Rinny Visitsthe Great Bear Rainforest

Amber Marie Williams

Copyright © 2014 Amber Marie Williams

Original Illustrations by Marie Louise Williams

Design & Typography by Sheldon Lawrie

Edited by Sarka Kolacna

First Edition.

Printed in Canada. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any

manner without written permission from publisher.

WWW.OWLEYES.COM

Also by this author:

• Rinny the Rinpoche

• Owl Eyes: A Timeless Fable about

Interconnection, Nature & Love

*A portion of the proceeds from my creations will be

donated to support our magnificent natural world.*

Rinny Visitsthe Great Bear Rainforest

Amber Marie Williams

Slowly, Rinny the Rinpoche prepared to open her eyes

to a beautiful light.

But before she opened them, a great white being

appeared in the corner of her mind’s eye.

Rinny questioned:

“Why, whatever could this wondrous creature be?”

From somewhere deep inside herself she found her

answer, and Rinny whispered:

“Oh my. A sacred, pure, white bear who completely follows

her heart? Can this be true?”

Just then, Chief Bald Eagle appeared from the sky and

swooped down to land on a branch of Rinny’s treetop

home. Rinny grinned and said:

“Eagle Eyes! How wonderful to see you again! The universe

brought you to me at just the exact right moment in time.”

The regal eagle smiled a beaky grin, and said:

“We’re always exactly where we’re meant to be. Is there

something I can assist you with?”

Rinny described her vision of the great white

animal, and as she did so, the eagle’s eyes widened in

recognition.

“Why, yes Rinny. You speak of the Kermode bear, who’s

also known as the Spirit bear. I have seen her on my

travels in and around a magical place called The Great

Bear Rainforest on the Western Coast of Canada.”

All at once, Rinny knew she was being called to visit

this sacred forest. Without hesitation, she began

to make her way down from her treetop to locate

Whaley—her grey whale friend who could sometimes

be found in the waters surrounding Stanley Park.

When the little sloth finally reached the edge of

the Pacific Ocean six hours later, brother Whaley

was indeed present, and Rinny—being an excellent

swimmer herself—slowly made her way into the salty

water to have a chin wag with him.

Rinny explained her plans to visit The Great Bear

Rainforest, and brother Whaley said:

“This is fantastic. Hop on my back, and I’ll take you.”

Rinny hugged Whaley tightly, and together they

began their journey.

Rinny had never moved so quickly in her life, but

she enjoyed the journey very much. And when

they arrived in the oceanic vicinity of The Great

Bear Rainforest, Rinny and brother Whaley were

overjoyed to see a few families of humpback and orca

whales frolicking in the ocean waves.

Rinny shouted out to the whales:

“Hello dear whale friends! How are all of your extended

family pods?”

Using her singsong voice, the most powerful female

humpback answered:

“Rinny, we’re doing our best to navigate an overwhelming

intuition that our migratory routes are being threatened

by poorly planned pipeline proposals that would result in

numerous oil tankers moving through our ancient travel

routes and feeding grounds. A single spill or accident—

which is a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’—would devastate

the entire coastal region and the ocean itself. We whales

have few natural enemies, but this threat, Rinny, is sadly

one that we would not be able to recover from.”

Rinny was shocked, and her mind boggled. How could

other living creatures propose something so asinine?

And why gamble with such an intricately linked,

harmonically balanced, and rare natural habitat?

Just then Rinny heard a huge splash. She slowly

turned to see a number of sea lions somersaulting

under and over her!

Suddenly filled with

glee, she released brother

Whaley and allowed

herself to fall into the

ocean and exclaimed:

“I’m so happy to see my sister and brother sea lions! Thank

you for reminding me to find my joy!”

The sea lions smiled, nodded, and continued to roll

and dive, glide and giggle, as they played and enjoyed

being fully alive in the now with Rinny.

Rinny rejoiced until she tired, and when she started to

swim over to the shoreline to make her way onto land,

she looked around and found herself surrounded by

hundreds of salmon.

Rinny squealed with delight:

“Abundant salmon! The keystone species of this region!

You’re so rich and plentiful, and provide such a grand

service to the natural system that sustains all of us. What

an honour to meet you.”

Salmon replied:

“Thanks Rinny. And you’re correct! All living things in this

area—including both trees and animals—depend upon our

bodies for nourishment and survival. And we’re more than

happy to be of service to other beings in this way, while we

go about living our lives and following our spiritual and

actual journeys on this planet.”

Rinny liked this idea of life very much, but she was

saddened by the thought of how much struggle and

effort the salmon had to expend in order to provide

this generous gift to others. When she expressed this

sentiment to her brother salmon, he smiled wisely

and said:

“Oh Rinny, our aim is simply to be reunited with All That

Is. And no matter where we are, we’re always on our way

home! So yes, difficulties in life are indeed present, but as

we make our way upstream we actually do not fight the

current. Rather, we choose to trust and travel with the

timeless energy flow that moves just beneath the surface of

all things, and this makes it really easy for us to live and

leap with light-hearted, nimble movements.”

