The Medicine Man

I am proud to dedicate this book to Rev. Laughing Bear Jones, in loving memory for all the life lessons you helped me learn.

This book is further dedicated to every really good kid, and yes....
to all the lovely bad ones.

So I am going to try not to get all up in your face with my beliefs on here. Still, I need to talk tonight... about the Medicine Man. I miss him so much. I still haven't gotten the ability to delete his cell phone # from my phone. Can you believe that? Sometimes just plain mourning can make you feel like you have totally lost your mind, huh?

So let me just tell you about Bear. He was a truly great mentor, teacher, friend and spiritual guide. Best part about Bear was that he was REAL! Plus he was brilliant. He was also a professional photographer, published novelist, gourmet cook... the man learned everything! Learning was like crack to him I think! Lol

He was instrumental in helping me flee abuse. He made me laugh, cry, worry... taught me so many things about religions, theologies... as many as he could find he taught. He never tried to teach anything he couldn't grasp and he was never so self-absorbed as to pretend that he knew something he didn't.

He was an avid Star Wars fan and loved a good laugh. He was ill for such a very long time and suffered greatly that last year, but even then when I remarried he still found the time to write me the most beautiful short story about true love. If Bear knew anything he knew about love.

He'd never gotten over the fact that his marriage ended. He loved her, only her all his life, but his depression became to much for her. Even when she remarried he still hung onto the hope that she would come back. I could not stand his longing and this began many deep discussions between us.

We finally agreed that he needed closure. He decided that since he had met her at night under the moonlight that he would return to the spot where they met and take a picture of their moon! So he did.

He showed me the photo and I was blown away. He had flinched when taking the picture and could not explain why.... there before my eyes was a picture of the moon in the perfect shape of a heart. My ex deleted so much from my PC, and that sadly is one of the things I would give anything to get back. I would love to show it to you... but it belonged to Bear, his own personal peace. I doubt any one would want to take that away.

It's out there.... the peace we seek is out there. If Bear taught me nothing else he taught me that. So I leave you tonight with one last thought that he taught me...

Life is not about waiting out the storm! Life is about dancing in the rain

Rev. Laughing Bear Jones