A Story about Bees, Trees and Gardens (Are Bees the Canaries in the Garden?)

 

                                                           photography: ©Bettina Madini

I'm going to share some sobering observations, with the intent to hear from you what you have observed, in your gardens, this year. I had a conversation with another beekeeper, seeking input after my recent hive check and my sense of awkwardness and my awareness of a much bigger picture, beyond my garden. 

 

I know by now that, when I get this deep gutty growl in my stomach, that something is going on. Something is brewing and calling for my attention.  

 

The big puzzle is falling into place and revealing a sobering truth. 

 

At the same time, this sobering truth has lit a fire in me, a curiosity to follow the trail of events, to gather your observations and to look at the findings with wide open eyes, senses and infinite possibilities. We have choice: look away and sleep-wander in ignorance or look at what is and take action. 

 

I come from a long lineage of strong women, healers, visionaries and rubble women. When our gardens, our lives, our children are in danger, we women awaken the bitch in us. This is one of those moments. 

 

Here are my observations, random pieces of a bee-puzzle that starts to reveal a pattern. Are bees the canaries in the coal mine?

I checked my thriving hives 2 days ago and found the following (a 180 degrees different scenario from my previous check only 4 weeks ago):

1. Starkly reduced population (where is everyone?)

2. Almost no food storage (where did the honey storage go?)

3. Robber bees (which is natural, if there is a food shortage; colonies will rob the storage from another colony)

4. They had thrown out the drones rather late in the season (end of September)

5. Queen is there but no brood

My conversation with another beekeeper made it clear to me that a) I will have to treat my future colonies for mites (which I have not done so far, thinking that they can handle it; they can't)

b) Where in the past, one mite treatment in spring was enough, now we need to do 10 treatments in a season. (why is that, what's out of balance?)

c) Crops didn't make fruit: In my garden, we had squash flowers, but no fruit; I did have cucumbers. In his garden, he had cucumber flowers but no fruit; he did have squash. He mentioned massive damage to corn crop (burnt leaves). We had flowers on our fruit trees in spring, but in total only 3 apples (yes, 3 apples from 7 apple trees), no plums, no cherries; they all blossomed beautifully and got no frost, but no fruit.

d) I learned that we didn't have nectar this year. Only pollen. We had well flowing nectar early in the season (June and July), but hardly any nectar later in the season. This would explain why squash flowers didn't turn into fruit: if there is no nectar, there is no incentive for pollinators to go there. The flower will wilt and the plant not bear fruit. 

 

Everyone who sees the beautiful fruit trees blossom will, like me, think everything is fine. It's not. And I only learned about this so very recently. I had no idea! Everything looks picture perfect, but an invisible looming perpetrator finagles what can come from our gardens and fields.

 

I have never seen anything like this. 

 

If there is no nectar, bees cannot build the fat and the storage that they require for winter. The colony weakens and will be more susceptible to mite overgrowth. Bee colonies, in their, despair, will rob each other. 

 

While I'm feeding them sugar syrup right now, I know that one of my hives is basically doomed. The other one needs a lot of energy contributions and spirit-lifting. (I would be very happy to receive your energy contributions for my honey bees and all the honey bees all over the world. Just send them energy, free from judgment)

 

And, as I'm feeding them now, I'm wondering who and what the invisible enemy is, exactly, that disrupts our gardens, pollinators and food chain. I have been asking tons of questions, and of course, I've been making myself wrong for not treating the mite nuisance. My nagging awareness tells me there's more. There's much more to this. What are the bees telling us? The canary in the coal mine warns the workers, via its death, that there is gas, and they better all get out if they can. What are bees telling us? Are they the canaries in our gardens?

This morning, when I woke up, a light bulb went off: chem trails. Who is creating them? What is the stuff, exactly? Can it disturb plants in their growth? Can it contain specific substances that prevent plants from making the vital nectar that insures pollination? There is weather finagling, climate finagling, and much more finagling. If anybody had the (most dark) agenda to shrink food supplies, get farmers out of business so they can buy the farmland cheap and control food production, guess what? They would stop plants from making nectar, so they would not be pollinated while at the same time destroying pollinators, all of this without leaving a trace.

