“Exit, in pursuit of a bear” - Work in Progress ... ;-)

This set of synchronicities started one morning when I was shaving, and for some unearthly reason, I couldn't get this song off my inner mental turn-table -

 

I think I awoke with that song in my head that morning, although I hadn't heard it for 'maybe' 15 years or more, anywhere, to my conscious knowledge.
I used to like watching The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams when I was growing up, but hadn't seen it since it first aired, way back when?
Although I sense the song is what is really important here, and not the TV show.

Anyway, I had the computer on and decided to check my e-mails, in the middle of my shave (I assure you that I don't have ADD;-) and there was an e-mail from Red Wheel/Weiser, the book publishers, promoting one of their books called,

Bear Speaks: The Story Of 7 Sacred Lessons Learned From A Montana Grizzly

I thought what a great sync that was, and that this was surely a sign that this book was important and that I just had to get a copy and read it.
So I ordered a copy and eventually read it ... and to be honest, I thought most of it was garbage ... it was just barely (bear-ly;-) better than Anastasia by Vladimir Megre ... which is pretty much pure con-artist garbage.
At least Carpini isn't trying to write novels like she is setting up carnival games for suckers to to blow their money on.
Never-the-less, it is still a poor read, and a waste of money.
But I did love the painting of the Grizzly on the cover by 
Pat Olchefski-Winston.
She certainly is a fine artist, and I think I'll be ordering a print of that painting, when I get a little spare cash. 
When I was Google-ing  stuff about Grizzly Bears, this link came up to a story about a short film being shot in Tasmania (if anywhere in Australia is 'deep inside the forest to a door into another land'...that would be most of Tasmania) called Exit, in Pursuit of a Bear

Bear is the offbeat tale of a disillusioned, passionate woman, thirty-something Madeline, who is surprisingly unsurprised when a grizzly bear drops by her house one day.
The bear - part fantasy, part terror to her - is a silent but potent influence, as the two enjoy a rather one-sided conversation that prompts Madeline to embrace her darker impulses.
Inspired by the absurdist Shakespearean stage direction,  
'Exit, pursued by a bear', the film takes its stylistic cues from films like Donnie Darko but is most influenced, says Brown, by the televisual genius of Dennis Potter.
 I thought this film sounded intriguing, but try as I might, I just could not find any footage at all on the net, not even a preview (I still haven't).
I Googled Exit,in Pursuit of a Bear for what seemed like hours and found no footage whatsoever. 
But I did find a little treasure of a site called Do What You Love, where they interview people doing what they love.
And one of the people they interviewed was Monique Germon, who was responsible for art direction and costume design on the film 
 Exit, in Pursuit of a Bear.
Do What You Love interview: Monique Germon

Now, this site, run by Beth Nicholls, is all about following your path, and doing what you love.
The blurb reads,"Because life is more interesting when we open our hearts and minds.

Because we are happier when we discover our passion.

Because magic happens when we follow our dreams.

Are you doing what you love? I hope you will find some inspiration here..."

In the interview with Monquie, it says;

"In 2000, Monique moved to Tasmania, a small island at the bottom of Australia, and ‘something strange happened’ - it was as if all the audio connections transferred to visual ones, and Monique become visual in a way that she’d never experienced.  
She began a fashion label, started styling and opened a gallery/store."

http://story-thestore.com/

"Monique says she is not a mad seeker anymore, and believes that it is especially important for those who are looking at expressing a unique voice in the world to find the source of inspiration for their art inside of themselves.

STORY is ‘A Tale in Two Parts’ – an online store & blog. 
I created STORY as a side project to support other creatives as well as myself, so I could take on other projects that needed me elsewhere. 
We exhibit the work of artists, designers & brands who revere the authentic and produce items of an exceptional standard.  
As its bio states, “STORY reveres authenticity above all & pays homage to this as a style unto itself”."

Now, to me this is what freedom is all about, making a living doing what you love to do, and not having to do what you don't love doing, to make a living.
That creative cabin above with the pictures hanging off it,

from Monique's website, in my mind bridges the connection for me, of the idea of freedom, which I would feel so emotionally, whenever I saw and heard the start of the Grizzly Adam's TV show. 
That log cabin in the woods always represented freedom to me.
The idea of getting away from it all, and doing what you wanted to do, and not what society told you what to do.

