PawNPaw ~ Lily The BlacK Bear Celebrated Her First Mothers Day!

Lily The North American Black Bear

Gave Us HOPE

January 22, 2010

Ely, MN

Yesterday, Lily Celebrated Mothers' Day

and

96,854 Fans on Facebook Celebrated HOPE

Bear With Me ~ I just get carried away with excitement still over our girls; Lily and HOPE!
http://www.bear.org/ and you can see videos of them in living color now! You can also buy your very own Lily and HOPE cups, t-shirts and other great stuff, AND... you can help the NBAC to continue their brilliant work that Dr Lyn Rogers, Sue Mansfield and others are doing for the North American Black Bears out there in Ely MN and across the globe to educate educate educate ~ and teach and learn ~

Use caution... They will captivate your hearts I tell ya... Lily has had my heart since the beginning, and I have to tell ya... well I'll just let you find out why over 96,000 folks came together as strangers on a facebook page and most stay together now and call each other
"friend" ~ Lily the North American Black Bear
gave us HOPE ~ the very same week that I was here with my coffee writing thoughts about ....
you guessed it               H O P E        !!!


This day is just screaming for an update on Lilly and Hope. The day after Mothers all over the world celebrated their day... Wonder how many crawled up a tree to follow their little ones' to make sure they were learning all the ways of the world??? LOL
Well? Lily did !

Just a few short weeks since her debut and Hope is climbing trees all the way to the sky.
No kidding, I don’t know how high, but easily 60 or 80 feet up.
Lily hot on her heels and humans on facebook making comments like this, "Hope be careful up there", "Did anyone see if Sue brought a mattress for the bottom of that tree", "Does anyone think she is too high in that tree," "Ohhh noooooo that is toooo high", "someone ought to get her to come down", "Maybe it is the Mother in me but this is just tooo scary"!!! And on it went... hours on and on... We humans are just pitiful at times trying to keep an eye on bears in the woods from a computer in our homes...

 Hope is getting pretty comfortable with the camera in her life.
Check out the webcam, she stops stock still and looks dead into the lens.
 Curious, no fear, then she goes on about her business.
Romping through the forest , tumbling around. It’s really a joy to see her exploring her world. Mom close by to protect her. And then every once in awhile you get to here that incredible voice of Dr Lyn Rogers... "Bear... It's ME" And those bears as well as all of us are assured that all is right with the world. Try to find and see him in the documentary, "BearWalker" on Animal Planet! They also sell the full version at http://www.bear.org/ well worth the investment to watch this man walk the bear walk... his is a calling with his life's work indeed.



The snow was gone, the den abandoned. Spring is making headway and Hope is growing every day. The grass green but now snow covered again!

It’s amazing that with no hallmark calendar to guide her, Lily has just 18 months to teach this little cub all the survival skills she will ever need. My goodness if only humans could do half as good with as little time. Lily will teach her the ways of the forest, what to look out for, what to avoid; the ways of the wind, the ways of the wild ~ Already climbing the tallest of pines, that little one is "fearless" it would seem, but still looks to "MAAAAW" when she wants warmth, play, food! Rather like our children that way I am guessing!

I wonder if growing up with cameras and humans so familiar will serve her well, or if they will somehow place her in harms way down the road when she is on her own. She will be another of their research bears I feel certain, but no research or collars or brightly colored ribbons can protect them from those dreaded times of the year: HUNTING SEASON...

The hunting season has everyone on pins and needles I'm thinking. I know everyone at the bear center will feel better once that time of year is past.

I’ll just have to jump back on the website and see how this is addressed. You can bet Dr Rogers and his team have already addressed this question many many times.



Would that we could all be just as playful, just as fearless. Me?

I am FEARLESS, but that high up in the treetops, you can bet I’d have on cleats, a harness and a helmet AND A MATTRESS AT THE BOTTOM!!!

 And this itty bitty bear with a big name HOPE just scrambles where no man, or woman would dare go unprotected.
 and I could swear I heard her laugh on one of those videos! Perhaps that was for our friend Jill that she was laughing, encouraging Jill to laugh and to climb and stomp as she fights Cancer!

Bear Spirit is very powerful. Hope is a shining example of that.


So here’s the deal.
 At 18 months, Momma bear and cub detach. Hope will set out on her own, whether she is wanting to or not.

It will be Mom’s time to mate again, and the cub, who will in that short time; be fully ready to take life on her own, totally self-sufficient, her full adult size and weight, will set off to create an independent life.
Eighteen short months, and we humans can’t even get our kids ready for independence in 18 years.
Are we slow learners or what? Maybe it's just that the bears are so very ahead of us!
Maybe it’s because we don’t fully recognize the necessity.
 Because we do have Hallmark calendars.
We start out as protectors and forget our offspring too need be ready at a young age to take responsibility for their life. But then again our offspring are shorter than HOPE, and can't really take care of themselves and walk real good at 18 months, can't get jobs, and such...


So I guess we have indeed had a hand in our children taking longer and longer to become independent, self supporting adults.

Hope cannot insist that Mom do it all, be it all, forever.
But then, I see a soapbox looming on the horizon….


