Hello, bright and shiny beacons of light!

What a fascinating week it’s been, I could almost say “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”

I guess to be more accurate, it’d be smoke, fires, and bears, oh my! Plus hummingbirds, but that’s a tale for another day!

Tuesday night I was well asleep when Jessica said very quietly, “Michael.” By that gentle “I don’t want to scare Michael” tone, my adrenaline began coursing…I knew something was up!

She then declared, “I think I hear a bear again.”

And with that, I was off. I’ve had a habit in the past of moving slowly into my fears, something I’ve been working on lately. We had a bear at the house a week ago, it knocked all the hummingbird feeders down (I bet it said “yum yums!”) and created quite the mess.

And it scared the heck out of our kitties. The Love Bug hid under the bed for days. I can’t imagine what a giant toothy bear would look like to a small house cat. Yikes!

I must admit, I was a bit scared heading down the dark staircase toward the kitchen, which is surrounded on three sides by glass.

What would I do if I saw the bear??? Or, more to the point, what would the bear do if HE saw me???

I kept the lights out, my adrenaline going, as I sent out love (there’s never a bad time to go to a place of love!) and headed toward the glass…sure enough, the feeders were down.

And then I heard it…the bear on the deck, right behind the kitchen sink. I went over to the window and looked out…and saw a bear working to open a feeder.

I went to grab my cell phone camera and went for the light switch (there’s never a bad time for a photo op!!!). With the outside lights on, the bear stopped what it was doing and started heading out.

That’s when I had a minor life-changing experience. For the bear stood up briefly on its hind legs to check one more feeder on the way out. When it came back down, it then saw me and got scared.

We often are afraid of the very things that are afraid of us.

In this case, the bear backed up, and she looked terrified. Of course, if my parents are reading, I was still on the other side of the glass – and no, she wasn’t a grizzly.

As she backed up, I did too, for I don’t want to scare anyone or anything.

I sent her all the love I could, and got back and out of her field of view, so she could quietly leave the deck.

She was so cute and cuddly…even if about 5 feet tall. Jessica had come down by this point and loved her cute and fuzzy butt.

The lesson here is simple yet strong. When we face our fears, we find they are almost always NOTHING like we imagined them to be.

They are much smaller, much more navigable, and in many ways, completely transformed, as we lean into them.

We had a VERY big decision to make this week, and it was driving us nuts. Jessica couldn’t even get any sleep. But when we leaned into it and realized where the fear was coming from, the answer became clear.

We made the decision, and last night…minus Lumiere stealing her pillow (go Lumi!) she slept like a baby, and a path has appeared before us.

I use a mind map as a planner…I still plan to put one out over the next year for people who hate lists or are visual like me.

I realized that while we were exhausted over the last two miscarriages and everything in between (we love you Carla!), I would write out a daily or weekly plan, and then on some level, be afraid to check it.

But as our energy has come back, so has my ability and desire to check my map often. In fact, it’s right next to me now. I was afraid of finding a bear on my map; something big and scary I hadn’t taken care of, that now I’d regret.

Instead, the more I check and the more I take ACTION on the items that “scare” me the most, the more on top of everything I feel.

And so I encourage you, look at your lists or your mind-map, and ask, what am I procrastinating? What aren’t I getting done?

Or what is the bear outside my kitchen that I need to go out and face?

The sooner you do this, and the more regularly you do this, in the most kind, gentle, and easy fashion possible, the more relief you’ll feel, the better you’ll sleep and the more you’ll step forward into your power and the life you’ve always dreamed of.

Baby bear step by baby step.

Now that’s a mighty WOO HOO!!!! And roaaaaarrrrr!

Shine bright everyone, we send all our love!!!!!