Are You a Polar Bear Mom?
by Wendy Sue Noah
…It is a Sunday, years later. I gather my tribe for an IMAX movie at the Science Center, and we see “To the Arctic.” … The movie focused on a mother Polar Bear who had two nursing cubs, but could not find any food. The commentator described how unusual this is, since a mother Polar Bear needs to nourish herself in order to nurse more than one cub; in this case, her love filled up her milk for them.
Against the odds, and as they continued on their journey, she fed her cubs and thwarted off the advances of other adult bears…
As I researched the magnificence of the Polar Bear further, I found that they are of great cultural importance to the Inuit (Eskimo) people of northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Polar bears are greatly respected for their strength, courage, and spiritual power….
What really touched me is that in Inuit mythology, polar bears frequently shape-shift into human form and back, putting on a white bear coat to take on their grand form. When I look back at the crisis that led me to take on this unstoppable, powerful polar bear manifestation, I see now that I actually shape-shifted in my mind and heart. Maybe on the outside, I look like this petite white woman, but on the inside, the polar bear that I became was doing that RRRROOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR of strength, courage and spiritual power!
…There (is) nothing in Heaven or Earth that would keep me from protecting my babies. I am, indeed, a Polar Bear Mom and proud of it!…..