Lessons from the hive

The busy bee has no time for sorrow– William Blake

Monday was World Bee Day. These often overlooked insects are essential to our survival for their role in pollinating the vast proportion of our food crops. There are three types of bees - the queen who lays the eggs; the all female worker bees who collect pollen, build the hive and take care of the pupae. And the male drones which number about 200 per hive.  Lacking a stinger, their only role in life is to mate with the queen.

Their name describes the sound they make, a steady hum within a narrow bandwidth created by the rapid beating of their tiny wings. Some bees beat their wings a mind-blowing 230 times a second. It is no surprise that unmanned aircraft in the 1950's were named 'drones' and the verb 'to drone' means to go on and on without stopping.

As a musical style droning has been utilized by composers such as Purcell and J.S. Bach to evoke powerful emotions in the listener while more recently the development of synthesizers led to drone based music styles such as ambient and industrial music.  This genre continues to evolve with the advent of new technology to evoke a wide range of emotions.

Droning is one of my 'go to' gong techniques. Using one mallet I maintain a slow repetitive tone for an extended period of time to quickly induce a mesmerizing and meditative state. Listening to drones supports relaxation and stress relief, improves focus and increases creativity -  especially useful for stress, anxiety and depression.  Just another example of lessons learned from nature to help us maintain our inner peace.

The hum of bees is the voice of the garden– Elizabeth Lawrence