commonality and estrangement
bears fascinate me:
I feel the allure of the Cherokee story
within which some Cherokee long ago left human society,
irrevocably, for the woods,
going "native" and becoming seamlessly creatures of the woodland,
most other animals share fewer of our commonalities than the bear,
bears are wild but almost comfortably close to us
I have known black bears all my life,
and I can feel their thoughts when we are close to each other,
watching a bear devour a yellowjacket nest is like
watching a teenager with fast food,
today I trailed a mama and her 3 cubs,
the mama had opened the storm door of our house
and looked in to figure out
if the way could open for food,
my wife squelched mama's hope,
I followed mama and her 3 charges for 15 minutes,
the mama full of maternal concern
and still full of milk for them,
she saw me, considered me, warned me off
if I was too close and threatening,
but easily dismissed my presence as neither opportunity or danger,
the cubs exploring, questing,
mirroring mama in asserting self by hugging and scratching the power pooe,
the mama went down the road,
while her 3 cubs went on their own way into the woods,
it was not hard for me to make the empathic leap into parent and children,
I've been there, and so have they,
the bears, if we and they are lucky,
keep their appetite in check
and do not follow the siren-call
of the fats and sugars our human world embraces,
the bears can remind me
that we can gain a lot
if we choose the paths less taken,
we can find ourselves as if in the woods
and use care in what we eat,
we can embrace the gifts of who we can be,
yesterday, as we ate supper on the screened porch,
two cubs scurried up the tree by the screen wire,
they must have smelled our supper
but chose to climb the tree and enjoy that moment,
I feel both commonality and estrangement with the bears,
just as I am still working on getting who I am,
and who the bears really are.
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