Bear Feels Scared

by Don Harkey

I was reading a story last night to my 6-year old son called "Bear Feels Scared" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. (I highly recommend the Bear books by Wilson and Chapman)

The story is about a large bear (named Bear) who wanders from his cave to search for a snack. He wanders around the forest on a small trail and decides to return home as the weather starts to get cold. Before he can get home, the sun starts to set and he begins to feel scared. Before long, he is hiding in some bushes shivering in the cold wind as night falls.

Meanwhile, his friends (Mouse, Rabbit, Wren, Raven, Owl, and Badger) are waiting for Bear to return. As night falls, they decide that they should wander out into the forest to find Bear and help him get home. They prepare their search party and venture out of the cave. (SPOILER ALERT) They don't get far outside the cave when they run into Bear who was hiding in a bush, which ended up being only 10 feet from his cave. The friends enter the cave and snuggle together for bedtime ("...and the Bear feels safe").

As I closed the book, I realized how profound this simple story really is. The Bear ventured out of his comfort area (the cave) in search of something a little better (a snack). Soon, his fear of the unknown caused him to loose his vision and he temporarily lost his ability to find a snack or even get back to his comfortable cave.

This is the role that fear plays in our lives. An uncertain economy can certainly feel like a cold winter night and cause us to loose our vision. However, the book teaches us two very important lessons. First of all, fear is OK as long as it doesn't paralyze us into inaction. After all, when fear clouds our vision (which is what fear does), its hard for us to see how far (or close) we really are to our goals. The journey might be hard and we may never reach our goal, but this outcome is ensured when we stop trying.

The second lesson is that friends and trusted allies are invaluable during times of fear. Whether its a personal or professional relationship, people we trust and who care for us are absolutely critical in times of trial. This is another example of "the right thing to do is the right thing to do". Most of us know that we should help our friends in times of need. The same is true in professional relationships and even in networking. In times of economic stress, we should all turn to our most trusted partners and work together to find new and old ways to succeed together. This concept gives some clarity to why beating up vendors and milking customers is a destructive practice! Building relationships with people who do the right things and do them well should be a goal of any organization.

With vision and trusted relationships, we can all, as the book says, "feel safe"!