Bear encounters of the close kind

Today as I was biking I came upon some bear tracks, of course I just had to jump off my bike to look at them vowing to go back and take some pictures , and plaster them so as to add them to my collection of wild life tracks ;0) As I looked around I could see she had two bear cubs with her, and I couldn't help but wonder how she has managed to stay alive all this time since there are so many gun happy people around the countryside

All sorts of thoughts popped into my head since my last too close for comfort bear encounter on my own land, while out walking one day. I have a bear bell on my bike mind you, but still, a couple of bear cubs and a mother bear *yikes* something to truly watch out for.

I started yelling "here bear bear bear" since the prints were quite fresh.

I tracked the prints to a field next to my land, I hopped on my bike and continued on down towards the river yelling "here bear bear bear" , ha ha ha, the old timing locals woud have thought I was nuts if they saw me no doubt. But I wasn't going to just rely on my bear bell this time ;0) (I should note that bears in my area when they see people they RUN, if you allow them the graces to know you are coming, they tend to get out of your way, thus me making noise. So no I was not calling the bear to serve myself up like dinner ;0)

I got to the river where I have spotted this same bear a couple times along the waters edge, but she was not there.

I sat down to watch the water flowing, birds singing aloud around me. I tried to clear my mind of all the chatter but today was not the day for that I guess, so I let it envelope me and I absorbed it instead, and perhaps learn from the chatter for the moment.

I thought how life goes by so very fast, before we can blink it seems we have fast forwarded 5 years, ten, and so on.

The present becomes the future in a literal milli second. We are so busy working, trying to forge a living for ourselves we sometimes forget to actually live. We can become so busy worrying about what another is doing, or not doing, the latest gossip, the latest trends to wear, trying to keep up with the next door neighbours, wondering if we are too fat or too thin, too old, too wrinkled, too beautiful, too ugly, too good for others, not good enough.

We forget to just breathe, and genuinely care about ourselves, look in our own backyards and focus on inner being.

There's barely time in a day to do all the necessary things to survive without worrying and sweating the petty superficial stuff that comes along daily.

There have been times I have cared so much about what others may say about me, and it hurt to hear of untruths for I pride myself in being a good person, so mean things said could make me cry so easily. But then I think to myself I was raised to be my own drummer, to always follow my own path regardless of others holding up yield and stop signs along the way. "Be true to yourself Skylar" I was told, and be all you can be, meet and beat your personal best.

I am only granted this very moment in time, I am not even granted the next five minutes or tomorrow, so live...live freely and give freely. I am a free spirit that will never be captured nor tamed.

Every morning I allow my spirit and heart to be awakened, and I do not try to deny any feelings that may come. I accept all of whom I am, and embrace such as being part of who I am. I do not fight that which may be a natural part of my being. Be it pain, be it sadness, be it elation, be it anger. Only when I embrace all parts of me, can I truly understand how to live with myself in a balanced way, and live in harmony in the world that surrounds me. I trust in and have confidence in my true nature. I have trust and confidence in who I am.

I was asked once how I cope and deal with pain (sadness etc) .

Pain will always be there with us , we must turn towards it and relax within it's depths in order to live with it. It is the fighting we do to rid ourselves of it, to resist the pain itself and try to deaden it that helps to keep the chronic ache within. When we embrace the pain and make it not the enemy, we find the pain lessens in our hearts. We resist so much of that which is a natural part of ourselves and hear how it must be wrong or bad or give ourselves time limits on how long we should mourn , or feel anger, we hear get over it, grow up, each individuals pain is as unique as the person themselves, there can be no time limits on such things.

I think some may be scared of just letting go and not having the anger or pain as a constant companion anymore.

On one hand a person may say I do not want this anymore, I do not want to feel this way anymore , on the other hand they do not know what they would do without it they have grown so used to and accustomed to feeling that way, they are scared of change. Hmm well who says mind chatter can't be a good thing sometimes. Metta my friends.