ENCOUNTERS 8/23/99
By Ray Hart
Bear Necessities, The Canadian Trek
My ACIM Lesson for today is: MY FATHER IN HIS MERCY WILLS THAT I BE SAVED
Banff Hot Springs in British Columbia was a place where I saw what it had been when the Indians had gone there so many years before. I lolled in the hot waters and looked up to the snow covered mountainside. Suddenly I could "see" native people steaming themselves in the midst of chilling air. I thought of the paint pots I had seen on the way and I saw what it could have been like in a culture foreign to me. It was as if a screen was in front of me. The visions of people around fires, teepees strung about in a semblance of perfect order, horses wandering freely children playing, adults going about daily chores of milling, cooking, preparing the fresh foods. When I awakened from my reverie I felt as if I had been blessed by the Universe to be able to participate in the Canadian environments, and blessed I was indeed.
We camped in an appropriate campsite and made our fire. We sat sipping tea before retiring and threw a couple of logs on the fire. Margie sang a folk song while I closed my eyes and listened to her voice and the sounds of the forest. There seemed to be a different sound coming from the dark. It was loud enough to get our attention. It sounded like something was pushing its way through the brush. I snatched up my camp light and aimed it toward the sound. What I saw was a form frozen still by the light. A huge furry brown bear sat back on its haunches a few feet away! Whoa! It jolted me awake and I looked at Margie prepared to grab her arm and run. But run to where? I knew that the bear could out run us. Climbing a tree was out -- bears are better climbers than I ever could be. Someone had told me to run down hill if a bear came after me, that the momentum of the bear would cause it to tumble. I wasn’t so sure about that! I looked at Margie and whispered to stay still. I quietly prayed: Father, You got this one! We sat together and I kept the light on the bear. It seemed to sniff the air and looked around. It sauntered over to its right by the spring that went by our camp sight. Its head turned and looked our way, at the light, at the fire, at us. Then it turned on all fours and quietly went away, and along with it went the fear I had felt at the immensity of the bear.
We met a Ranger in the morning. He was coming by to check on the campers scattered throughout his area. We told him of our encounter. He gave us a strange look and then shook his head. He went on to say that there had been about a dozen bear attacks in the past months and that a few women had been severely mauled. One had died. He told us that we were truly lucky.
Not lucky I said, but surely blessed -- by our Father in Heaven.
--- © Ray Hart