THE SECOND WELL TRUST presents

The Great She Bear Stories of Nature

Respect, Caution and Hidden Secrets

SOUL'S JOURNEY SIX

Songee begins by saying, So now we are going to continue the spiral of the Great She-Bear, is this not so?

(Kirsty the big Collie dog has come this day to hear Songee's story and she is making a noise while she settles into a more comfortable place.)

Songee says, Are you comfortable wolf?

Now it is time once more for you to close your eye, to take inside of you the deep breath of life, deep down into your middle self. And to breathe out with your mouth open, wide, all your tensions and let all your cares of your life, for a moment, flow away from you. Breathe deeply down, hold your breath and then release it. And keep doing this as we begin our journey once more.

And we are going to set out now on the spiral of the Great She-Bear. So take a step now from the beginning place onto the spiral and remember as you tread the spiral of the Great She-Bear how the Muma bear brought her beautiful babies out into the world and how they have journeyed along and the adventures they have had. And we journey along, now, the spiral all the way remembering the other parts of the journey as you go. Stepping forwards, every onwards, towards the center of the spiral and as we come to the center of the spiral we wait and hover for a moment, just within, before we step off into the other world.

And in front of you now, as you are coming down into the other world you will see the Great She-Bear and the little bear cubs and the wolf, Windrunner as they emerge from behind a great crystal, shining waterfall. And they stepping out now and coming on to the side of the great river, at the base of the huge cliff. And as they walk along through the grass and the bushes and the trees, the waterfall has wet the leaves and so the water is wetting the fur of the travellers as they pass through this ways.

And the little feets of the Little-Bear cub and the Little She-Bear are getting very wet and as they walk along first they shake this one foot out behind and then the other foot out behind. And walk on some more and then shakings out their back foots again, and shaking out the other one again. And this is how they are walking all the way along the trail. And Windrunner is walking behind and smiling at the funny walkings of the little bear cubs. And the Great She-Bear is leading the way as they shamble along through the trail next to the great river.

Not much happens on this part of the journey because they are too far from the bank to get to where the silver fish are. And there are no berries for them to eat so close to the waters at this moment. And so they just quietly shamble along remembering all their adventures and all the things they have learnt on their way.

Very soon the Great She-Bear stops and she turns around and she says, "We are going to leave the river now and we are going to move inland, so follow I, and as we move along very soon you will be able to play once more."

"Oh that is so good," said Little-Bear cub. "I am getting so tired of my feets feeling all soggy in between my toes."

"Come," says the mother. "We go this way." And so they begin to move away from the river now and down into the deep forest. All around them the trees are growing thick and tall and inside the forest it is dark and cool from the hot sunshine. There are not a lot of bushes under the trees because the trees have grown so closely together that those bushes that have grown there are not very green and they are a little bit thin looking as though they don't get quite enough sunshine and not quite enough foodings to eat.

And so they travel and as they move along so quietly through this beautiful forest everything is silent. Beneath their feet there is no sound because the leaves from the trees have settled down on the grounds and have made a carpet, so soft, that when they pass that way their feets make very little sound and only occasionally can there be heard, a call of a bird in the tree tops. Everything is very silent. Even the insects seem to have gone to sleep in this place, so silent is it.

And then Muma bear says, "Very well children you can go and play a little now."

And the two little bear cubs jump for joy and run ahead of their Muma and dart in and out of the trees and chase each other around the funny little bushes.

And as they do, the Great She-Bear turns to Windrunner and says, "Thank you so much for teaching the children the lessons of walking on air and the other things that you have taught them. We are going to continue on now and we may be going to have more adventures. Would you like to come with us or would you like to return to your people?"

"Oh," said Windrunner. "I feel that I will continue with you for just a little bit longer. I would very much like to see how these two little ones manage."

And so the two grown creatures walked together, conversing amiably together about life. And then up ahead of them in a little patch of sunlight, that is shinning, where the trees are not so thickly grown together they see the Little-Bear cub standing up on his feets, waving his arms in the air and saying,

"Oh, look at that! Look at that! Oh what a wonderful creature. Oh what a beautiful creature. I would like to play with that."