We need to wake up! Our observations are vital. Nowadays, everything is being made about science. Science, right now, might be too slow. WE are in our gardens. WE notice. WE observe. WE nurture. WE harvest. WE create bounty with nature. 

 

Only 200 years ago, there were hardly any agronomics. We were the farmers and gardeners. We would observe and make choices based on that. We would convene with our neighbors and talk about our observations. In the village, we would collectively take action and celebrate our bounty and harvest. I see US as the true power. No one can tell me what my child requires, better than I can. No one can tell me what I need to do in my garden, better than I can with my questions and awareness. No one can tell me how to spice my soup or paint my painting, because this is my knowing, my awareness, my journey.

My grandmother raised my mother during war, deprivation and extreme hardship. There was no science to tell her what to do. She did it, with her heart and soul and her knowing! And she did great!

My grandfather crossed different species of apples, and no science was there to tell him how to do this. He did it, with his love and deep care for his family and nature. He achieved a fantastic result, and his apples have been, to this day, the best apples I have ever had the privilege to taste.

A world without bees is NOT on my watch. Children not being able to eat fresh (natural) berries and apples: NOT on my watch. Synthetic food: NOT on my watch.

I'm starting to collect evidence, and I would love to hear your observations.

And here's a warning for fact-checkers: these are my personal observations. You cannot fact-check that. I own them, and they are my copyrighted material. And I swear all in here to be true. Better back off.

Giving up the Fight

 

                                                         'Dreamer' Acrylic on canvas. 24x18

Can we receive the oneness reaching for our heart? 

We have been wearing the key on a chain around our necks, avoiding the unlocking, looking for it outside of us, while distracting ourselves with fighting for rightness and digging ourselves deeper into separation, all the while feeding the beast that thrives on fighting and war, walls and separation. '... a vision softly creeping, left it's seeds while I was sleeping....' 

Awakening. Crossroads. Choice. Nature. Wake up Dreamer. 

Will you give up the machine of fight?  

We have been implanted, we have been branded, to judge each other, to label each other as cowards if we don't fight. Are we cowards? What is fight creating? What have all the wars of history been creating? Where have they taken us? What is the current war against mankind, at large, creating? What does fighting mean? We have to take a side, meaning we have to polarize into good and bad, right and wrong. The result? Separation. The machine that is creating the game board thrives on fight, hatred, anger, judgment, grief. We feed it each time we choose fight or judgment. 

How do we get out of this age-old mess?

By looking at this: What would I like the future on the earth to be like? What do I desire?

I had, quite some time ago, the most amazing conversations with a Muslim community, about their hatred of Jews. I simply asked them: Do you love your family? Yes. Do you love your children? Yes. Of course. What would you say if they were taken into camps and killed? Long silence. Quiet. Tears in their eyes. These men opened their hearts, by the fire, under the starry night sky. We kept talking, long into the night, about our commonalities. And our differences vanished. Hate points dissolved. Into the human heart that is so powerful.

We need to wake up to the beauty around us. What do we want the future on the earth to be like? Lushness of creation with the earth? Or desertification of our very being?

Anything we perpetrate on each other vibrates into everything.

We are connected with the most powerful web of love.

Let's abandon the fight. Practice allowance. And create a different future.

Let's create new systems and make the old ones obsolete. We don't need them. We were just told, over and over again, that they are all there is and that we need them. We don't. It's a lie.

Start opening to nature around you. Greet a flower in the morning. Whisper your gratitude to the trees. Trees are not lying. Flowers don't have agendas. Nor does your pet.

Blessing the waters, the flow of oneness through each pore of our being, the art of words and sound, well spoken in quiet melting silence, dancing with river clouds, absolutely and acutely present with the trees standing tall listening and whispering, weaving our knowing into the infinite web of beauty shivering in all spaces between spaces and echoing in each awakening heart. 

Wake up, Beauty. It's time! We require your presence.

_________

P.S. 'Dreamer' is one of my original paintings. She is not sleeping. She is creating future. Deeply connected with earth and roots of trees, she receives the transparent veil brought to her by butterflies, from the skies to her earth body. She knows. She is fully awake in her night sleep. Consciously creating with all beings. She is oneness. And she knows that her asking is coming to fruition. Her vulnerability is her power.

