Billie had always had a better sense of direction than Bea. They would have surely gotten lost, if it were left to Bea to follow up on directions given them. 

These thoughts brought her back to how her mom told her this frequently becoming lost happened was because she held her purple crayon with the opposite paw from most bears she knew. 

Having taken sufficient twists around this tree, turns toward that bush, and having climbed enough hills, the travelers knew they were nearing the specified location.

It was like an outdoor umbrellaed school for humans, except it was bears being taught by other bears. With the lovely setting of tall pines wafting invigorating scents, who would not want to be there?

The group had many bears who appeared as old as their moms. They told each other they hoped this was going to be as an enriching experience as it looked like. 

As the lovely leaves began to flutter to the ground, doing her notice exercise, Bea became sharply aware of something. There was a feeling around her unlike when she was with her mom.

With continuous encouragement she could learn and experiment with new ways to accomplish a task. These older bears criticized many things Bea did when carrying out assigned duties. They complained she was neither fast enough nor  thorough enough. 

She was tiring of hearing how things have always been done. How could this bullying be happening again in Bea’s life? She was no longer a cub, but a fully grown bear. 

She speculated maybe previously, older unhappy bears bullied these bears when they were novices. Many present bullies were bullied at an earlier time in their lives. Possibly that’s why some of the older bears in the group were bullying the two newbies.

Bea did not know bullies could be old. She thought only little bears could be mean. Some of those older bears spoke as if they had the black stinging bees coming out of their mouths. Feeling like the swarm headed directly for her, brought back memories of the little mean bears, she thought she’d left behind.  

Fortunately, for Billie Bear, only a few stopped to zing her. The two fresh to the earth learners were enchanted with the opportunity to be a part of a group studying how to do the talk to the maker exercise. 

Their enthusiasm faded like a bright flame dimming for lack of fuel. This attitude and treatment of them disappointed and confused the well brought up bears. What they were experiencing went against everything their moms had taught them.

A few kind bears in the group did explain everything to the nervous newcomers. They reported they had had a difficult time when first joining the group, but in turn found some older ones who treated them decently. This process was much like moms teaching their cubs to teach their little ones. Or as we say, ‘passing it forward.’

Eventually, Billie Bear had had enough, seeing no purpose for remaining, left the group. Even though she was happy for Billie Bear making a difficult choice, Bea missed her.

She stayed longer to see if she could learn more from those she looked up to. Her primary purpose and dream was to teach some of the older bears the exercises her mom had taught her. 

In spite of difficult times, there was another reason for remaining. She wanted to teach about her “be good to myself” treat.  She had hopes they might feel better about themselves and be nicer to others. 

They could learn to do the notice exercise, to become aware of things around them, rather than focus only on themselves.  Learning to listen to the rhythm of rocks in the streams, they would hear the songs of the waters. 

If they could listen to the music of the chanting winds as they skipped through the leaves and branches, their hearts would be lighter. They might discover hope. Instead, it seemed they preferred to remain grumpy and unhappy.

Bea wondered why, even if they had all kinds of opportunities to change their way of looking at things, some animals were more content to be unhappy.  Doing her brain exercise didn’t even help make the matter clearer. This was another question whose answer she wasn’t sure she’d ever uncover. 

Bea sensed a great apathy, with no expression of desire to learn the exercises she so dearly wanted to teach them. Their lack of interest and stubbornness broke Bea’s heart. She found it difficult to understand how they could be in a group learning to talk to the maker, but didn’t act like it.

After Bea finally gave up, Billie bear and she got together to compare stories. The two fully intended to remain in touch, however, situations changed, as they do for all of us. In the meantime, Bea became preoccupied with her new charges, Scruffles and Sweet Puppy, and invited them to live with her in the roomy cave home.

Bea told Billie bear, when she met Doolie and her crew, her whole life opened up. Bea began sobbing before she could even get another word out. Taking deep breaths, she was too choked up.