When a Bear Shows up for Real

I tend to dream about bears. 

Usually, a grizzly trying to get inside my house. 

He will paw at a screen door with ginormous claws as I desperately try to deadbolt him out. 

Then, suddenly, he’s the back door trying to get in.

It’s terrifying. 

I’ve had this dream at least a half dozen times.

I know animals can bring wisdom and healing though—both in dreams and in real life. So, I keep my eyes open for what might dart across my path. It could be a fox crossing the road as I’m driving home. Maybe a fisher cat. A possum in the driveway. A porcupine in a tree. Or an owl gliding along the road. 

One night recently, I was at home by myself. At dusk, as I closed and locked the front door, I peeked through the window pane as I usually do, to see what was out there.

(Not sure why I always do that. Usually all I see are apples trees, Adirondack chairs, maybe the neighbor’s cat.)

But this time, there was a black shape on the lawn.

It seemed to be moving.

“Is that a dog?” I thought.

I walked around the corner into the living room to see better through the giant windows. And as I got to one of the open ones, there was a 275-pound black bear on the other side.

He looked at me. 

I looked at him.

He breathed. 

Neither one of us knew quite what to do.

I said, “Holy #&%*!”

Recently, I read Dreaming Big Dreams by Robert Moss. Moss says, “Notice that truth comes with goosebumps…there is a science of shivers. You want to learn to recognize and respect what is going on when something exceptional is in the air and your body responds before your mind can make sense of it.”

An exceptional moment. 

As in when a bear is five feet away from you, separated only by a screen in the window.

Now, black bears aren’t carnivorous. 

They eat berries and fruit and bugs.

They aren’t dangerous—unless you get between a mama and her cubs.

But this big boy was giant. The largest black bear I have ever seen—twice my size. And the only one I have ever seen in our yard. 

After a few moments staring at each other, the bear turned, and moved down the hill. I followed him—from the inside of the house. Through a window in the mud room, I watched him make his way across the driveway—I could hear his paws on the pavement. When the automatic outdoor light went on above our garage, he paused. 

And then I watched his bear bum disappear over the embankment.

What’s giving you goosebumps like this in your life?

What moments are making you pause long enough to let your brain catch up to your body?

Moss says in his book about dreaming that when animals enter your life, we can ask, “What do you want me to know? What are you trying to tell me?”

I sat with that for a few days: What did this bear want me to know?

If bear shows up, they say it is time for solitude. For introspection. Meditation. Perhaps time to dive into that creative project you’ve been thinking about. According to Steven D. Farmer’s Animal Spirit Guides, if black bear shows up, “Balance your activities with periods of rest. Don’t forget to play.”

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately—as summer is drawing to a close and the busy fall is around the corner. I’m thinking about how to balance work and rest.

A month after I met the bear at my house, I had another animal dream.

But instead of dreaming of a grizzly, this time it was a black bear, just like the one I met. Seemed like the same one in fact. He was gigantic. Lumbering.  And this time, he was already inside the house.

He curled up on my bed like my cat does.

I remember talking to him.

He was nice!

I reasoned with him. Told him he could stay one night, but then he’d have to go back outside.

He was not threatening at all. 

Not trying to kill me. 

In the dream, when I let him out in the morning, his wife-bear was outside the door. She sat at the base of the dead giant ash tree near our back door. The ash borer beetles have destroyed it and it’s now leafless—it needs to be cut down soon. 

I saw three baby cubs in the tree. And the wife-bear was ushering them down.

Then I woke up.

Comedian and speaker Michael Jr. gave a talk at the Global Leadership Summit this year. In this talk, he said, “Life will bring you people and circumstances to reveal where you’re not free yet.”

Bear seems to be telling me that I am ready for introspection. Some quiet time. Solitude.

Maybe more creative projects!

Black bear, please help me to be free.

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