Teddy Bears and Love

Teddy Bears and Memories

This week our FCCLA group has been collecting Stuffed Animals for DVIS and Nursing Homes and I thought it was time to maybe clean out my closet for some “Slightly used” Teddy Bears. So while I was at work I had Mike take them out and lay them on the bed for me to decide which to save and which to donate. Well………..I knew I had some bears, but I had no idea I had that many!!! They took up the whole bed, and of course Mike had them staged just perfectly. I remember walking into the room and the first thing that popped into my head was “Love”. Look at all that love. I never remember thinking – what a mess – or how did this thing get out of hand – or have they been multiplying on their own. – but love.

Each of us has memories of that favorite thing we carried everywhere when we were growing up -  for my brother it was his beanie hat, for my grandson Jason its his donkey and for my grandson Kevin it was his monkey. But I never remember having anything I had to carry around, maybe I did but I am so old I can’t remember. But I do know that if I had 30 minutes to pack up before disaster I would for sure grab the largest stuffed bear on the bed. Why?? Because it symbolizes me hugging me, me hugging family, me hugging God. That’s the whole thing about Teddy Bears isn’t it?? That we as humans can hug something – we can connect our bodies with something else. We have that need to touch, hug, embrace, and confirm our existence with someone or something else.

So what is a Teddy Bear and why are they so important in our lives?

A Teddy Bear is Love,

A Teddy Bear hears all our pain as we cry

A Teddy Bear hold us when we are sick

A Teddy Bear is the best defense in pillow fights

A Teddy Bear protects us on cold and rainy nights

But mostly a Teddy Bear is the one friend, family, and life line that will never judge, never criticize never forsake or abandon us and will always be the last thing we see in the morning and the first thing we see when we go to bed. But most of all the Teddy Bear is the smile that makes life happy. For me life is easy – I don’t need jewelry, I don’t need flowers, but apparently what I do need is another teddy bear.

( did I give some away……..no, I couldn’t because each held a special memory – this one I got for Christmas, or this one I got when I graduated college, or these are all from my brother-in-law………and so the story goes. But I will buy a new one and donate it so that some child can feel its love, and an older person in the nursing home can have fond memories return to hug.)