FREEDOM.
Something that I don't find in my current job situation,  
(unless I'm looking out the window at the building next door). 
And it's not that I want to go live in a log cabin in the woods, either.
It's just having that sense of freedom to appreciate life and be creative, rather than move stock about with a forklift, all day and everyday.
And I'm not wingeing (complaining) about having to do that job ... it brings in the money, and is better than having no job ... but it's not my life purpose.
It's just a way of getting by, to pay the bills ... and I want more ... but what? 
My rational mind thinks,"What more can a poor boy do?" 
Be happy, and be thankful for what you've got!"  
But my right brain is thinking,"This is boring me, do something more meaningful with your life, stupid, before it all slips away, and all you have to show is a retail company's pay slip, for an epitaph."

So, I'm sure now that the Grizzly is my little mascot to the idea of FREEDOM and creating a living from living off of my creative abilities, rather than just being a cog in an uncreative job, that Homer Simpson could probably do just as well as I could.
This also brings me to another dream I had months before, 
about the dead movie actor Charles Bronson.
I dreamed that I was driving a forklift, like the one I drive at work, on a narrow ledge about 40 stories high in the air, and 
Charles Bronson was doing mickey flips off my raised forks and landing back on them, while I was almost frozen in terror by the height, and this guy's death-wish (for want of a better word;-).

 

Now, this dream really hit me for some reason, and I knew at a deep level that there was an important message here, but what? 

I don't even really like Charles Bronson as an actor, so that threw me for a start ... why was he doing mickey-flips on the top of my forklift?

It had me puzzled, but I was determined to find out what the significance of Charles Bronson was to my life.

I started Google-ing his name and looking up his movies, but nothing about the actor or his movies felt significant to me, on a gut feeling level.

But two things did seem to speak to me on a gut level, in all my Google-ing.

One was a movie called Bronson about the notorious British prisoner 

(although I had never heard of him at the time) 

which was winning awards at minor film festivals around the traps.

The other was a book by Po Bronson called
What Should I Do With My Life?
Here's a link to one of the sample chapters from the book
'What Should I Do With My Life?',
called "Synchronicity or Not?"
I haven't read the book at all, but the message to me seems pretty clear. 

In the chapter Synchronicity or Not? from the above link, Kat James comes to the conclusion that; "many people in her shoes would have taken the double salary in order to save up for the leap into garden design, believing that money is the path to freedom. 

She didn’t, and she’s found that true freedom comes from the confidence she can live within her means, whatever those means may be.
More importantly, her sense of purpose and meaning aren’t tied to her pay, because she’s getting so much psychic income from her calling."

Getting back to the movie Bronson, I thought this movie was brilliant when I first saw it, because even though it's about

Britain's longest present day incarcerated prisoner (someone I feel sorry for, but aren't really a fan of), it's also on another level about a person who is not just a prisoner, but in a sense his own jailer, as well.

So,'maybe' the Charles Bronson dream, and the

Grizzly Adams theme song are related in a way.
The Bronson dream is saying, 
"stop being so scared and take a leap.
What do you want to do with your life, anyway? 
Drive forklifts until you can't drive them anymore more, or do something that will reward your spirit and make you grow?
After all, you really are the prisoner of the jailer 
(which is also yourself), so it is really up to you whether you are going to let yourself out, or not, isn't it?"
And the Grizzly is just my subconscious saying follow me, look what these other people are doing, it's time to leave your mental prison, and boring job, and head for the woods of creativity and live in the forest of your own, and the worlds creativity.
Unfold those new butterfly wings and fly, it's time to break out of that chrysalis you've made for yourself over 23 years, and be free-er than you've ever been before in your life.

UPDATE: 29th April, 2011.
I've been working my way through a series of pod-casts at http://www.stevepavlina.com/ 
I usually put one up on the computer and listen to it while I have a shave in the morning (usually before going to work, no less).
He has 23 (!?!) free pod-casts on his site, and I've been going through them in numerical order.
Today oddly enough, I've reached pod-cast 20  
(Creative Self-Expression)
 http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/09/stevepavlinacom-podcast-020-creative-self-expression/
Synchronicity is all about timing, and this couldn't have been timed any better, as far as this post is concerned.
Here's a direct link to the pod-cast, if you would like to hear it.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/podcasts/Pavlina-020-Creative-Self-Expression.mp3
I would encourage you to take a look around Steve's site, as well.
It could be well worth your time.