My wife and I recently visited Glacier National Park in Montana, which is a park filled with spectacular views and scenery. It’s also bear country!!
Warnings about bears are posted everywhere, and tourists are constantly warned about staying away from the bears.
One story circulating in the park was of a woman sitting in a lounge chair next to the shore of a pristine lake up in the hills. She was reading a book. The rest of her family was a distance away playing games and passing time in the wilderness.
At one point, the family members look over and see a mother Grizzly bear coming out of the woods with two cubs. The threesome walks a few feet behind this woman sitting in her chair. However, the woman is oblivious, totally absorbed in her book and enjoying the beautiful warm summer weather. The mother bear and cubs play around and walk by her as if she isn’t even there. Soon they leave, and all is fine and safe.
As I thought about this story, from the metaphysical lessons I’ve learned over the years about how peace of mind keeps us protected from evil things happening, my sense is that the mother Grizzly bear had no reason to fear the woman in the chair. The woman was not sitting there acting afraid or sending out signals that would create alarm bells in the thought of the Grizzly bear. The bear walked on without worry. And the woman kept reading her book unafraid.
It’s a spiritual lesson I cherish. Fear begets fear. Love begets love.
Living in Love is the safest place to be.
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalms 91:1).
Lovely.
Thank you for sharing, Evan.
All non human Life is also God’s creation. And Love is reflected in Love, I have proven that with animals on several Occasions.
Ahhh, love love love this. Thank you for the great food for thought.
My entre into Christian Science was J.Allen Boone’s KINSHIP WITH ALL LIFE.. Reading it again now with my Book group. Look it up!
Yes, this is a great book and animals have remained close to me ever since. I will read it again, too!
Thank you, Evan. Perfect for inspiration today…
Beautiful… I had a similar experience and thought later that it was the innocence in thought that kept us safe.
One day I was about to walk out the front door of our mountain home. I heard my husband say,l “Walk quickly and keep walking.” I had already been thanking divine Love for the wonderful day ahead, working on the place. I listen and trust my husband to express Love as Mind. So, I quickly passed out and across the porch as I swung the door shut.
I turnd around and saw that he was trying to coax a seven foot long racer from the stonework above the door. We have affectionately dubbed him Reggie the Racer. Once the snake realized we were assisting him down to a safe place, he relaxed and went along with my husband. He slowly wound himself partially around the handle of the broom and ‘sat’ majestically on the broom bristle portion. Joe never ceased speaking to him, telling him how beautiful he was, with his reflective, jet black coating. The two proceeded amicably to a copse on the edge of a field infront of the house.
I feel suee that he must have felt relieved when we started our ruckus—with the loud engines made by our tractor mower and push mowers, Joe amd I felt the awe of Love’s Presence and the Hush of the whisper that revealed harmony in tact and fully embracing all.
I too have bear stories, and they are all like this dear woman’s uninterrupted moments—although we were conscious of the bears. I will add that there are times we have been nudged not to go outside star gazing and times we get the green light to walk the trash bag down to the road (only 1/8 mile from the house) on a frosty night. Once I ignored the warning and encountered two restless copper head snakes. I was told, “Jump and run” and I did. I never disobeyed Mother Love again. I recognized that I was the one disturbing in that instance and I praised Love for the protection and I apologized to the pair from the porch as I headed into the house. Love fills all space and we can be meek enough to bow before the Wisdom that is always at hand.
This is so beautiful, Emmy. Thank you for sharing!
Than you, Audrey for sharing those beautiful examples of how safe we always are when we listen to God, and by knowing
that, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science & Health
“All God’s creature moving in the harmony ofScience are harmless, useful and indestructible:
It reminds me of a very much loved hymn
I learnt as a child: which begins:
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the lord god made them all.
Sorry, Emmy – I meant o to say thank you to you, so the above comment was meant for you.
Thank you Emmy, your words are almost like poetry, spiritual, divine poetry. I loved, “….the awe of Love’s Presence and the Hush of the whisper that revealed harmony intact and fully embracing all.”
