Gorma Tales of the Camino: A Gift for Kati Bear
Gorma’s camino led through thick pine forest across the tops of the blue mountains. Ferns covered all the ground, and as the drizzly rain fell through the trees, it dropped onto the ferns’ large leaves like tiny bells: ting, ting ting, ting ting. The air felt warm and close, like a hug, and Gorma became dozy.
Suddenly, she heard a deep sound, less a growl than a rumbling of the air, the sound we hear when we must confront our fate. Gorma stepped carefully, slowly as always, watching the ferns for any rustle-rustle, looking left, then right, then left again. Just as she looked backward over her shoulder, a bear stepped onto the path ahead of her, and this time it did growl, for Fate will often speak your name in a language you do not understand.
Gorma turned back around and stopped, facing the bear. “Why do you growl at me, Bear?” Gorma asked in that way she asks, for she was not afraid.
“Gorma, Gorma, you disturb my walking with your slow, heavy steps – stomp, stomp, stomp. It is un-bear-able! So – I will have to kill you and feed you to my cubs.”
“Ah, you have cubs? I understand perfectly,” replied Gorma, nodding her head.
The bear looked rather discomfited by this response and tried again. “You see, they are the most precious of cubs – magical cubs – because of their father, the Djin of the Desert. He has gifted them them with mystery. Yet, I fear their magic will become dulled and ordinary in the world, so I protect them, here in this deep forest in the Country of the Heart.” The bear faced Gorma with sure determination.
“Yes, of course,” was Gorma’s only reply. She smiled pleasantly at the bear.
“But Gorma, Gorma, don’t you understand? I cannot have you here, so close to us, disturbing my walk of protection around them. And you are so slow, Gorma – so, for this – do you not see? – I will have to kill you and feed you to my cubs.”
“Yes, Bear, but before you do kill me – and I have cubs of my own, with cubs of their own, so I do agree you must kill me – but tell me, what is your name?”
The bear cocked her head one way, then the other, left, then right, then left again. “It is Kati.”
“Ah, Kati Bear! So good to meet you. And how long have you called this forest home?” Gorma smiled with deep kindness right into Kati Bear’s eyes, so that Kati’s eyes grew cloudy, like a rain about to fall. For this is the power of the smile of a friend.
“Oh Gorma, Gorma, this is not our home! I march through this forest, around and around, circling my cubs because I am afraid they will lose their magic. I am Kati Bear of Germany, a strong German bear who is not afraid of anything – except this. The Djin must visit the desert each year, which restores his powers. And I…I hide here with our cubs.” Kati Bear looked down at the path beneath their feet.
“Yes, Kati Bear, I see the problem,” nodded Gorma kindly. “But why, if I may ask, is it my slow slow walking that will be the death of me?”
“It is – it is – it is because of the rain,” Kati Bear stammered.
“The rain?”
“Yes, Gorma. It takes so long for you to pass our hiding place, and I must stay so still in the rain, not a rustle-rustle of the ferns to give us away – so I cannot shake the water from my fur, and it becomes so very heavy.”
Then Gorma knew what she must do, for she understood this heaviness. “Yes, the blessing of the mother, La Mar, is not easily shaken off. Yet, now you have been blessed, so I can give you this.” And reaching into her pack (which was curiously the purple blue color of the water and the evening sky, the flowers in the meadow and the butterflies who traveled the Camino with her), Gorma pulled out a rain cloak made to cover her pack, which was just big enough to cover a bear.
“This is for you, Kati Bear. Use it until you no longer need it; then you can give it to another. Perhaps on your journey to join the Djin?”
For Gorma knew that Kati’s cubs could already dodge the raindrops with their joy, which is the source of the Djin’s magic, as anyone knows; happiness and tenderness are the flowers that bloom in the Great Desert, after all. And those just happened to be the names of Kati’s cubs.
We think our strength and vigilance will protect what is most precious, what we hide deep within the Country of the Heart. But if you befriend your fate, it is there you free your magic and your mystery.
So Kati Bear returned to her cubs, and Gorma walked on, quiet and smiling. She arrived at the next albergue just in time for a bed, for which she was very grateful, and she slept deeply. Outside, the drizzly gray lifted, and stars twinkled over the blue mountains.
Buen Camino, Kati.