Art prints on paper, canvas, metal or wood available at https://www.bettinamadini.art/

Where does a painting begin? Where does it go?

 

"Dancing" Acrylic on canvas, 30x30

 

This past weekend, so many visitors in my art space where curious about that topic. Nothing is more personal and unique to the artist than this journey.

To me, it is a journey. It starts in so many ways...  I always get a sense of 'rummaging', like tectonic plates moving. An undefinable unrest. What is moving? What wants to be created?
It is especially strong in this very moment, after six weeks of art events and only very little time in the studio. The urge to paint is strong. 

Last night, I cut a canvas and nailed it on the board and added a first layer of paint. My tiredness disappeared in the moment I started painting. It's a beginning, it's raw. It still looks like 'nothing', and it felt so good. I relax when I paint. The horse is saddled, now where do we go?🤠

It doesn't matter what shows up, it doesn't matter what the journey is going to be. What matters is the journey. It's my exploration with light and color, tapping into the harmonies and disharmonies, light and dark.

Just think about it: if everything can still change in any given moment, could there be a wrong move? A wrong color? A wrong gesture?

Very often, I say to myself: 'If I could not make any mistake, what could I create here right now?' (and this, of course, is also a metaphor for any area of life)

When I paint, everything is open, everything is space. I smile at my painting and simply breathe. This might sound anything but simple, but, believe me, it actually is. We make it complicated with our judgments. I do whatever I can not to judge the process. Otherwise,I would destroy my creations with the judgement.

I'm happy to share with you an image of that beginning. I'm exploring some new materials that have an effect of 'star-bursts'.

Notice the wrinkles in the canvas. This occurs when I wet the canvas. The beautiful cotton material shrinks and moves with the water. I replace my pins to allow for the canvas to adjust to it's new shape. Paint gathers in the 'waves', which I work with in the building of the piece.


 

You have to be an explorer, adventurer and gypsy in order to be and live the artistic thrival. 💃 Qualities that I proudly own (and found through my painting process).

Here are some close-ups of the new journey:

A few last thoughts and reminders:
1) Never give up
You never know where you can go unless you go.
2) Follow your joy
3) Never look back
My grandpa gave me that pearl (3) for my journey. 'Her- or his-story' (I love playing with words) is just a story. It's past, it's gone. It's not significant, it just brought us to where we are now. That's all. What counts is the present, where anything is possible.

Much gratitude to you, for being part of my journey!

P.S. Find my paintings and art prints at www.BettinaMadini.art

Bridges of Possibility

A friend asked me, recently, so much needs to change now, where do we even start?

I immediately thought of one of my favorite quotes from Buckminster Fuller:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

And, how do we build a new model? With question, choice, asking for possibility and receiving the contribution from the universe, even if it doesn't make any sense....
Fighting the old model will sustain the old model.... Are you willing to give up the fight?

Are you wiling to receive the space of possibility? Or do you choose to keep the space of impossibility? Which is pretty much this reality. The moment we say 'It's not possible because ..... (xyz)! is when we feed the space of impossibility. The moment you say 'I don't have the money, I don't have the time, I don't....' is where you are extending the lifespan of this reality.

Instead, what could you choose?
Here are 5 steps:
1. Recognize the moment when impossibility shows up and shows its familiar and oh-so-beloved face. Just recognize. Ah, there you are again.
2. Notice how impossibility feels in your body. Where is it locked in your body?
3. As much as you would like to go down the familiar road with your old friend named 'impossibility', choose different. Choose different. Choose different.
'No, I'm not going down this road with you again. Good-bye!'
4. Ask 'What else can I choose right now?'
Say: 'I'm a powerful, potent infinite being.' Say that 100 times.
5. And then: 'As powerful, potent infinite being, what can I choose?'

Go through these steps any time Impossibility shows up.
Be vigilant.
Be aware.
And each time, choose different.

