Tamarack saplings and young bears—they were made for each other. When Berry tired of tumbling with the other yearlings he was traveling with, he climbed onto the nearest sapling, balancing with his broad paws. He inched forward until it started to bend, then rode it to the ground, where he tumbled off and lay on his back, feet in the air, only to bounce back up and do it all again.
Thank you to everyone who voted for this adorable bear cub to have his own story after I included him in the afterword of Contentment recently. If you missed Contentment, you can read it here:
I had some ideas for what I might write, but then decided to do a little bit of reading about bear play and came across a wonderful post from the North American Bear Center on the subject. It includes two short videos of a family of black bears in which the two cubs play. The one at the bottom of the page shows them enjoying a tamarack sapling. I couldn’t resist! Here’s a link to the article and videos.
Everyone could benefit from bare feet on grass and the sun shining through the leaves of a tree while a child plays in its branches, don't you think? Lovely story ☺️
Such joy!