Now, in order to move the story forward, the hero must access her strengths. Tools must be developed to overcome the struggle of the situation. This is how Bear built her tools, she built them from her friendships. In the case of Bear, her strengths were her friends and the trust she had in them. She let them be the tools of her healing but also used tools to become rid of the negativity. These are tools like burying unhelpful thoughts. She learned to be observant and catch negativity and destroy it before it became a problem.
Bear lost trust for any of her friends because, after all, Coyote was very clear in explaining what everyone thought of her and her cubs. But Owl loved Bear beyond reason. He was dedicated to her and was infinitely patient. Bear had so much respect for Owl that she decided, of Owl could find nothing to hate in her then perhaps she was being unfair to herself and needed some perspective.
Bear asked Butterfly for help. Woodpecker also wanted to help. Bear found that may of the animals wanted to help her.
Butterfly danced up and down and used her wings to fan Bear into a deep sleep. Woodpecker dug down with her beak into Bears womb and carefully pulled out each shard and Rabbit ran away with each shard and buried them deep in the earth where they could be cleansed. Woodpecker dug the shards out of Bears mind, carefully twisting each one out. Rabbit ran with them and threw them into the river where they were washed away by the flowing waters. Torment and anguish would never get stuck in Bears brain again.
Owl searched and finally found Bears heart under the bush. He gently removed each shard from her heart and placed the heart back inside her chest. It was Porcupine who stitched up the wounds so that they would heal.
When Bear woke up, the pain was gone but the memory of pain was still grievous. She had lived without a heart. The guilt she felt from her heartless words and actions are a misery to live with even after the heart has been healed. Cubs take a long time to mend from living in this pain. The pain is deep but the cubs are resilient. They might travel trails that the wounded tend to follow. Bear works every day asking the forest to guide them on safe paths.
The animals worked with Bear to teach her how to catch shards and fling them away instead of taking them all in to herself. She learned not to take things personally. She grabbed any shards sent her way and buried them under the ground or tossed them into the water. She would sometimes throw them into the fire and watch their negativity burn away. She learned a new truth. Sometimes shards don’t hit you right away, they sulk in the corner and hitch a ride with other shards flung later.
She learned that animals that fling shards have not been able to walk in another’s shoes because walking in another’s shoes is the beginning of understanding.
She learned to see the quality of people and to know that condemners condemn and criticizers criticize. That is just what they do. She learned to grab shards with both hands, look at them and name them and let them go.
This is how Bear lives now.
Next we may work on another story with a more fairy tail like theme instead of a native American theme.
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