They might be bears

In the childhood bedroom I shared with my brothers, there were two windows on the wall that faced towards Grandma Tobler's house. Her house might have been 6 feet from ours, a wooden fence dividing our three-foot side yards one from another. The side yard itself was a lost world, nothing more than a tangle of knee-high weeds and stickers, and lost and broken things forgotten over time. My parents never ventured back there and, because it was overgrown, it was not an easy through-way to the front yard. Consequently, it was abandoned for any useful purposes. At night, while my parents watched TV at the other end of the house, I would try to get to sleep as scary noises emanated from this forsaken bit of property outside the window. Many times I saw frightening shadows cross the curtains, furtive figures of villains moving like cat burglars, slowly, stealthily, not wanting to be discovered hiding in this no-man's land.

"There's nobody out there! Go back to bed!" was the common response when I would relay my fearful concerns to my parents who were, at that very moment, discovering who the real murderer was thanks to the fine trial lawyering of TV's Perry Mason.So I would slowly walk the half-mile long hallway back to my dark bedroom where my younger brother was sound asleep and my older brother's bed was still empty cuz he was still working, pumping gas at Uncle Louie's gas station. And eventually I would fall asleep.

It was on a night like that when the bears came. I saw their shadows first on the curtains. Three shadows to be exact. I was so scared that I could barely move. I watched them move about in our side yard. They did not seem ferocious or even dangerous. They seemed curious. Something called me to the window. I pushed the curtains aside and there they were. They looked in as I looked out. And they began to talk to me. I have long forgotten what they said, my recollection is that it was nothing more than pleasantries. It was clear, over time, that there wasn't anything the least bit scary or dangerous about them. In fact, I enjoyed their visit. What happened after that is now forgotten. I wasn't afraid so much after that. The scary sounds and shadows might not be anything bad at all, they might be bears.

As I have grown older, I have come to realize that Nature, in reality or dreams, has become a friend to me. In sadness it brings me solace, in fear it brings calm, in longing I find its beauty again and again and again. With this image I pay homage to the spirit of my childhood bears whose welcome words lessened my childhood fears and kindled an enchantment with animals of all kinds.

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