“ I’m serious. Who is your guru, your teacher, your sensei?” He was becoming agitated, puzzled to the point of frustration, yet some eerie, curious feeling inside his “being” seemed to need to know more.
“I AM serious,” she said, with a lilt of laughter in her voice. As she pointed to a portrait hanging proudly above the fireplace, she claimed, almost with pride “This is Wendy. She is, as you can see, a stuffed teddy bear who came from who-knows-where, and has the wisdom of the world.”
With a light giggle to her voice, she continued, “Obviously, you have not read her writings.”
“No, I can quite honestly say I have never read any.” Pausing a moment, he looked at her most directly, looking for some hint of teasing, some sort of dig, maybe. When she kept her serene, warm and kind smile about her, with that same twinkle that first attracted his attention, he said, “You are serious, aren’t you.”
“Of course,” she replied, rather matter-of-factly. Shifting her tone to more of a gentle commanding lilt, she continued, “Now, are you ready to begin your next chapter in your drama?”
Feeling more confused, but also feeling a bit adventurous, almost like a boy in a toy store with birthday money to spend, he answered, “What have I got to lose?”
“Everything you believed in that goes against how life really works, for one” she replied quite frankly, yet with a smile. “Ready?”
“What do I have to do?”
Taking a deep breath, she replied, “First, we get to work on your vocabulary. You do not HAVE to do anything. If you like, you may start with your evening’s assignment.” She reached toward a shelf set in the wall where a book sat. It had a front cover with the face of the same bear whose picture hung over the fireplace mantel. “Begin reading this in your room. Don’t read the whole thing, but just open it up and read until you feel you are done for that moment. You will feel when that moment is.”
“And if I have any questions?” he queried. “You won’t,” she replied matter-of-factly with a smile and an “allknowing” sparkle in her eyes, as she walked out.
Two men, both in their mid-thirties and rather nondescript in appearance, entered. One gentleman had sandy hair and blue eyes, the other, dark hair with a few strands of sun bleaching and brown eyes. The dark-haired one was carrying a neatly folded pile of what looked like clothing. It was the same color material as what the people around this facility were wearing, so it probably was. A ‘flash’ came to him at that moment. “Hmm. I do make some assumptions rather quickly, don’t I,” he thought to himself, then he let the thought go.
“We brought some clothes for you to wear for tomorrow. After you change, we will clean what you are wearing. One of our people has a great way of getting out those pesky bloodstains. For now, please follow us. We will show you to your room.”
The last lines spoken by these two reminded him of a line from one of the old Frankenstein horror movies of the 1930s.
“And, if I don’t want to stay?” he said, almost sarcastically.
“There is the front door. You are no prisoner.” They both smiled lightly while the young man just stood there, puzzled. “Again, if you are ready, please follow us. We will show you to your room.”
So, book in hand, he followed them, cautiously, to his room.
His room was like a room one would find in a manor house or a Bed-and-Breakfast, except that there were no clocks, not even a television or radio. For what he could see out the window in the dusky darkness, there was a view of an open field with the outline of a single, leafy tree.
As he looked around his new room, the man who carried the folded clothing set the pile on the dresser and walked toward the door.
As the other opened the door, they turned, smiled to the young man and said, “Welcome home.” The door closed behind them.
“Talk about your ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ situation! This place is really beyond any movie I have ever seen!”
Shaking his head in disbelief from not being able to understand any of this, he sat down on the bed, and opened the book he had been carrying. On the first page, it said . . .
Hello! I have been waiting for you!
My name is Wendy. Yes, I am a bear of the teddy type. Because I am stuffed, I do not get hungry. I also have a sense of humor. Outside of the minor difference of being stuffed, you and I are much alike. Like you, I have feelings. I feel happiness, sadness, I get angry when I see things that are hurtful, I get confused when I do not understand. I have awareness of self — sentiency, if you wish, created by the energy of the universe. How did it happen? I do not know. It is not important to me how it happened. It happened. That is all that is important to me. Because I have a different shape does not mean I am not like you. We are more alike than different. Welcome home!
Page 2.
