… they meditate.
The bears are adorable, but they’re also rowdy. On a
given day, Moon Pie is liable to hang himself (by accident) on a purse strap or
a bauble chain, Burl and Elliot are scrapping over the football, Rufus is in a
snit about something, and Pumpkin is trying to survive amid the chaos by
punching a hole in it. Gingersnap, Spirit Bear, and Gorden are milder in
temperament than their feistier fellows, but even one of them will lose
patience over the ongoing shenanigans once in a while. Either their energy was
getting hairier or my aura has grown more sensitive to dissention because a few
Sundays ago, I took away the football and gave them a group time out. I sat
them in a circle, gave them a gazing ball, and told them they’d get to play
tomorrow.
At first they were like, What is this?
Definite grumbling and some puzzlement ensued. Moonie thought the gazing ball
was a toy and tried to bat it over to Burl, but it’s an amethyst crystal that
weighs more than he does, so it didn’t go very far. Not surprisingly, Spirit
Bear was the first to grasp what I was trying to teach them, and in his quiet
way, he got them to fall in line. When I checked on them a few hours later,
they had settled into a peaceful groove and were far more relaxed at bedtime
than if they’d been left to wreak their usual havoc throughout the day.
Now he’s the group guru. It’s taken some time, but
since they’ve been spending Sundays in mindful and collaborative quiet, they
seem calmer and less contrary during the rest of the week. Of course they still
have their moments—you can’t alter their personalities completely and I
wouldn’t want to—but I think they actually look forward to Sundays and their
weekly “bear sangha”.
I know I do.
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