{"id":5827,"date":"2016-11-22T17:30:59","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T23:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=5827"},"modified":"2016-11-22T13:09:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T19:09:27","slug":"bears-in-my-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/11\/bears-in-my-house.html","title":{"rendered":"Bears In My House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A few nights ago I dreamed there were bears in my house.<\/p>\n

Now, I have some friends who are bears by one definition or another and they\u2019re welcome in my house any time. This wasn\u2019t them. This was Ursus americanus<\/em>. There were also foxes and possums, but I wasn\u2019t nearly as concerned about them as the bears. They weren\u2019t hurting anything, but I still wanted them out, because they were bears and bears can rip things to shreds if they decide that\u2019s what they want to do. How can I relax if there are bears in my house?<\/p>\n

\"800px-Canadian_Rockies_-_the_bear_at_Lake_Louise\"<\/a>
image via WikiMedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve been exploring and practicing Paganism for almost 24 years. Along the way I\u2019ve developed some pretty clear ideas about the Gods and our relationships with Them. I have a theory of magic that while subject to constant revision has proved to be quite useful. I have ideas about Nature and our place in it. But I still don\u2019t know the proper role of wildness in Paganism, or at least in my Paganism.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always felt comfortable in wild places<\/a>. If you visit them mindfully and respectfully, they can be inspiring, comforting, and even nurturing. Visit them arrogantly and they can be deadly. Our very ancient ancestors lived in the wild and did just fine or we wouldn\u2019t be here. Humans have a place in Nature, it\u2019s just not at the center of things.<\/p>\n

But for all my love of wild places, I like order. I like predictability and cleanliness and I like sleeping in a comfortable bed in a climate-controlled room. I think a little OCD is a good thing, and I have more than a little myself. I get frustrated with chaos, and chaos plus crowds will send me into a panic attack.<\/p>\n

And yet for some reason, a wild God of Nature<\/a> called me to His service. Some of that service is caring for Nature and advocating for wild places. Some of it is promoting a reverence for Nature<\/a>. A big part is reminding everyone \u2013 including myself \u2013 that humans are part of Nature, not separate from it.<\/p>\n

When my father would see people behaving in a way he didn\u2019t approve of, he\u2019d say \u201cthey\u2019re acting like a bunch of animals.\u201d One time in my teen years, when I was starting to assert my independence just a bit, I said \u201cbut we are animals\u201d \u2013 which, biologically speaking, is true. That precipitated a long rant about how humans are \u201cmade in the image of God\u201d and categorically different from other creatures.<\/p>\n

My father was wrong. The differences between us and the other animals are differences of degree, not differences of kind.<\/p>\n

Now, those differences of degree have become huge. They\u2019ve allowed us to go from an insignificant species hunting on the savannahs of East Africa to the shapers of the planet and the explorers of the cosmos. But in our quest for more and more control and for more and more order, we have changed things we have no right to change and we have empowered those who promise a return to order in exchange for our freedom\u2026 or at least, in exchange for the freedom of some.<\/p>\n

But there are bears in my house and bears don\u2019t care about order.<\/p>\n

Bears pretty much keep to themselves, eating and sleeping and doing bear things. But threaten a bear and it will attack you. Bears are powerful and wild. Foxes are smart and clever. Foxes figure out the rules and then use them to their advantage. When faced with overwhelming odds, possums will hide and play dead, and live to fight another day.<\/p>\n

There are bears and foxes and possums in my house. They\u2019ve always been here. I\u2019ve kept them caged up because I wanted neat, clean, predictable order. I wanted \u2013 and to be fair, needed \u2013 to build some things where wildness would be a distraction: a base of knowledge and learning, a professional career to provide material resources, and relationships that required careful nurturing. Embracing wildness would have kept me from reaching those goals, and I have no regrets for the choices I made.<\/p>\n

But the Forest God is whispering that it\u2019s time to open those cages.<\/p>\n

\"Fox_009\"<\/a>
image via WikiMedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u2019t think the possum ever made it into the cage. He hid in the closet until the danger was gone, then went back to foraging for food. The fox learned to pick the lock a long time ago. He\u2019s always there for roll call, then goes back to seeing what he can salvage<\/a>. His cage has some cool stuff in it, and sometimes he disappears for a week or two to travel with other foxes and do fox stuff.<\/p>\n

The bear has been caged for so long about all he does is sleep. Bears sleep a lot, even in the wild. But just as Spring signals a hibernating bear that it\u2019s time to wake up, current events<\/a> are telling this bear that it can\u2019t stay caged much longer. He\u2019s waking up.<\/p>\n

What does all this mean in plain non-metaphorical English? Honestly, I don\u2019t know. Human society requires order to function, and so do I. But part of being human is being an animal, and our animal nature has to be acknowledged, honored, and at times, embraced. This needs more thought and reflection, and it especially needs more time outdoors in Nature.<\/p>\n

All I know for sure is this: I dreamed there were bears in my house, and they\u2019re not going to go away.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I dreamed there were bears in my house. They weren\u2019t hurting anything, but I still wanted them out, because they were bears and bears can rip things to shreds if they decide that\u2019s what they want to do. How can I relax if there are bears in my house?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":5832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1180,31,1181,4,5,8],"class_list":["post-5827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-bears","tag-cernunnos","tag-dreams","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism"],"yoast_head":"\nBears In My House<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I dreamed there were bears in my house. They weren\u2019t hurting anything, but I still wanted them out, because they were bears and bears can rip things to shreds if they decide that\u2019s what they want to do. 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