I can’t stop thinking about an image I came across the other day of a mama bear and her cubs hibernating.  It was a picture of absolute innocence and tranquility.   In front of this tableau was a man and his son, guns drawn, just a moment before they were to shoot this ursine family to death.

This massacre was captured on video.  I don’t know where this was or the names of the murderers because I couldn’t stomach learning the details of such a barbaric event.   At first I started to cry, then the tears turned to rage.  As the anger took hold, I couldn’t help but feel what I can only describe as a spiritual pain.  I didn’t feel wounded physically – more like an emotional bomb of revulsion along with a terrifying anxiety that animals will never get the respect they deserve or be loved and protected for who they are.   Seeing this example of a total disregard for the life of these sentient creatures, who in no way posed a threat to these barbarians, imprints itself in my psyche to be remembered forever.  I will always have this awful image in my brain, adding to the already crowded list that continues to grow.

In all of my learning about animal communication, a central theme is that there is always a bigger picture and a lesson imparted.  An animal’s demise is not simply explained by the obvious.  In this case there’s more to why this senseless murder occurred, rather than the simple fact that a violent man with zero empathy or compassion got some kind of rush or pleasure from extinguishing life and feeling a power in doing so.  But, despite what I have been taught about animals orchestrating and choosing to die in the way and the moment they do, I’m having a hard time believing that this Mama chose this death for herself and her babies.

I tell myself there’s so much good in this world,  so many souls who deeply care about the lives of others.  Yet, when unprovoked aggression occurs, it still hurts every single time.  It doesn’t get easier.  I can’t be desensitized to it.  Being an intuitive animal communicator, this extreme hyper-sensitivity adds to a powerful, revelatory connection made during a reading.   I came across this work after years of feeling great sadness and helplessness; I couldn’t figure out how to break through my limited interpretation of events.   Every spiritual pursuit I come across teaches to have compassion and forgiveness for the less evolved.  It would be inauthentic if I said I did.  I’m not there yet.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be.  Right now, as far as I’m concerned, that mother and her children deserved so much more, at the very least to wake up and continue their earthly existence.   Alas, it was not meant to be.