Welcome to InspiredBeeing, Let’s Go for a Walk

Hi! My name is Cat and I am the author of InspiredBeeing.

This blog started as a result of a ball of frustrated reigned-in inspiration that had no outlet. I was in a windowless cubicle dreaming about bees, social change, and mountains, and my internal compass was chanting “send thee to the Caucasus.” I didn’t have a plan but a very clear idea. You could call it an ideal state of being, a state that I wanted to achieve – for myself, for others, and for the world around me.

So I sold my things, packed up my life, and moved east to Kars, Turkey – where I became the world’s tallest American woman living east of Ankara. This blog begins with that decision and has moved with me, over grassy billowing plains and plateaus to rocky mountains and dark forests – all in search of bees, honey, social good, and an inspired self. Along the way, I’ve started two travel companies that aim to support small-scale women beekeepers and rural village communities. I love to write about the lessons from this process, because it’s been the most difficult yet thorough education of my life. I was also awarded a National Geographic Young Explorer Grant to map beekeeping, walking routes, and honey traditions throughout the South Caucasus. That is my main preoccupation. I hope for it to become a travel guide on how to taste honey, support small-scale beekeepers, and travel respectfully throughout the region. With luck, good-timing, and enough sleep – I want to start a travel movement in the region – connecting global guests with rural locals around unique food experiences. This is my end-goal, the thing that drives me, and the meat of this blog.

I am lucky to be joined by incredible friends, family, and teachers throughout this journey, and I hope I can do them and this experience even just an ounce of the justice it deserves.

Thank you for checking in, and I hope we cross paths somewhere along this winding, chaotic, inspired, sticky sweet road.

bz.

Cat

The Art of Inspired Beeing by Cat Jaffee