And the Great She-Bear looks at Windrunner, and Windrunner looks at the Great She-Bear.

"Oh my goodness," says the Great She-Bear. "What trouble is he going to get into now?" And she stands up on her great hind legs to see better across the distance to where is the Little-Bear cub.

"Oh my goodness!" she says. "Windrunner swiftly go. Swiftly." And Windrunner runs swiftly, leaving not a sound or a swirl of dirt behind him until he comes to where is the Little-Bear cub. And as he comes to where the Little-Bear cub is he sees immediately what is about to transpire.

"Stop," he says. "Stop."

And the Little-Bear cub looks, and looks at him and says, "What do I have to stop for? I was just about to say hello to this new creature."

"You cannot say hello to that creature," says Windrunner. "You say hello to that creature and nobody will want to be your friend anymore!"

"Oh, and how is that?" Say the Little-Bear cub. "My, my new friend is most beautiful. My new friend, look has the most beautiful face, the most beautiful shining eyes and is not very big and look at that beautiful, sleek, black coat. And look at the most beautiful tail that comes up over the back. Much more beautiful than I's tail. I's tail is only short and this beautiful friend has got a wonderful white stripe all the way down the back and up the tail. It is a beautiful creature. I would like to say hello, however it is a little bit nervous of I."

"You don't go near that one, when that one is so nervous," says Windrunner. "You listen to I when I tell you something."

And while this has been happening nobody has been watching the Little She-Bear. And the Little She-Bear has very quietly walking forwards, slowly poking out her nose towards this most wondrous creature with the beautiful shining black eyes and the beautiful little nose and the wonderfully shining black coat with the white stripe down the back and a beautiful, luxurious tail.

"Oh," she says quietly to it. "You are so beautiful. Would you mind if I just touched you for a moment?" And as she lifts up her little paw to bring it forwards to touch the nose of this beautiful creature Muma She-Bear comes running along and says,

"NOOO! child!"

However it is too late, because the creature, so startled by all the goings on and the comings and goings and froings and the toings and the shoutings and growlings, suddenly turns around and puts her back to them all and out of the bottom end comes a most disgusting odour that anybody has ever encountered before.

"Oh Piff," says the Little-Bear cub. "Piff, piff, piff. Oh that's terrible. Piff, Piff."

And Windrunner goes, "Piff, piff, piff, Oh that's terrible. Oh, tak that's terrible."

And the Little She-Bear, well she is the closest, "Oh Muma," she says and she rolls all over the floor. And she says, "Oh my beautiful coat, my beautiful coat. I smell terrible."

And the Great She-Bear is a little more fortunate she was not so close and she had only a little bit on the ends of her whiskers. However it is too close to her nose for her liking and she also is getting into her face with her hand paws and saying, "Oh this is terrible, this is terrible and we have left the stream a long way behind us and the great river. We cannot wash ourselves now."

Well of course the Little-Bear cub turns and says, "What was that creature? It looked so beautiful."

"It is beautiful," said the Great She-Bear. "All things that belong to Oneness are beautiful, little one, however that one has a hidden secret. And that hidden secret is what you have just discovered and it is called a Skunk! And it is called a Skunk because it puts this terrible smell over everything when it is afeared of things.

"Oh dear," says the Little She-Bear. "What are we going to do now Muma? I don't like being like this. I smell so terrible."

"Well," says Windrunner, "There is nothing for us to do at the moment. We have to just wait for it to fade away. So come, we must journey along some more and I will help us to find a place where we can roll ourselves and get some of this smell away from us."

And so they journey on and everybody's looking at each other and wishing the other was not quite so close as they walk along through the forest and the Little-Bear cub is grumbling all the way.

"Nobody told I. What for did nobody tell I about this? I don't know about these things. I have to know about these things. My sister does not know about these things. Somebody had to tell us. How is it you did not tell us?"

