Sierra walks the remote trail. The forest is alive with sound–the crying of scrub jays, the steady, monotonous hum of june bugs, and the purring of wind. She hears a crashing sound; a cute baby bear lopes onto the path. She hears a louder sound behind her: the mama bear.
Thank you for reading!
My true confession is that the scenario in this story is pretty much my most paralyzing fear. I have done many brave things in my life. I have traveled alone. I have moved to a city where I knew no one. I have driven by myself from one side of the continental US to the other. I even once jumped out of an airplane. But the idea of encountering a bear in the woods makes me tremble. And the possibility of finding myself in the vicinity of a baby bear and its mama (or worse, coming between them, like in this story) just about makes me soil my pants.
Sometimes, I think writing is partly about making sense of our fears, our emotions, and the things that cause us anguish. I believe writing out fear, anxiety and emotion can be very healing. Maybe the fact that I wrote this story will help me with my paralyzing fear of meeting up with a bear in the woods.
I love writing these little 50-word stories. I typically start by searching for an image that will go with the prompt, and then I see how that sparks my writing.
(Image credit: Geran de Klerk, Unsplash)