This will create new energetic pathways for you and your being and your body. It's like building a muscle. We have instead allowed for impossibility to grow like a weed and take over our entire being. Like pulling weed, it takes determination, stamina, strength, patience and diligence. We might have to do it several times, and over and over again. It WILL get easier. Your muscles of possibility will get stronger. Circuits had been severed and broken. Now we must build them, better than ever! More powerful, more beautiful, more joyful.
We have to build the bridges of possibility.

And remember: One of the most amazing tools of Access Consciousness®:
"All of life comes to me (to us) with ease and joy and glory."
Say it 30, 50, 100, 3000 times..... until you have the sense of your lightness and your joy.

 

My grandpa taught me to never give up and to never look back. So, I don't look back, and I let go of the past. I never give up. Yes, I trip over the many obstacles, yet I stand up and keep walking. It WILL get easier.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, somewhere! Maybe in class?

Are you Ready to Step through the Open Gate and Fly?

What if we never make other people's realities more valuable than ours?

What do you do when one of the most diverse and artsy cities doesn't inspire you any more? Sounds strange, or familiar? My family never understood why I chose to leave Berlin behind. They thought the city had everything one could desire, and I had a thirst for .... change, seeing other places, I had a thirst for nature and space. A different space.

Many of my artist friends never got it why I left New York City and went to live in the country. I had to be closer.... to nature. I'm so grateful for the cities that gave me so much, and I always knew they would be a chapter, not permanent.

Here is an excerpt from a recent interview with Nancy Freier in "The Inner Voice" Magazine:

"Living within
the confines of a wall in my home city
carved in me a drive for freedom and a
desire to live life with joy and gusto. I
learned to thrive on contrast and, later on,
marveled at impressionistic and
expressionistic art, especially the search
for color and light."

While, of course, nothing is permanent, and certainly nature an example of impermanence, nature has been gifting me the space of me and has allowed me to acknowledge that my being (and my body too) is very much resonating with nature and thriving in natural surroundings rather than cities. There is a 'well' humming and buzzing so palpably in nature that is constantly providing impulses and whispers. Like a symphony that is stirring my curiosity.

Show me a flower, and I smile.
Show me a tree, and my heart jumps.
Show me a lake, and I relax.

Here is a picture of Lake Michigan that I took in Door County.
Look at the shapes, the shades of green and the gentleness of the light.
It was an early morning before starting my day. Such a gift! I took a series of photos and knew that, one day, I would create paintings.

The imagery went into my 'creation space', like seeds. And here is what showed up a few years later:


Green Wealth, Acrylic on canvas, 18x18


"Deep Earth" Acrylic on canvas, 24x18

And, who knows? Am I 'done' with this imagery from the magnificent Great Lake? I'm getting a 'no!'. 

Do I force it? No. Do I dance it? Absolutely!

I dance the dance of creation with my paintings, silks, with my song and writings (and what else?🙂). My dream is that it inspires you! To create! To play! To try things out! It's by trying things out, by messing it up, by tripping and standing up, by keeping walking, by never looking back, by letting go of our past, by letting go of our best choices and our worst choices, by choosing each second anew, by breathing, wondering, celebrating, savoring life, that we will get to these places and spaces we never imagined we could have and be.

We will never find out unless we start flying.
I heard this from the Bees.

What is your space? What do you know is possible? What do you KNOW from deep in your heart, with such a joyful conviction that it makes you smile?
THAT! Yes THAT!!!!

Never ever ever ever ever ever give that up
Keep asking questions!
Such as: If I never gave up my knowing and knew and trusted that I dance with the entire molecular structure and that the universe has my back, and that the earth has my back, and I knew that I can ask for what I require, what could I ask for?

Stay in touch!

Joyfully,
Bettina

 

P.S. Read the full Inner Voice Interview HERE

 

                                                             "Phoenix for a New World"

 

How much have we all fought? In all these lifetimes? And it sucks our energy.

 

There is a slight difference between fighting against and fighting for.

What I found, personally, on my journey is 'expanding beyond this reality'. Meaning I include this reality and I'm way more than 'it'. A lot of ugliness is coming up, currently, in this reality, things that were hidden, all these secret agendas and abuse. It is all very upsetting and unsettling. We have been made to believe that 'all is well' and find out now that it is not and has not been (and we have known it for a long time, yes?). 

