Roar!!

It is much to early in the morning for me to roar, but give me time to wake up and I'll probably find a reason or two to bellow and roar . . . nah!, I'm only kidding. I am not much for roaring out loud but am a bit on the passive aggressive side. I must look that up someday and find out what that really means. I had a son-in-law who thought I was 'passive aggressive' but if he had a thinking brain he would have understood that sometimes when dealing with in-laws it is the only way to be. I had a family of in-laws that were unbelievable, each one as different as night is to day. I had my favorites because they took the time and welcomed me to the family and I had a few family members that went out of their way to make me feel unwelcome. It takes all kinds of people to fill our world and I'm not talking about strangers . . . family members of all sizes and shapes. We wonder why the world is a mess and we wonder why we cannot 'fix' it . . . but . . . and there always is a 'but', if we cannot get along with our melded family members, how in the world can we get along with our world family. Why is it that it takes tragedy to bring us together? We see the problems, take hold and try our best to 'fix' it; Haiti is a prime example, the entire world is up in arms trying to help alleviate the horrendous blow a nation of poor people suffered. The New Orleans hurricane disaster was another time we pulled together and then there are times we suffered through storms of all kinds that our own family and neighbors came to the rescue. People, aren't they wonderful? People, aren't they filled with God's good grace when they stop and think of others and not themselves?

A nation of American Indians were over run by so called progress, greed, avarice and now who has the last laugh as they build the casinos in all states and become rich in helping their own to come back to a life of wealth instead of poverty. It has taken a lot of time but it seems being passive aggressive has its own rewards.

Now about the bear, you have to admit that is quite a mouthful of teeth you are looking at. I wouldn't want to meet up with 'her', a defender of home and hearth and a protector of her children. I just wrote a short story called "Cabins in the Forest" in which a bear plays a part and it all came from being at a friend's camp up in the Sierra mountains when two young men came into the camp with a small bear they had shot and killed. The roar of the mother bear could be heard throughout the mountain and it certainly was not passive aggressive.

So today, pay attention to your surroundings. Think before you speak. Offer up a small prayer for those in need of patience and understanding, and if they will not listen to your side of an argument, then roar like the bear and let them know where you stand. When I got to that point in my life, I used to say I'd like to go stand on top of a mountain and scream. I never got to do that, um . . . wonder if it is too late?