September 21
I think winter is coming early this year. Fall is here like the flip of a switch. We made a deceivingly challenging 2 day hunt covering roughly 15 miles on foot and totaling around 5000ft change in elevation round trip. That night was about 10 degrees colder than the forecast, so I didn’t sleep much. The following morning we made a short hike to a meadow and collected some much needed water. Everything was still covered in frost. The sun was just beginning to crest the peaks to our east and the warmth was very welcomed. All the autumn colors in the meadow lit up like neon. I was so drained from the freezing night I couldn’t help but disregard the hunt and just sleep in the warm grass.When I was finally conscious and somewhat useful, we agreed to have a little spiritual journey. I always say when you’ve been physically humbled and your guard is down, it’s a good time because you don’t have to negotiate your ego during blast off. Besides, it was a good excuse to lay back and close my eyes again.
As the vision began, the swirling kaleidoscope of colors became a group of pastel colored Teddy Bears, Pink, blue, orange and yellow.
The Teddy Bears were making strange hand gestures and
looking through their fingers in such a way as to examine me. They kept moving
closer and closer. It wasn’t weird or uncomfortable, it just felt like they were
checking me out to make sure everything was good, but they were very serious
about their job. Behind them was another Teddy Bear, the yellow one, but he
looked different. He kept making faces and mocking the other bear’s gestures. I
felt myself giggle a little and the other Bear started making very exaggerated
karate chops and punching the air. His alternating punches started pointing to
the sky and he was laughing and yelling to “To the Top!”. Then the Bears passed me by and the funny one
fell apart into a bunch of pieces.
As I was fading out, I felt like the funny one was just trying to remind me not to be intimidated by people who take themselves too seriously. And even when you feel like you are being judged or criticized, not to take yourself too seriously either.
