Don’t worry if you’re a waking bear like me
Here we are in March 2022. You will hear creaks and groans and clicks and oofs from my neck of the woods.
I SPEND most of the period October – March seriously wondering if it could feasibly be possible that my make up be minimum 50 per cent brown bear, if not 100 per cent.
Each autumn I forage frantically, excited by nuts and sweet treats, salmon and stockpiled summer’s bounties.
Waddling slowly into winter, I rely heavily upon cover of the night to hide my stores of body fat and carpets of leg hair.
The annual ritual of dodging invitations and investing heavily in scented candles.
There’s an inevitability about it all that I’ve learned simply to embrace and to cherish.
Like middle age – it suddenly dawns on me that all I really want is a cup of tea, a snuggle with one of my furry family and an early night with a true crime podcast.
But here we are in March 2022. You will hear creaks and groans and clicks and oofs from my neck of the woods.
The light changes and the birds tweet and suddenly it doesn’t seem as totally necessary to be in bed in time for Coronation Street of an evening.
Nay, sod Corrie! Bring me some real people and things and experiences and, erm, life.
But it always does take me a while to work up the energy to bounce about.
I’m not beyond glaring reproachfully at a bouncy lamb one week only to skip up
and down the path alongside it in the field the next. It’s a process.
I was pleased, therefore, when a spot of research this week informed me that it is, in
fact, Normal (for bears) to feel exhausted as spring is sprung.
In fact, bears (who hibernate legitimately) are often actually sleep deprived roundabout now!
They’ve not just been gently knocking out the z’s since Autumn.
They’ve been busy, having to keep to a strict schedule of rousing themselves occasionally throughout winter to ensure their temperature doesn’t sink too far down.
This uses huge amounts of energy and it’s no wonder then that newly awoken bears (and me) tend to stay lethargic for while.
They potter. They ponder. They plan. And they snack.
Gently, gently they coax their metabolisms up to levels that will be able to cope with the coming bounty.
So. Don’t worry if you’re a bear like me.
Spring isn’t actually about being ready for summer.
It’s about beginning to get ready for summer.
And for autumn and thus for the coming next winter.
It’s ok not to be completely up for being bionic immediately.
Instead let’s make it ok to prefer to gently celebrate having come through another winter.
Just for a little while. Just let’s take a minute. Stay still, watch the buds, listen to the birds, put washing out on the line again.
Have a cup of tea. Reach out and say hello to family, friends and neighbours.
See how we can help those who need it.
Thank our lucky stars.
Oh, and then begin to gather bedding for our nests.
We’re going to need it when energy prices rocket.
More than that though, we’re going to need each other.
Sorry – that’s the bear in me again.