- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's Thanksgiving. Count your blessings--and thank the bees.
If your table includes pumpkin, cranberries, carrots, cucumbers, onions, apples, oranges, cherries, blueberries, grapefruit, persimmons, pomegranates, pears, sunflower seeds, and almonds, thank the bees for their pollination services.
Ice cream for dessert? Thank the bees for that, too. Cows feed on alfalfa, which is pollinated by bees, and cows provide milk, a key ingredient for ice cream.
Honey bees provide us with honey, often described as "the soul of a field of flowers." But more than that, they pollinate some 100 crops, from almonds to watermelon.
So, besides saying "Happy Turkey Day," we ought to include "Happy Bee Day!"
An old Irish blessing:
“Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Love your neighbor as much as yourself.”