b

“BEE” SWEET TO THOSE IN HONEY

Jun 28, 2022

Here is a great story about a little girl showing empathy for bees drowning in honey and her observations of how bees in a hive take care of each other and then analogized it to sports/life and being a good teammate and a Good Samaritan.

It goes like this: Once upon a time, my dad had bees and he had bee hives and collected the honey.

He took off the lid of a 5 gallon bucket full of honey he had just collected. On top of the honey, there were 3 little bees stuck in the honey and struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning.

I asked my dad if there was anything he could do to help them. He said there was nothing he could think of and explained the hard facts of survival in nature, and even the casualties that sometimes happen when honey collecting. It just seemed cruel that those little bees who worked so hard to produce the very honey that was now was going to end their existence.

My dad suggested it would be best to get them out of the honey.

He scooped the bees out of the 5 gallon bucket of honey and put them in an empty container and then put the plastic container outside. We wondered what if anything we could do or they could do to survive.

Because he had just collected this honey minutes earlier – and had disrupted the bee hive – there were still bees swarming and flying outside of the hive all over.

After putting the 3 little bees covered with honey in the container outside something amazing transpired next.

Suddenly, these 3 little bees were instantly surrounded by all of their sisters. These other bees were cleaning off the sticky honey from the nearly dead bees in the container. Before our eyes, we watched them get all of the honey off of their bodies. (WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW).

One by one, all 3 bees were cleaned off enough to fly away.

Those 3 little bees survived because they were surrounded by and cared for by family and friends who refused to give up on them.

We all need friends, neighbors, and teammates who are there when we are drowning in our own ”stickiness”; who are resolved to help others until the struggle ends; and who show empathy for our well-being because we pledge to do the same for them if the circumstances flipped.

“BEE” like the BEES – “BEE” KIND & CARING FOR OTHERS!


THE GOOD SAMARITAN



PURSUE EXCELLENCE & WIN THIS PITCH!


About the Author

Mike Lotief coached 17 successful years as either the head softball coach or co-head softball coach with his wife Stefni Whitton Lotief at the University of Louisiana from 2002-2017 with an overall coaching record of 731-176 (80.6 winning percentage). Every season, the Ragin Cajuns softball team advanced to the NCAA tournament and also advanced to three (3) Women’s College World Series (2003, 2008, 2014) and from 2012-2016 advanced to five (5) straight NCAA Super Regionals. Coach Lotief produced over 40 All American selections and his 2017 team lead the nation in scoring and was ranked in the Top 10 in home runs, slugging percentage, on base percentage.

The coach is a cancer survivor (twice) and was the first person in the U.S. to receive the Pro Trach device. Mike and Stefni spearheaded and raised the funding to build the new softball stadium in 2009 and the new softball indoor hitting facility in 2015. They are proud parents to Chelsea, who played softball and graduated from the Univ. of Louisiana in 2018, and Andrew, who is a junior at Louisiana studying Mechanical Engineering.

Previous Articles in this Series
More About Mike Lotief