Belonging: A Pollinator’s Perspective
“The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.”
The world would be a wasteland without pollinators. A third of the global food supply is completely dependent on pollinators, not to mention that a shortage of pollinators is already estimated to be killing over 400,000 people a year.
Our lives are unfathomably interconnected with the many unassuming and ubiquitous creatures who pollinate our planet. We quite literally depend on their well-being, but you wouldn’t know it from how little they are cherished.
I’m talking about butterflies and bees, of course. But I’m also talking about all the humans who, simply by following their intuition, have an outsized—and often entirely inadvertent—impact on their surroundings.
I came up with the concept of human pollinators to help me embrace of my wandering spirit. My true nature has always been to explore, to take it all in. But for the longest time, this felt “wrong.” Society has always told me (and I suspect you too, if you’re reading this) to decide what I want to do with my life. To settle down (get a mortgage!). To focus (move up that career ladder!). I wanted to believe that it was ok, even imperative, for me to hunger for connection, adventure, and novelty. I wanted proof that I didn’t have to do anything extraordinary to nevertheless play an essential role in my community.
Pollinators like bats and beetles helped me see that a meaningful life only requires that I satisfy my hunger — whether to help, to explore, to investigate, to create, to connect, or simply to grow. When I do that, pollination ensues. And it is a gift to the world.
I now believe there is an urgent need to better understand and leverage the gifts that pollinators, both human and “more-than human,” offer freely. They are our bridge builders. At a time when we are increasingly disconnected from nature, each other, our jobs, and even ourselves, my hope is that this these resources will remind you that you belong here, just as you are, because you are here to help us build more bridges.
