Birds and Bees and Beavers

The answer to everything can always be found in Nature. This axiom was vividly displayed in an old Kevin Bacon movie entitled “The Air up There” and has always resonated and proven true.   As humans in our culture become of reproductive age, we often here that it is time to teach our children about the Birds and the Bees.  But there are more lessons to be learned from these and the other life forms that inhabit our planet.

Birds are cultivators of the land. They eat plants and seeds leaving their droppings behind to reseed and spread the source of food for all who come behind them.  Johnny Appleseed learned from the birds.  Birds halt their travels long enough to mate and raise their young.  After they complete their family responsibilities and the fledglings leave the nest, many will rejoin the tribal rituals of the flock as they migrate to their winter homes.  In the spring, flowers and trees will spring forth and nourish the birds as they return along the path.

Bees are unique. They too are important to the cycle of life that provides sustenance to all. They gather pollen to make honey while at the same time, spreading it to germinate the plants so that flowers and crops will reproduce and bear the fruits of these endeavors for the benefit of all.  Collectively, they are workers gathering the materials they need to build the hive and create the honey, all for the benefit and protection of the Queen, whose main function is to be the Source of life and give birth to the bees that comprise this hive.

Beavers build dams. They are considered the engineers of the animal kingdom and a keystone species in nature.  They mate for life and build dams to create still deep pools to raise and protect their young.  These dams capture water and create pools and lakes that become the foundation and source of life for a myriad of species.  In effect, the beavers build the town or city that becomes a community for all.  To mankind, they appear destructive because they often interfere with development.

In every instance, it would appear that the beavers, the birds and the bees, all give more than they receive. They work hard, take care of their own, find time to play, but at the end of the cycle, their activities create a larger network of life.  They build cities and help to feed its inhabitants.

It is not only how we create life that matters, it is how we live it. We are farmers and are cultivating a precious crop. We have to recognize that there must be balance and harmony and that we must give more than we receive. The moral compass that we need to stand in our role as occupants of the planet is found in the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule if we time to understand their meaning and strive to apply them in all we do.

Like lions, tigers, and bears, we are also hunters and predators. Our survival is also dependent on feeding off of other forms of life.  It is not just about survival of the fittest.  There is a cycle of life that is dependent on mutual consumption for the benefit of all in the food chain.  Just recently, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after years of none existence.  The result was a renewal and rebirth of the park beyond the wildest imaginations of the participants in this experiment. The wolves began to thin an overpopulated deer herd that had spread outside the park looking for food, as they consumed all the grasses along their path.  As the deer population, thinned, other animals fed off the carcasses of the deer.  Depleted grasses returned, erosion ceased as banks could once again hold water and restore the ecosystem of the park.  Nature does a good job of taking care of its own when there is balance. Mankind is destroying this balance, because he is out of balance within his own being. There are rules of nature that were given to us to follow once we had the intelligence necessary to understand them.

We are custodians of the planet, here as god’s creation to work, create families and find time to play. If we do it right, we give more than we take. Everything we have it borrowed so we can create and sustain life.  We are here to live in harmony with nature not to conquer it. If not, both our God Source with the help of Mother Nature have plenty of weapons in their arsenal to make us go away.

If mankind were to go on trial today for crimes against nature, God as Judge would likely give us a death sentence. Oh I forget, we are on trial every day and if we don’t live by the Power of Ten, we will perish, if it is not already too late.

As a citizens of the word, whether complicit or complacent, we are all guilty.