Wholistic Fitness

Obviously, some of my neighbors are NOT being “Bear Smart”…i took this picture this morning of my back alley as i was putting out my trash…looks like a hungry bear had a 1/4 mile long buffet breakfast…

The crazy thing about the above pic is that at least two of the above trash cans are unclipped bear-resistant containers!   doh!    i mean, how stupid is THAT?!    kinda like having a locking carabiner and NOT locking it before a rapell!

Fundamentals of being Bear Smart are pretty simple;   keep your trash can clipped or in your garage at night and then get your lazy butt outta bed early on Trash Pick Up Day to get your Trash Can ready for pickup,  remove bird feeders,  keep your barbeque scrubbed clean, and for more check out:   http://bearsmartdurango.or

Growing up here in Durango,  i always scared of Bears when i went camping with my Wolf…yet never ever saw one around my many, many moons beneath the wash of stars as a kid.

Flash forward to these days and i live in town and have seen more Bears in the last 5 years than in the first 45 years of my entire outdoor-oriented life!  Hec, the Bears LOVE pooping in my yard, napping in my Siberean Elms, and feasting upon my un-Bear Smart neighbors trash and sleeping on the banks of the Animas outside my front door.

I find it interesting that Bear Medicine is “Introspection”…and now, as most of our society is being Enter-tained by electronic devices instead of turning within,  it feels to me like Bear is telling, if not YELLING at us to meditate more,  introspect our actions more…then perhaps, Bear and Human Beings shall return to our more sacred Dance…

Flash Back to late seventies, Yosemite Valley:    “Camp Four” or “Climbers Camp” (Officially referred to as, “SunnySide Camp”)…
i’m laying asleep in the back tiny camper shell of Vince II, my little yellow sport pick up, and am literally shook awake by a Bear who evidently smelled something other than the fragrant sweat from my last Big Wall attempt inside Vince…i remember looking out of the tiny window next to me and seeing the hairy armpit of Brother Bear, on his hind legs…massive arms draping my camper shell, shaking it and me back and forth…i felt like a sock in the dryer…

i don’t let Dewachen sleep in my backyard these days…and i warn visiting friends who camp in my lusciously green backyard to be Bear Smart…keep their toothpaste, food, etc, inside my home…i love Urban Bears as much as Wild Ones, because, once, long ago,  before the White Man f*&ked up Turtle Island,  there were no Human/Bear conflicts;  just a ton of respect, awe, and sacredness in our relationship…may it return to be so…

head bowed,
spirit vowed…

feeble ilg