Happy Friday {{first name | my friend}},

Are you among the 40% of people who have anxiety about flying on planes? Travel through Portland next time, where you can pet these two adorable alpacas as part of an airport animal therapy program! 🦙

ECL TRIVIA: What is the name of the sticky substance bees make from plant resins to help seal and protect their hive? (Answer below)

🦅 VULTURES RETURN: The astonishing recovery of bearded vultures in the Alps is one of the “most successful wildlife comeback stories” ever. See photos of their tiny little beards (yes, really), learn about their epic comeback, and discover more about how they navigate an ossivorous diet HERE.

🐳 QUIETER OCEANS: Scientists just uncovered the oldest known recording of a singing humpback whale, and you can LISTEN TO IT here. “The ocean of the late 1940s was much quieter than the ocean of today, providing a different backdrop than scientists are used to hearing,” this article reports.

🦪 FRESHWATER FILTERS: Mussels can be the “liver of the rivers,” known for filtering out heavy metals and drawing down carbon, but these bivalves are extremely threatened globally. Learn about how these artificial waterways might be able to offer unexpected help to the natural filter-feeders WE NEED preserved in our rivers and streams.

🦉 SPECIAL SKILLS: Could your favorite hobby help keep your brain young? Expert birders are showing brain patterns linked to younger, more efficient thinking, leading researchers to suggest that having specialized skills might help slow down cognitive aging. Find out what the MRI imaging revealed about study participants’ brain perception and attention HERE.

🧠 MINDFUL FOCUS: Did you know for nearly half of our waking hours, our minds are wandering? Research shows meditation can have visible brain benefits in just 8 weeks. Click here to discover the SCIENCE AND BENEFITS of how meditation can rapidly improve your mind, focus, stress response, and sleep.

🍵 MATCHA MOMENT: Used widely in Japanese cuisine, green tea matcha powder is known for many health benefits. Now, “human studies suggest green tea may relieve allergic rhinitis,” and “could help reduce sneezing linked to nasal allergies.” If you love matcha, read more here.

If you’ve ever lit a “normal” candle and felt that synthetic fragrance hit your throat or head, you already understand the problem. Most candles are loaded with mystery scents and additives that have no business being in your air (and then your lungs and bloodstream).

Once you learn what you’re actually breathing, you can’t unknow it, and you definitely can’t un-smell that fake, perfumey haze.

I’m real-life good friends with the the founder and the owner at Bee Lucia. I’ve toured their facility, and can tell you they’re the real deal: kind, meticulous humans who genuinely care about bee health and doing this work the right way.

I also know many ECL readers are protective of bees and wary of anything that feels extractive. I’m the same way, which is why I asked hard questions. Ethical, conscious hive stewardship can be a net positive for colonies when it’s done with care and competence: supporting resilient hives, keeping stress low, and managing real-world threats like mites in a responsible way. Backing companies that prioritize hive health helps reinforce the kind of bee management that protects colonies rather than depleting them.

Why these are virtually the only candles we allow in our house:

Because I know the team so well, our community gets an unusually high 40% off right here: CLICK TO CHECK OUT Bee Lucia with code ROB40.

Propolis. Bees use it like a natural “caulk” to block drafts and help keep microbes in check inside the colony.