So at what point is it reasonable to expect our human children to be responsible? OK, maybe we can't put them up a pine tree at 18 months old... perhaps we should hold off on that. Although my dear friend Pam had her son in a jonny jump up when he was little less than 24 months... You remember one of those things that hangs from the ceiling and they just jump in it and go high... Well he was jumping so high that his little toes would grab the mantle and then kick off from there!
So today Devin is a Navy Seal and I would swear that was his best training way back then, but what do I know!
oh... where was I...
ah...

I fear that we are raising another generation of “entitled” youth. I see it in my own Godson’s from time to time.
So sad...
 The idea that if they break it, we should replace it.

If it is dirty, someone else should clean it.
LOL, not here I fear ~
There wants become our duty to fulfill.
Not so my friends.

This notion that providing every THING a child wants is nuts.


"Intelligence plus character -that is the goal of true education" (Martin Luther King)
Responsibility builds character.
Character lasts a lifetime.
Material things are just stuff, and have a very limited shelf life.

Seven year olds have cell phones with two year contracts…
"Who exactly is it that they have to call? Aren't these kids with the people they need to talk to?"
                  Do you feel me here?

Just ask a teenager to take out the trash, or clean their room.
It takes an act of Congress to get them moving. This is not how it should be.
I know that responsibility develops over time, but the time to start is when a child is small. When they learn lessons early, they become habits.
Responsibility is a habit.
Natural consequences teach at a core level.
You break it, it’s broken, not replaced.
You lose it, hate it for you, be more careful.
If A, then B.
If we instill these ideas early, we build responsible people.
We teach kids manipulation skills by capitulating.
They throw a tantrum, we respond.
Not a good idea.
"The energy of the mind is the essence of life" (Aristotle)

Balance is a good idea! Body-mind-spirit balance ~ Work/play/love/honor
is a good idea!

Growing up, I learned that everyone in the family had a responsibility to the family. Everyone had a job.
We were loved, we were contributors to the greater good of our lives by contributing to the greater good of our homes and those in it ~ 
We did not own the air we breathed.

There were some good lessons there.
It taught me to be resourceful.
To take pride in my contribution.
I first met with success in my home.
By doing chores, by caring for those who cared for me.
                         I learned to give.
To say please and thank you, because the expectations were non negotiable.
These life lesson’s have indeed lasted a lifetime. I am grateful for the hard work and sacrifices my Mother, my Elders made in my behalf.
I did not grow up to feel entitled to reap the rewards of others efforts.Grateful I am, for the lessons I learned.
The character that the adults in my life built in me. The gifts they gave me. Not things, but much more valuable, the lessons. The responsibilities, the very ability to make good choices, and to recognize that when my choices have not been wise, I must own them to and endure the consequences that I have brought into my life.



So let’s take a long hard look at what we expect of our children and grandchildren, our Godsons and daughters.
Are we focused on character development or are we headed down a road that will create adult babies?
You know me…. I’ll say it again, just in case I have not expressed my opinion clearly….
                      We reap what we sow.
May I live long enough to see each of the young ones whose life I an honored and privileged to touch; grow to be strong, self-sufficient, responsible adults.
                                   STOMP.

The fire is burning brightly this morning, I am fired UP ~ the embers are hot, hot ~ hot ~
Prayers and thoughts on the wind to all who need to all who have asked and some who haven't ~
Let me begin this morning:
Love on the wind to my Godsons' D'Vante and Kamryn, my granddaughter Olivia
Prayers and thoughts to:
Chris in NY almost time to bring your Cancer free boobless self home to Florida my friend, we are with you STOMPING for you warpaint on.
Jill, love on the wind, warpaint on, fight my dear one, fight ~ paw N paw with you
Cindy in NC HOPE on gentle breezes for peace and prayers of painless days ~
Andi, HOPE your Mothers' day with your Mom was good, was peaceful and loving for all ~
6 year old Shelby your family and friend HOPE you are getting stronger each day ~
For: Rhonda Cheree, Joyce Lassi, Phylis, Monica, Denise, Jim, Judi, Jude, Matthew, Joanie, Luci, Charlie Soap and family, "Southwest Virginia", Liz, Lee, Molly, Faith, Dorothy, Laura, Mary, Irene, Tom, Joey ~
and others ~ ~ ~
We are with you in thoughts on the wind ` ~ `
When you are tired, rest my friends, we will be with you in spirit, we will fight on ~
When you are rested, STAND UP
                          S T O M P
                         S   T   O   M   P
We will be there with you in spirit doing battle with you ~ you are never alone, we are with you and you are in the arms of the angels ~
may you find some comfort in knowing that we are with you always ~

So STAND UP ~ Monday is here, it's time to
stand on the desk and party like it's Friday in your mind ~
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing...
just think... in Ely MN a little cub named HOPE is climbing up a huge did I mention HUGE pine tree, not lookin down ~ going places she's never been and having to learn it all in 18 months ~
NOW c'mon you've had more time than that ~
soooo,
                  S T O M P and Celebrate this day!

Walk In Beauty,
DRSES
author of
Healing Heartaches, Stories of Loss and Life
http://www.drsherryeshowalter.com/

tell someone about the book and about this page, they might just like it ~ ~ ~ pay it forward with this or with a smile today ~