What to Do With the Honey in Your Pantry

What You Can Do With the Honey in Your Pantry

Because even though it won’t go bad, you really shouldn’t just let it sit there.

When I was five-years-old, I experienced my first vehicle crash with my tricycle. The sun had fallen in the sky, and a deep orange glow covered the pavement that was gliding under the wheels of my cherry-red tricycle. The worn-out asphalt made firework-like patterns appear as I pedaled faster and faster down the pot-hole-filled road, bouncing in and out of each one. I heard a voice behind me, yelling at me to slow down. I looked down at the tricycle, realizing that there were no brakes. The worn-out asphalt started to grow closer and closer to my face until I could feel the sun-soaked warmth of it on my cheek.

From my position on the sidewalk, I saw a sideways version of my mother sprinting toward me. Her shirt was glimmering gold in the setting sunlight. It was a beautiful image until her face came into view, and I saw that she was bug-eyed and staring directly at my knee.

I twisted my body in a way that put my knee in clear view. I now understood the bug eyes—the same cherry-red as my bicycle was gushing down my leg.

“I need a Band-Aid,” I whimpered, afraid that the Band-Aid would not be enough to stop the bleeding.

“No, you need honey,” my mother replied. As she stretched out her hand to help me stand up, I watched the bright red liquid hit the dark tar. I then remembered her pearl of wisdom: honey could cure anything. However, it didn’t seem possible that honey could cure the gash on my leg.

At such a young age, I didn’t see past the tangible spoonful of honey. I didn’t believe that a sweet, sticky liquid would be the cure to all of my problems. However, as I grew up and began to have problems deeper than a bleeding knee, I realized that the concept of honey being able to cure anything wasn’t restricted to just palpable honey.

Honey means kindness and warmth. Honey means giving your acquaintances that warm feeling you get when you drink hot tea. Honey means solving your problems with a little bit of kindness instead of patching it up with a half-ass bandaid can make someone’s life so much sweeter.

The thick, gold, sweet liquid that is honey is produced by bees. According to National Geographic, bumblebees are one of the most important pollinators on the planet. Their research found that one person is 50% less likely to see a bumblebee in a certain area than 20 years prior to today.

Simply put, without bees, there is no honey.

Friends of the Earth, a network of environmental organizations reaching 74 countries worldwide, reports that human changes in land use cause massive habitat loss for bees. City building and mass farming cause loss in habitats and food sources; according to an article by FOE 97% of wildflower meadows have disappeared since World War Two.

The earth provides us with this golden, natural sweetener. In turn, we are not treating the earth with as much kindness as it is giving us. As Greenpeace—an environmental NGO—states, “the bottom line is that we know humans are largely responsible for the two most prominent causes: pesticides and habitat loss.”

Right now is the time to apply my mother’s statement. Honey can cure anything. Not every problem needs such a complex solution—even the biggest problems. Something as simple as kindness can make life a whole lot easier and help make someone’s problems significantly smaller.

Winnie the Pooh frames this concept perfectly, “Just because an animal is large, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want kindness; however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo.”

Every problem, no matter how big (bee population declining) or small, (a scrape on your knee) can find use in a bit of kindness. My first-grade teacher, Ms. Fabrizio, told me that “you catch more bees with honey.” The more kindness you give, the more kindness you get back.

I’ve taken these statements into consideration in most of my actions as I’ve grown up. I use honey on everything: toast, smoothies, tea, nuts, feta cheese, fish, chicken, granola — anything to which I want to add a little sweetness.

I carry the lesson my mother taught me about honey throughout life, no matter the situation. It is far past the time that we—humans as a collective whole—need to apply this lesson to our lives.

You clicked on this article when you read the headline: What You Can Do With the Honey In Your Pantry. The answer to this is rather simple—give it out. Everyone could make use of a little extra sweetness.

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, a foundation dedicated to spreading kindness, asks us to “make kindness the norm.”

If we combine the mantra of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation with the mantra of my mother, we can learn to live our lives through kindness. We can learn to see the simplicity in our daily, and not so daily, problems.

Honey may be an acquired taste for some, like myself. Once you begin to like it, however, you learn that you can put it on absolutely anything and it will still taste good.

The rich sweetness can also provide comfort to those who need it. My best friend, Katy Osborne, swirls honey into her chamomile tea to suppress her panic attacks. “It’s an instant warmth in your body,” she says. “Eating it feels like a hug from a friend.”

As I reached my later teenage years and began to have scars that weren’t so accidental, I remembered those words and they are what helped me keep fighting. I reminded myself that not only could I give my honey to others, I could also eat it if I wanted to.

After all, “Kind words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body,” Proverbs 16:24.