Final Friday Fiction

There once was a bear who travelled. Not just from room to room or even street to street. Not only from town to town, but also from country to country. This adventurous bear was able to communicate wherever he went because he spoke the universal language. Love.

Sometimes, to travel, the adventurous bear had to be stuffed into places dark and cramped. It's not that he didn't have a passport to cross the borders with - he did. It was that sometimes it was the only means of transport. His beloved hyooman couldn't always travel with him you see, but other hyoomans wanted his company. So the adventurous bear would be wrapped in paper and his clothes beside him and into a box he would go.

One day, he got no warning, none at all. His hyooman picked him up and wrapped him and he knew that soon he'd be in the dark. Quite literally. This time was different though. This time there were other stuffies in beside him.

Loother was large but a proper gentlemouse who spent the entire trip apologising to his fellow travellers in case he was crushing them. Soxee just giggled and squeaked and wriggled, saying she was getting tickled. 'How that could be is quite beyond understanding', thought the adventurous bear, 'because we are all wrapped like Ancient Egyptians in here'. Then there was Stix, who moaned a bit that there was no room in the box to 'cut some moves'. Adventurous bear wasn't at all sure he ever wanted to find out what that meant. The remaining member of this travelling team was the Sadhu. Dressed all in saffron-coloured clothes, this mouse's face appeared to glow with a special light of its own. The adventurous bear had seen it before all the wrapping happened and even now, in this pitch-dark travelling space, he somehow knew which of the lumps beside him was the Sadhu. The glow was not just of light but of energy, it seemed.

The adventurous bear was curious and really wanted to ask questions of the Sadhu, but didn't know quite how to begin and was afraid of seeming foolish.

'Ask your questions', came a voice as that thought went through the adventurous bear's mind. If he had a lid on his one eye, he would have blinked. 'I wondered only at the colour of your clothing and the glow of your face…'

'Is that all?' quipped the Sadhu. Despite being unable to see, the adventurous bear knew somehow that there was a smile on the other's face, that face of radiance. He felt his mind focus only on that voice. 'We who walk the Advaitic path wear yellow to represent the rising sun. We are at the dawn of our understanding of Reality of Spirit and the Nature of Humanity; even as we have yet to complete the path, proximity to the Truth removes fear, instils clarity and engenders purity. How can one not glow with such fortune upon one?'

The adventurous bear pondered both the response and whether he was expected to formulate an answer to the end question. He surprised himself.

'Do you follow the sun, then?' The adventurous bear wondered to himself who had asked that question, surely it wasn't himself!

'We follow Knowledge. All knowledge of the material kind and all knowledge of the mystical kind. When we are able to bring the two together and become The Knowledge ourselves, then we take the orange cloth, representing the setting of the sun. External light is no longer required. We are the Light.'

The adventurous bear fell into silence as his mind ticked over and over these few words which seemed to carry the weight of the world within them. 'I am orange' he thought to himself. Which was true. His furs were orange from the tip of his head right down to his paws.

'Then you must be a very wise bear and one who understands the nature of Love.'

Again, the adventurous bear wanted to blink, for he was sure he had not spoken aloud. It was true, though; he knew only Love. Through all his years he had absorbed all the tears of joy and pain of the hyooman and shared in all the fun and the angst. Through it all, he had remained he, balanced and content. That was all that Love demanded.

Before he could make further enquiry, there was a wrenching sound, a snipping and a clipping and ripping. In no time at all  it seemed, they were being removed from the box and unwrapped and getting hugged and Loved by a hyooman not his own.

'Oh, life - 'tis an adventure!' thought the adventurous bear…

ॐ  © Yamini Ali MacLean 2017

NB - The Adventurous Bear is, of course, none other than Brom of Norway!

...don't ask...