I saw this also with my granddaughter who was afraid of dogs because of a dog down the street that was not nice. She has dogs in her family that she is not afraid of. We went and visited a relative who has always had chocolate labs for dogs and they are always so friendly. Entering the house everything was fine, but all of a sudden the dog growled at my granddaughter. My relative made a thought inspiring comment. Fear is unstable. The dog sensed the fear in my granddaughter and was ready to defend his home if needed. The relative showed how the dog could do tricks and gave her a treat to give to the dog and said give him this treat and he will be your friend. It was a lovely experience of Love’s presence silencing the fear. It has also made me prayer to understand that in every situation we can counter this belief that fear is a cause and can cause harm. There is no cause but God good.
Lovely to recognize that it is the fear we feel what we see played out.
Sometimes the fear is not really “ours” as much as it is “others'” fears that we are unaware of but are not defending against in the daily defense that Mrs. Eddy urges us to do. Impersonalizing error (from “those” who seem to hold fears, often with the best of intentions… except that it’s so-called material thinking,) I find to be one good way to tackle this.
Evan’s comment: “Living in Love is the safest place to be.”
“Love is all there is to you” By Anthony Whitehouse. From the February 2011 issue of The Christian Science Journal:
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/8ykg88iim8?s=copylink
Thank you, J. that is a really lovely article and very inspiring indeed Very helpful to me at the moment.
Another article on love. Weekend reading. 🙂
“Your ability to heal” In proportion to our commitment to love as Jesus did, our capacity to heal as Jesus did will increase. By Eric Nelson. From the May 13, 2024 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/8kgnkrzeio?s=copylink
what an inspiring article? thanks for sharing
Love is all there is to you. thank you.
When I am around any creatures of God where fear may try to present itself (my fear of them or their fear of me) I mentally speak to them with ideas like, “you have nothing to fear from me, I mean you no harm, I send you peace and blessings,” etc. It has a good effect. I was sitting in some woods yesterday in back of a friend’s home and some deer were scampering around and I just blessed them this way, they came rather close, all was comfortable. Then they went on their way joyfully. So lovely.
Thank you, Evan.
Thank you dear Evan for the lovely and profound lesson in this SV.
absolutely lovely,abide in love
that,s all we Need tò know,as in this week,s bible lesson.thank you Evan, Forever in my Heart.god blessings you all with love,alex
Thank you Evan for inspiring these lovely comments on not fearing wildlife
and living in Love, being the safest place to be. Bears have often been in this area
and have caused no human harm. It actually has been a reason for neighbors
to alert each other that there is one in the area, so it brings us closer together.
Bears are such majestic creatures and I have seen one up close on my deck
and seeing one this close (through glass) is a delightful experience when
recognizing – even as powerful as they are, that, like Maggie quoted, Mrs. Eddy’s,
“All God’s creatures moving in the harmony of Science are harmless, useful
and indestructible”.
Camping in Yellowstone with my family as a child, I walked down a hill from the campsite and started down a path. I noticed a little bubbling mud pot off the path and went over to see it. As I sat on my heels watching it, a grizzly came walking down the path going the opposite way. If I hadn’t left the path we would have met face on. i felt no fear as the bear walked by me without looking at me. I was always grateful for God’s graceful handling of the situation. Now, we live on a bear path. I was out weeding and a bear galloped in front of me about 15 feet away. It didn’t see me, but stopped when he smelled dinner cooking through an open window. I sat silently saying “I love you, you are so wonderful, God loves you and you are always in your right place” and it just turned and went on its way. I’m not as good at doing it with snakes though. Will have to work on that, although when walking my dog he was protected when we came upon a bunch of them. I heard the hissing and prayed to know what to do. A message came to “just keep going” and I did so without fear and the dog was fine’ Very grateful.
I loved reading about everyone’s encounters with bears and other animals. Thank you everyone for sharing your
experiences. Thank you Evan for this topic, and the beautiful picture to inspire.