As you were already told, life is basically simple. When we try to figure it out and we try hard, it appears difficult. We try to make it what it is not. An apple is an apple, for example. Yes, one can say it is a mass of molecular compositions, made up of various forms of fructose and enzymes, fiber, minerals, vitamins, and so on and so forth, but basically, it is still an apple. Why make it complicated, or complex, when seeing it in its simplest form is just as easy, and maybe even a bit easier to handle?
What I will tell you now are little ideas I have had from time to time. We bears have plenty of time to think and to just be. These are not MY ideas. Oh, no! These belong to the universe. They are not new as they have been around since before anyone knows and will be long after everyone forgets.
Page 3.
I could have kept these ideas to myself, but sharing, I think, is most wonderful. If one has ever seen a beautiful sunset, but has not had anyone with which to share it, it is a lonely experience. The same is with sharing of these thoughts I have “received” from the universe. It is time for you to see them, too. I am happy you did not fight coming here, by the way. It must be very frustrating and confusing to you right now. Please do not worry, however. You will understand soon, because it is your time to understand. If you would have seen this a year ago, for example, you would not have seen any value in it. Now is not then, therefore it is time for you to understand and to know. Please enjoy it.
Page 4.
Lesson #1:
Life, like the apple, is just itself. There is nothing more, nothing less.
“Clever bit of writing,” he thought to himself, thinking about the opening of this little story. Kiddy book. “The idea of ‘Hello, I have been waiting for you’? That seems a bit reaching, but still a cute idea to start, I would suppose.”
He propped up a pillow on the bed and leaned against it, readying himself for another page or two before he called it an end of a very long, tiring day. Now comfortable, he opened the book to the next page, ready to see what kind of other ‘kiddy ideas’ there might be in this book. If nothing else, it sounds like a good bit of empty nothingness to put me to sleep.
Time
I was asked, once, what I thought was a very silly question from someone who I think is very smart. He said, “What time is it?” I could have thought for hours about the concepts of time, what makes up time, how to derive the state of time, and other silly things. Being a teddy bear, I figured the simplest answer was the best. My answer?
Now.
“How inane! There is always past; there is always future,” he mumbled to himself. Speaking of time, I wonder what time it really IS, now.
From what seemed like a voice from both inside his head and slightly behind him came a quick answer in a small voice.
“Yes, NOW. Very good.”
He jumped up with a speed as if he had been poked on the backside with a cattle prod, wondering who or what was behind him.
“Nothing but a wall here. Speaker? Ah, look for wires!”
After about a minute of looking in every direction, under the bed, feeling the wall, looking behind the curtains of the window, he sat back down, puzzled. “Hmmm. Longer day than I thought. Now, I am showing signs of schizophrenia — voices. What’s next? Music playing in my head to the point of madness?”
With that, he leaned back, forgetting about what time it was and continued.
Places
The second question was just as silly, I thought.
“Where are we?” he asked me.
My answer?
Here.
He stopped reading this odd little book for a moment. He thought about that last comment. “At least, if you are always ‘here,' you can’t be lost!” At that idea, he chuckled to himself.
“Yes,” said the mysterious voice again. “Easy, isn’t it.”
Looking around, this time, not so fearful, but just knowing that he had completely lost his sanity, he again saw nothing, but nodded and said in a soft voice, “You could say that.”
He had enough of the day. Time to put down the book and call it a night.
“Hmmm. Silly idea. Call it a night? Of course it is night! Yup, gone off the deep end for sure. What is the saying, ‘two french fries short of a happy set?'”
He set the book down on the end table, turned off the light that sat within arm’s reach, and laid back.
“What a day! The world was going to hell, almost killed a kid, followed a sign and nearly destroyed this place running amok like a madman. Then, crazy people act nice to me after I invade their place here when I probably should have been locked away in the proverbial rubber room! And now, here I am reading a book written by a blasted teddy bear, and it’s making sense! Voices, books, pictures, people. Wow! What a day.”
With that, he closed his eyes, thinking of the sign by the road “You are welcome here,” and, like a warm, gentle blanket, sleep enveloped him with what was probably the deepest, most relaxing sleep he had experienced since he was an infant.