Untangling Teammates

My family is going through a very difficult time right now. I would prefer to stay out of the details, and this will be a brief post.

On top of this challenging time, I’m starting a new job. I don’t know if I have ever been this exhausted and overwhelmed in my entire adult life.

Routine is important. A sense of normalcy during challenging times is important. This is why I’m writing today. So, even if no one reads this. This is for me.

A close friend of mine shared a story that really connects for me right now. It was about bees, and it was a beekeepers telling of a story she has seen play out time and time again. She will find a bee that has been completely and helplessly tied up in a web. Unable to free herself, the beekeeper lays the tangled bee at a new hive and steps back to watch how bees who don’t even know this little bee get to working on freeing her from the mess of the web. They work tirelessly until within about 10 minutes, the bee is free. And then, they all get back to working together on their greater mission.

There’s a motto at a local breakfast spot here in Cincinnati called The Sleepy Bee.

No bees.

No food.

No us.

I’ve been blown away by the number or people in my life, many of of them new bees from a new hive, who have been hard at work trying to untangle me from the web that has a tight grip on my family right now.

This is the work. This is what we are trying to accomplish in schools, our community, and this world.

Untangling each other for the greater good of humanity.

So, to all the bees out there, you know who you are. Thank you. Thank you for bee-ing there for me as I take it one step at a time. One moment at a time. One day at a time.

Appreciate you.