Helllooooooooo, anybody there?????
*pokes head out from hiding place*
Phew, they’ve gone, well at least for now.
Sorry folks, camp closed down for a while due to an
infestation of brain beasts. We had the common variety anxiety bears, they like
to come into the camp and worry at it. Then there were the grizzly ocd bears
who got in to everything and made a right old mess of the camp ground. And while
all this was going on, those sneaky little depression critters snuck in to the
tents and made nests. All in all it left the site in a state of absolute chaos
and on the brink of destruction!!
The good news is that park rangers have been
deployed, most of the bears have been or are in the process of being rehomed in
new locations away from the site and those pesky critters have been chased out
by vermin control. Humane traps are being laid and the campsite is being
rebuilt, hopefully this time with better defences!! I’m currently in the process
of learning how the early detection warning siren works J
So how did this happen, how did these pests get in? Well
that’s easy, they used stealth. A cunning strategic mix of acceptance and
sneak! Like everything in life, if you allow it to become the norm then it
becomes the norm.
Let me explain.
So there we are, sitting around the campfire,
enjoying some slow roasted marshmallows, comfortable and drowsy, listening to
the sounds that surround us every day, when all of a sudden we hear an unusual
sort of sound, a low snuffling sort of sound. The sound comes closer and closer
and we all sit still waiting to see what’s coming.............
Then it stops
Ok, all back to our marshmallows, panic over. We laugh
a little, half out of nervousness, something we don’t know and don’t entirely
trust had tried to enter our peaceful camp, but it’s ok now, it’s gone. And we
carry on as normal.
The next night we hear it again, and again we stop
roasting our marshmallows and we listen, waiting half in curiosity, half in
anxiety. What is it? What is waiting for us just out of view? And just like
that it disappears again.
After a few nights of the same snuffling we stop
paying attention, oh there it is again, never mind, let’s just carry on
roasting and telling stories.
We are now comfortable with that sound, with the
unknown, skulking around the perimeter of our campsite, never showing itself
but making itself known. We stop paying attention to it, stop noticing it altogether;
it becomes just another background noise until.........................
Wasn’t it just one snuffling before? When did it
become lots of snuffling and branch breaking? When did the sounds start coming
from all around us? But we’re alright though, I mean, it’s not like they are
causing us any harm, right?
All the time we believe that whatever it is will
stay on the boundary, just out of sight. More dangerously we believe that it is
only one type of creature. It hasn’t occurred to us that there might be more
than one type of bear stalking these woods!!
So happily we camp, we carry on our everyday
business, all the time aware that something isn’t right, but all the time
ignoring it in the hope it goes away. But it doesn’t go away; in fact it does
something unexpected........
A BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a bear in camp, quick, run, hide, panic, oh
no, I can’t remember what to do if a bear comes in to camp!! I know I’ve been
told, and even shown, but in the heat of the moment I can’t remember what to do.
But wait a minute; the bear looks a bit confused too. It’s just standing there,
watching us fleeing, probably wondering what we are doing.
Then the bear just turns and walks away.
We thank our lucky stars. That was close; we gather
around the fire and compare notes. But in the confusion we all seem to have
different stories. Was the bear angry or sad, scary or not. It’s all so jumbled
even I’m not sure of my own feelings about the bear.
The next day the bear comes again. This time we
wearily move out of its way, but there is less panic, more curiosity. I mean,
it’s not even like the bear seems to mind us.
The bear comes every day and eventually even starts
to feel like part of the camp. We’ve even started to feed the bear, encourage its
attendance, even, dare I say it, started to like the bear. I wonder if you can
train a bear??? I mean if it was a pet bear it wouldn’t be so dangerous, would
it? Once you get control of it it can work for you, couldn’t it?
We start to find the bear a comfort
We forget the bear is dangerous
Until one
day..........................................................................................
So yes, camp was brought to its knees, was brought
to the brink of destruction, but the worst part is, I can’t blame the bears.
After all, I invited them in
