Bear Scat

I started out the day, probably around 4:30 am or so. It wasn't entirely my own choice-a chubby little cherub baby had a role in that. It was a little extraordinary since he usually wakes up at 7:30am. But today was a different day. He wanted to wake up earlier, so we went with it. After I changed his diaper, he smiled,stretched and was ready to play!

My 30 minutes of physical exercise was split into 3 segments today. In the morning I turned on the music and hula-hooped for 10 minutes in honor of my lil sis-Shananigan! I followed that up with 10 minutes of my own concoction of yoga/stretching/dancing with mindfulness of my mama in the afternoon. And then at night I did my final 10 minutes of hooping for myself.

Plus I threw in a few extra songs/shout outs to the family and friends I felt could use some energy, since I was really enjoying the hooping. Thanks ma for giving me that hula hoop. It's been great fun to hoop to da music.

Well I better at least mention the bear scat since that is the name of today's blog afterall. I've kind of had this thing for bears lately. Not exactly sure when it started, but it was probably around this time last year. I was going for a walk at dusk and saw this bear crossing the road. At first I was super excited, since it's not an everyday occurance to see a bear crossing the road. And then I got fearful because I thought that it was a baby and my next thought were, "If that's the baby, where's the mom.? So I turned around and walked back home, only to drag Dan out to have a look. The bear had moved on to foraging through trash cans in the alley. After Dan got a good look at the bear, he informed me that it was a full-grown blackbear, not a baby. It was a really neat experience. Then that following Spring, I looked out the window one morning and saw a bear across the road near the hills. Since then I've had bears on my mind frequently.

So today the neighor Syd came over. Syd is a friendly and active old man that lives alone in the house next door. He had come to tell us about the 'visitor we had received the night before.' Our trash can was in Syd's backyard, with the contents dumped on the ground, not too far from a pile of scat. The pile was black and full of choke cherries. Interestingly enough, the day before, we had went to Fairy Lake and saw some bear scat on the road. Dan told me how to distinguish bear scat. It was definitely a blackbear preparing for winter.

The bear seems to be my totem animal right now. A bear knows about survival. It knows about saving and conserving energy and resources to prepare for the future. A bear is in tune with nature and the rythyms of the Earth. A bear is a fierce protector and caretaker for their young.

I feel connected to the bear and I'm grateful for the wisdom that they have to share. I pray that we can learn to live harmoniously with all of nature. May we learn the rythyms and cycles of life and get into tune with them, the way that the bear does. Thanks for visiting us Blackbear. Sorry we didn't have any treats to share-but judging by your droppings, I think the choke cherries were treating you well. Good luck stocking up for winter and happy hibernation. How awesome would it be to just sleep for 3 months during the winter? Well it's way past my bedtime. If the cherub wakes up again at 4 am, that leaves me with 3 more hours to sleep.Goodnight Bear.