I’m sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine on a frankly surprisingly beautiful Bank Holiday Monday … British readers will understand my amazement at the weather! The honeybees are hard at work amongst the lavender, completely immersed in their task as they hover from flower to flower - no Bank Holiday for them - and as I watch, two things spring to mind.

The first is how they never seem to tire of their task, never seem to mind that each day they perform the selfsame duties. How often do you moan when you find yourself having to repeat a daily chore, knowing that you’ll continue having to do it again and again for as long as you live? I know I do. For instance, sometimes, I have found myself deeply resenting the twice-daily toothbrushing ritual. Then one day, mid-brush, I recalled the advice of a friend that immediately helped me change my attitude.

Years ago, when life got too much, I used to go to a wonderful psychic called Peggy Pearce. Peggy was an eccentric, a writer and tarot reader with masses of charisma and a lifetime of wisdom to share. At the end of a reading, she’d fix me with a look and say, “Remember, Michele, “always turn Defeat to Victory”!

It’s a maxim we can apply to pretty much all of life’s challenges. You see, it’s not what life throws at us, it’s how we deal with it that counts. From the seemingly insurmountable to the tiniest of problems, the same deal applies.

My second observation on all the bee busy-ness was that earlier this year, when the first blooms appeared on the lavender bushes, there was just one solitary bee - not one of the pretty, fluffy ones, just a rather flat, ordinary-looking bee going solemnly about his work. Well, we all know now, if we didn’t before all the dire warnings about the destruction of our beautiful planet, that when the bees go, we go.

So, long live the bees and long may we continue to thrive on Planet Earth, turning each gift of a day to victory.

With love and light, Michele x

PS: On the subject of turning defeat to victory, congratulations to our English cricketers on their inspiring victory this weekend!