One day

Once upon a time there was a woman who lived in a cottage in the middle of a large field.

The field provided for all her physical wants. It fed her, there was water to drink, a place for her home and a place for her children to play. She loved the field, but over the years it began to fill up with garbage until it was barely recognizable as the place she once loved so very much.

She began dreaming of a large bear, a huge brown bear, maybe seven feet tall, that walked on two legs.  It was fierce and terrible and it stood right behind her all the time. You might think she was afraid of it, but she wasn't. She liked the idea that if the wind blew too harshly across the field it would only blow her back into the bear's warm fur and not knock her to the ground. As fierce as he was, that bear became her hold on all she held dear.

Some people called him her spirit animal. Maybe he was. Some people thought he was just a crazy dream. Maybe he was. But whatever he was to other people, he was a source of comfort and strength for her.

One day they moved away from the field and set up housekeeping by some beautiful water. The woman loved to go to sleep watching the water shadows on her walls. She loved the sound of the water lapping against itself and the bear disappeared.

Until one day the woman realized that the water, too, was filling up with trash and garbage and its beauty was being destroyed.  That night she dreamed the Great Turtle came to her bedroom window and she crawled upon its back. They soared through the night as she looked down and saw the earth covered in trash. The Great Turtle said nothing, but she could feel his sadness. It flooded through her until he returned her home and as they passed through the moonlight, she felt his hope.

He came to her often at night, taking her to a secret tree that was her real home. A safe place where her children could play in all the branches and everyone was safe unless the Trickster came. When that happened the woman fled to the bottom of the tree where there was a huge paned window, and waited for the Great Turtle to come and carry her away.  Sometimes she even went deep into the ground below the tree where she could look up at the three hundred foot roots hanging down above her. That was where the Great Turtle came from, she was sure of it, but she really only knew for sure that he would come for her.

And then, one day, when she looked out her window and saw that the water was now as ugly as the field had been, she tore herself away. Her children were grown, the Great Bear was gone. The Great Turtle came no more. For many years after that she lived a life between the worlds, safe, but often confused.

Until, one day, she heard a small laugh and a very small boy appeared. He was wearing little coverall jeans and a striped shirt and he liked to sit on the branches of a weeping willow tree when he talked to her. Every day he coaxed her closer and closer until she found herself sitting next to him. She wanted to hold him and take care of him, yet, he made her feel very safe.

She could see he was really a flesh and blood being, but he became, not her protector, but her light and after that each day grew brighter and safer and happier.

She never saw the Great Bear again, nor the Great Turtle, but she knew they had led her out of the darkness and into the light just as surely as that little boy lighted her way into the future.

One day had arrived and while it wasn't happily ever after, it was about as close as she could imagine.