Beavers, Bears and the "Happenings" that influence our lives

Anybody claiming to have ALL the answers concerning God, bears, or bumblebees is either arrogant, or an ignoramus, or perhaps an arrogant ignoramus.

You can take your pick.

One day I was crossing a large beaver dam in a Michigan forest. I had live-trapped the beaver and transported them to an area that had been free of the animals for several years, and now I was there to dynamite the dam due to the fact that it had caused considerable flooding, backing the dark, tannin-colored waters up until they inundated several logging roads in the area.

I came to the end of the dam and started to step off when I noticed something that stopped me dead in my tracks.

It would be well to note that my dream bears had been faced and acknowledged for what they were, just that, dream bears, nothing more, nothing less. They had been shoved way back to the nether regions of those secret, imaginary dark forests of my mind. But suddenly, they were alive and well.

At my feet, in the damp mud at the end of the beaver dam, was a fresh footprint, and then another and one more, two front tracks, and the well-defined rear track of a black bear.

Suddenly my mind went back to that long ago camping trip of my childhood, and I could hear Sam Tuckee telling the story of the king grizzly.

Never in my life had I felt so alive. It was one of those epiphany moments that come so seldom in one’s life.

I stood at the end of that dam for what seemed the longest time. The tracks were so fresh they were almost steaming! I could see the well-defined veins in the pads similar to the whorls in our fingerprints, and where two of the tracks had pressed deeply into the mud, the claws were evident.

Suddenly I lifted my eyes, half expecting to see the bear watching me.

Silly? Perhaps, but I turned a full 360-degree circle, carefully scanning every bit of cover before I turned back to study those bear tracks.

As Sam Tuckee had done those years before, I knelt down and held my hand next to one of the tracks, and I marveled at the presence that lingered there. The track was not particularly large, but the fact that a bear made it was enough.

Several more years were to pass before I saw my first bear in the wild, so those first tracks on that beaver dam were rolled around and stared at and handled so much in my memory until they became little more than nubbins

I believe that if we examine our lives, we will discover certain experiences or what my mother always referred to as “happenings.” These “happenings” have a way of influencing our lives to a remarkable degree, and being “touched” by those tracks that day was, in a way, my confirmation. It was almost as if my dreams had been given substance or affirmation, and it was beautiful.

Dear Lord, Thank you so very much for affirming your presence in my life and for showing that you care. Thanks for the miraculous; and ever-evident proof of your presence in the world around me. Father God, lead me, guide me, enrich my being; lift me up to an ever higher, ever richer, ever brighter knowledge of your will for my life. Touch me, oh God, touch me, and imbue me with your holy spirit. Open my eyes, mind, and soul to your gracious will for me this day. Teach me; instruct me in your ways that I may be a blessing to all. I love you, Father, oh God; how I love you, and I praise you because you first loved me. This is my prayer, and I ask it knowing and believing that you will not withhold any good thing from them that ask. In Jesus’ holy name, I ask it now, Amen.

Charles Towne