People say if you need it, go build it. It turns out there was a need and something was built. I have left it as is. Let sleeping bears lie…

Over winter the front yard developed a shrine. Unbidden, unrequested, a small flowerbed turned patch of dirt left fallow except for leaf litter after the sunflowers died, has been transformed.

It began with a lost bear. A teddy bear. It sat in the car park behind nearby shops and randomly ended up in a corner of a garden bed out the front of my house, reclining against the wooden fence, nestled amongst the bark ground cover.

At some point pale pebbles and broken bits of tile were placed in a semi circle around the bear. Soon twigs were propped up to form a kind of arbour, bowing towards the little bear. Then incense sticks were planted in front of it. After a while someone placed lucky tokens beneath the seated bear, out of view but there for those who know.

Under the sun and bouts of rain, this sacred bear is fading a little, but remains steadfast, upright and unblinking into the distance, for its followers.

The bear is no longer lost.

Yet, this bear will eventually break down, given time and the machinations of the relentless, changeable weather. Thus, I preserve a record of his local ritual significance here, and as a little depiction I sketched for my journal.