 

To me, allowance is the 'key', which doesn't mean I approve of everything. I don't approve of certain creations, and I'm being 'Not on my watch! This is changing now!' And this is a demand, and I clear out, each day, where I tend to go to fighting. Allowance is where I don't have a fixed point of view, where I don't get sucked into the polarity ('they' constantly put out bait for us to get tangled up in polarity). When I'm in allowance of everyone's choices, the good the bad and the ugly, when I can see that it is a choice, then I don't have to fight them. I walk around them, and I create the reality I know is possible and that I came here to create.

 

And, it is darn uncomfortable. .... I fight for, stand for, the reality I know is possible, with my actions, being, space, words.

And, didn't we all know that this exactly is what we came here for? Cleaning up the mess (which is messy! 🙂) and creating a different future?

We all choose different actions. We all be a different energy and space. We take actions, make choices, and they change the future as we go.

Standing tall like trees. Trees don't have a point of view. They don't yell. They don't fight. And, in their silence, they nurture the other nature beings, feed each other, communicate, contribute to each other, plant seeds. They are creators of future of magnitude. What can we receive from them, be with them, gift to them?

I very often turn to trees for guidance and support in these crazy, wild, upsetting, exciting times.

We are creating a new reality, while around us a wild storm is blowing away our illusions, walls and ideals so we can see the beast, acknowledge it and create around, through, beyond it. Revealing where we have 'been that done that', practice allowance for that, and choose again and again.

So, here we are, joined together in each of our own struggles, battered by the storm, yet flexible, yielding and growing stronger, together.

 

Gardens get flooded at times, rocks get washed away, trees blown over, yet the earth still is. We are the earth. We still are here. Made it through all the loops and hoops, rings of fire inside out.  Gardens change, life is a line-up of pearls of change. Crisis, in Greek, holds within it the word 'possibility'. 

What is possible now, to create, that has never been possible?

What beauty lies underneath all of this?

What more beautiful future and reality did we come here to create?

Now is the time!

Let's spread our wings and use them!

We will find out that we can fly.

____________________________________________________

Fine art prints of "Phoenix for a New World" are available.

Phoenix Recharged

 

                                                  'Phoenix Recharged' Acrylic on canvas, 20x16

Rising from deep within, breaking through to the light, with a feather touch, winged breath, glistening eyes, that which had always been, never lost, re-emerging fully in the recalling and awakening everything in a dance of fiery golden light.

"Phoenix Recharged" Original painting by Bettina Madini, Acrylic on canvas. 20x16 (inches)

 

What made you believe he was lost? 

Can the infinite joy ever be lost?

Do you believe you are lost?

This is a funny idea.

Do you know?

You hold within you a seed... a magnificent, unique seed that has magical power. But you, instead, believe you are tiny, you have nothing, you most obey the rules that insist upon your weakness. 

 When will you wake up, turn away from the chimes and robotic perpetration of algorithmic patterns? 

When will you summon your powers, stand up from the dust of the machines and look at the earth that is calling from deep within? 

You say you don't hear it? You are a liar. 

You hear it. You know. 

Your body knows. Why is your body aching? Can you imagine the possibility that your body is communicating with you? Speaking louder and louder and LOUDER? 

Yet you muffle the sound with bandages, pills and courteous ignorance.

Wake up!

Wake up!

Wake up!

Dreamer of potency!

Creator of magnitude!

You have wings! You know! You are here, why?

Did you come here to be comfortable in your plush armchair of blindness?

Or did you come here to change the game board?

You know.

You have recharged your batteries for eons.

Your heart has been rumbling.

You are more like a volcano than a sleepy mouse. (sorry, mouse! you get what I'm trying to convey! they get it!)

 

You have been on the wheel of time.

Following the clock.

24-7

Tick-Tok-Tick-Tok.

Monday through Sunday.

Tick-Tok-Tick-Tok.

Well, it has run it's course.

The wheel is melting.

Look up from the dust.

And acknowledge the sparkles around you.

 

What-did-you-come-here-to-CREATE?