Friday, June 28, 2013

Of Bears, Caves and the Times

My neighbor in the country just dropped by to ask about our yard and before leaving asked if I had seen the bear photos on-line.

Two weeks ago, we initially heard of the bear sighting just up the road. The night prior we had both fallen asleep in the back yard while watching the stars.  News of bear paw prints in someone's garden and another person whose garden was left in disarray presumably by a bear made me, an animal lover, cringe inside.

While hiking in Glacier, I've come upon fresh bear scent which smells like wet, dirty dog x100.  In that moment, I learned on the spot that my internal ipod held a boatload of show tunes I didn't know I knew. (Noise, in our case show tunes, tends to make bears leave humans or at least us alone.)

This morning I cringed because I thought of my little raised beds and a dozen bird feeders hanging about the yard.  (Bears appreciate bird seed I'm told.)  The cringe was also related to other thoughts that followed.  If bears return to this area, how long will it be until bears are hunted here?  (Well, I'm not surprisingly behind the times yet again. Bears are 'harvested' already in TN.  Harvested?  That's what happens with crops, not animals!)  It's fascinatingly disturbing to me that as soon as a species bounces back from near extinction, take the sandhill cranes for example, hunters petition to hunt them and/or wildlife management's wheels start turning to sell permits to hunt them. This very thing is in the works yet again in relation to the Eastern Sandhill Cranes. Many winter over near Chattanooga, TN on land set aside as a refuge for them. There's something wrong with creating a refuge that becomes a hunting ground. That sounds more like a trap to me.  Similarly as eagles have increased exponentially, I've wondered when they'll be hunted.  That will certainly create a debate.

As my neighbor walked away this morning he asked, "Have you heard about the caves?" I told him I had yet he added a piece I had not yet read.  The art ranges from 500 years to 6,000 years old. (The caves are in our area.)

At one point, our conversation came around to the end of the world.  I referenced wishing to live in a world full of animals instead of around people at times.  This gave my dear neighbor an opportunity to preach as he called it though it was not preaching compared to what had instilled fear in me growing up. He spoke of a coming time when God would start over and people would go to heaven (not all of them I presume).

Jim walked away and this came to me in light of bears and caves and the Times.

Worlds are blending.
Time is bending.
Past is present.
The future is now.
Circling and cycling
Betwixt and betweening
Love is the message. 
We are the how.

It certainly feels to me that God, Creator, Source has already started over as we are in a place of getting do-overs to see if we can live with greater awareness as to our relationship with Nature and Earth...and for me at least in relation to humankind. 

Imagine that Shift.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 28 June 2013

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