contribute to our quality of life and well-being.  Be mindful and appreciative of the food we eat, generate thoughtful conversation about our place and responsibility on earth.   Make small acts of gratitude a practice.    

Learn about the splendour of bees!  Watch one of several visually powerful documentaries Tales from the Hive, More Than Honey, and Vanishing of the Bees.   Purchase your honey from a local beekeeper, get to know beekeepers and listen to their stories, plant a wild garden and raise awareness across your social networks by tweeting, liking, posting and pinning.  It starts with a few small words… bee thankful to start the conversation. 

“When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others”- Dalai Lama.

Happy Thanksgiving!