And the Great She-Bear looks at her son and she stops in her track and she sits down on her bottom self and she says with a great sigh, "Little one, listen to I. You did not listen! We called to you to stop. You did not heed the words of I or of Windrunner. You wanted to argue about it and so now you have to take the consequences. The problem is, so have Windrunner and I have to take consequences of this action of yours."

"Not of I, it was Her! It was her!" says the Little-Bear cub, blaming his sister the Little She-Bear.

"Oh yes that is so true," said the Great She-Bear. "You did, did you not little one go and poke your nose where you were not meant to poke."

"I only wanted to be friendly and to say hello," said the Little She-Bear.

"Well come," says the Great She-Bear. "We will show you and talk to you some more in a moment. Come."

And so they go along some further ways until they come to a place further deep into the forest where the sun is shining now because the trees are not so close together. There is some ground that is covered with grass in front of them and some berries on some bushes for them to eat. And in the middle of this clearing there is on the ground, there are the droppings of a creature.

"Come," says the Great She-Bear.

"Oh, relief," says Windrunner. And goes and finds the droppings of this other creature and rolls himself from his toes and to the top of his nose all the way to the ends of his feets and his tail.

"What are you doing?" said the Little-Bear cub.

"I am getting rid of this awful smell."

"That is very strange way to do that," said the Little-Bear cub. "That thing that you are rolling in is the droppings of somebody else and it also has a smell."

"That is very true," said Windrunner. "And that is how you get rid of a smell you don't like. You find one that you much prefer that is not so bad and you get it onto you instead."

"Oh that is very clever," said the Little-Bear cub and immediately begins to find his own droppings to roll in.

And so there they are, all in this beautiful green clearing in the forest all rolling around with their feets in the air and getting all excited to get all this other horrible smell off them and at the same time putting another smell on in its place.

"Now," says the Great She-Bear. "Come, let us have something to eats and we sit down and we have talkings."

And this is what they do and all sitting round together in the sunlight, in the greenness of the forest in the middle, they have their talkings.

"Now," says the Great She-Bear. "You have to learn not to poke your nose where you are not meant to poke it because when you do you will always find that something not very nice, that does not smell very nice will perhaps get onto you. You will discover something that you would be better not knowing about. So it is always better to stand away a little for a distance to investigate something, first, before you poke your nose into it, because you never know quite what you are going to find. That little creature is a very nervous little creature. It is not a nasty creature. It will not hurt you and give you great harmings however the smell it puts on you is enough to keep all your best friends away from you for a very long time. No one will want to know you. No one will want to be with you. And so it is sometimes when you go poking your nose into things that you are meant to poke your nose into and something not very nice gets stuck upon you, you friends do not want to be with you for awhile until you become clean once more."

And so it is the Little-Bear cub and the Little She-Bear learned this lesson of life. Of how to be cautious. Of how to be a little wary of putting their noses where they are not meant to be and of learning that sometimes the most attractive things can be hidden the secrets that are not so attractive. And so this very valuable lesson is one that they will carry the memory of for a very long time. They will carry the memory all of their living life and pass it on to their little bear cubs in their own turn because this lesson is one that is not easily forgotten because the smell lingers on for a very long time.

And so we are going to leave them in their forest, talking a little more about this lesson of life as you might like to do when you return to your place of living and to know how to avoid poking your noses into places where they are not perhaps not meant to be sometimes and learning how sometimes to look at things from a distance first and that way bad smell won't cling to you either.

So let us leave them there for now and we will follow their exciting journeys another time.

So step now once more upon the spiral of the Great She-Bear, back at the center and begin your journey outwards. Walking outwards now along the great spiral and as you come outwards remember the little lessons that the little bear cubs are learning on their journeys of life. As you come outwards now, out towards the edge and back to your own spiral, the spiral of your own life.

And as you step onto your spiral you come back to your space, take a big breath inside yourself, and bring yourself very slowly and gently back into your own life that you have now.

SO BE IT