March 18, 2020
With everything that has been going on in the world as we know it, I have decided to take this time that I have been gifted as a sign to do some of the things that I have been putting off because I believed I didn’t have the time to do it. When it was requested that non-essential shops shut down for two weeks, I immediately made a list of the things that I wanted to do. One of those things was to take more walks with the dog. Today was that day. A friend had reached out today, asking what I was doing and I mentioned that I was heading to a park in Forks to walk with Liberty (my dog). He stated that I should meet him at a place called The Rock. I had never been, and figured, why not, besides, company would be nice. With that being said, we met at the pathway to hike up to The Rock and this is where the journey truly begins.
We hiked up the four-wheeler path with Liberty in tow, unleashed, because she is that type of dog. We walked for about 25 minutes before stopping to enjoy clementines, (all about the Vitamin C lately). We each had tried giving Liberty a piece of the clementine and she made a point of spitting it out from each of us. She was extremely anxious and I couldn’t figure out why. After I had finished my clementine, we stood and chatted for a moment or two and decided to continue on our walk. As we began on the pathway, I stopped dead in my tracks because within 350 feet of us was a big black bear. I happened to see it first and turned behind to my friend to let him know that we had company. He had a walking stick and I believed that something was better than nothing. Now did we run? Nope. Did we scream? Nope. We all just stood there looking at each other. Us at the bear and the bear at us. We must have stood there for about 15 minutes watching this bear. Interesting enough, I wasn’t scared. Nor was the bear. It seemed that there was a coming together of sorts….
Now a little back story…my brother and sister-in-law see black bears all of the time. They would make a point of sending me snapchats of the bears they would see while working. I would always say that I wanted to see one. Well, I did. I never anticipated that my experience would be as such, but so fortunate that it was.
I really tried to get a photo at one point, and it honestly wasn’t meant to be. We stood, we watched him/her eventually walk away from us. I may add tho that he wasn’t in a hurry and seem to just go back to his life as it was. We decided to end our walk and turn around and go back to the car. Really and truly, we saw everything that we needed to see. I really believe that this bear had a lot of messages for me and for us.
Bear symbolism has several meanings: strength & confidence; standing against adversity: taking action and leadership; indicates that it is time for healing or using healing abilities to help self or others; emphasizes the importance of solitude, quiet time, rest; the spirit of the bear provides strong grounding forces.
I feel very blessed and excited about taking this little walk in the woods today, it gave me hope, strength and courage, and a message that my daily routine never would have. There is growth and change happening right now…and bear medicine is in full swing. I saw it and I felt it…take that walk, make that list, give yourself the time that you wished you would have had two weeks ago. Everything is temporary and temporary is everything. xoxo
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