I walked around the mostly empty airport. Half of it was shuttered, the few passengers and waiting families wandered aimlessly, glancing at the arrival and departure signs. It is hard to wait. In my mind’s eye she walks down the stairs and I see her before she spots me. The young woman who walks toward me is thin and pale from a sleepless night, my heart lurches and I struggle to control my countenance.
It’s a glorious hot day with high wispy clouds and bright sun. We sit and listen to the birds and the fountain. What is she thinking? Is she sad or just tired? Does she want to sleep but feels it would be rude having just arrived? Mama Bear struggles to take hold so I quiet my mind, listen and summon the silent comfort I learned in hospice. Just let it all be.
A walk up through the woods to the ledges gave us time to flex her cramped muscles. Bear paw prints, deer tracks and giant frogs in the stream distracted us from ourselves. Alice scrambled along happily and chose a particularly stinky mud hole to dunk and roll in. We spotted the Raven’s nest and I wondered if Mrs. Raven was having a Mother’s Day. She rescued at three-legged painted turtle that wandered up the logging road, and scooped jellied toad eggs from the drying mud, rehoming them in a stream.
As the clouds rolled in she wandered off to nap. She is safe and here. I am whole. Mamma Bear is in the woods. This paw print was 30 yards from the house.
Therapeutic Misadventures 
You must be so happy to have her home. Two years is a long time to have not seen her. So much to do and say in the short time she will be here, but at least you can feel good knowing she will soon be home to stay. I would have to camp out with my camera to try and get pictures of the bear!
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Thanks Laura. Perhaps I should move my security/game camera to a location where she seems to wander by? That’s as close as I would like to be!!
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What a nice Mother’s Day present to have your daughter home with you. For eighteen years you are Momma Bear. It’s what you do. They they move away and start cutting those cords. It’s a long slow process changing that dynamic. And it’s hard too!
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Thank you Fred. Such a strange path we all travel, full of adventures and misadventures . Time to get to work on the Academy Park Project!
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That looks like a fairly good sized bear!
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I thought so too, Allen. Also a little to close to the house for comfort. Thankfully, we all seem to coexist without too much trouble. Beats the heck out of listening to car alarms go off all night in the city!!
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Lovely! she will be fine with mama bears love and soup and cake in a mug
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Thank you Zanne. Sometimes the hardest times are the most enlightening when you make it even part way through!
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Bears have these gentle, thoughtful, motherly feelings also? Wonderful insight 😉
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I think all mothers are “cursed” with gentle, thoughtful feelings. Bears just have other annoying habits I find hard to live with. Thanks Susan!
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Glad to hear she is home safely but that bear being so close sounds worrying. I can’t imagine living somewhere where there are large wild animals in the woods, other than ponies of course.
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I like to think we share the environment with them and they will respect us if we respect them, Marie. That said, they better leave my hives alone!!
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