Rinny absorbed this idea as she moved towards the

beachy shoreline, and was delighted to see a small

pack of coastal wolves enjoying a salmon lunch.

“Wow! What a blessing to see a wolf family here! But I

guess it isn’t such a strange phenomenon after all, as this

is indeed the only place on earth where wolves take to

the sea and swim amongst the forested islands to nourish

themselves. What a precious community existence!”

Rinny asked the family to share a message about their

lives, and Wolfy the alpha wolf said:

“We coastal wolves do live unique lives, but then again,

all beings do. Each one of us is our own pathfinder for

freedom, and we must choose to move through each

sacred day with spirit and wisdom. This will keep us

from inappropriate action, and help us to strike the right

balance between our loyalties to friends, family, and most

importantly, to ourselves.”

Rinny replied:

“Thank you for reminding me brother Wolfy! And speaking

of wisdom and spirit, have you by chance seen a white and

light soul who goes by the name of Kermode or Spirit Bear

lately?”

Wolfy replied:

“Why yes, this bear certainly does share these lands with

us! But I haven’t seen her lately. Your best bet would be to

go further into the rainforest and speak with Chief Sitka

Spruce and Chief Red Cedar. They are over 1,000 years old,

and have answers for any question. They will know.”

Grateful to hear this sound advice, Rinny started to

slowly move inland towards the heart of The Great

Bear Rainforest.

When she came into the presence of the enormous

trees Wolfy had spoken of, Rinny stood in silent awe.

They were so majestic!

Rinny asked the trees if they had seen the sacred

white bear recently, and Chief Red Cedar replied:

“Yes. Indeed we have. We see and sense everything,

because we act as the main links between sky and land.

We are the antennae of the earth! Our very ecological

existence is characterized by the dynamic interactions

between mountain, terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine, and

oceanic ecosystems, and we’re all knowing because we’re

the epitome of interconnection.”

Rinny asked Chief Sitka Spruce to tell her more.

“This forest is rare and biologically abundant, and has been

evolving for over 10,000 years because we’ve been left

relatively undisturbed by a group of animals called humans.

But this is shifting now, and we’re concerned. Many of

our sister and brother rainforests have been obliterated by

logging, clearcutting, and other haphazard carelessness.

Mark my words, it will be better for everyone on earth if

we’re just left alone to flourish, providing safe spaces and

places for countless other living beings.”

Rinny again asked the insightful and intelligent trees

about the white bear, and they told Rinny that the

elusive creature often rubbed up against them to

scratch her itches and mark her territories, and said

one had passed by recently to do just that.

With one of their sturdy branches, the trees pointed

out the way for Rinny to follow, and she slowly

awakened her body for movement in order to act.

Four hours and sixteen metres later, Rinny heard

rustling leaves and rushing water.

As she turned towards these sounds, she saw a rare

sight—a black bear and a grizzly bear, leisurely sitting

around together and enjoying a feast of salmon and

berries by a waterfall! Rinny cried out to them:

“Oh my! How unusual to see you two different bears

sharing the same territory! I hope I didn’t startle you?”

The grizzly bear grunted:

“No worries Rinny, we knew it was you. Lately we’ve been

hiding out from sketchy human trophy hunters who have

been granted access to this area, but your slothy approach

didn’t startle us at all. Thankfully, the universe gave us

powerful inner listening skills, and we’re able to enter into

intuitive hibernation states and find truth.”

Rinny was horrified and flabbergasted to hear about

the trophy hunting. What a wasteful disgrace! When

she expressed this, the black bear replied:

Rinny took the time to appreciate this interplay of

serendipity, call-to-service, and living-in-the-now.

She then asked the bears if they’d seen their white

sister lately. But before they could answer Rinny, a

very surprising and exciting thing happened.

“Don’t fret. We have faith

that karmic fate will take

care of the trophy hunters.

But in the meantime,

we’ll continue to defend

all that we know to be

just and right, and take

everything else moment

to moment. And as for

right now, we’re just

resting, and thoroughly

enjoying all the abundant

nourishment the

rainforest has to offer us.”

The great white being chose to show herself, and

slowly materialized from the misty forest folliage!

The Kermode bear was just as glorious in reality as

she was in Rinny’s imagination.

Her warm energetic presence was humble yet

mighty, calm yet vital—and above all else, filled with

magnificent wonder.

The white bear spoke aloud and simply said:

Rinny asked Spirit

why she chose this

particular moment in

time to reveal herself.

“Hello Rinny.

My name is Spirit.”

Spirit replied:

“This very moment marks the beginning of a momentous

awakening for all living creatures. A while back, I saw a

vision in my mind’s eye of a kind, slow, three-toed teacher

entering into these woods in order to promote freedom

for, and an awareness of, our precious natural world. And

ever since then I’ve been patiently awaiting your arrival,

while simultaneously placing my full trust in the expansive

universal timing that contains and embraces all of us.

There’s never any sense in rushing anything.”

Rinny felt as if all the puzzle pieces were falling

perfectly into place, and she and Spirit slowly moved

towards each other and honoured their predestined

meeting—and one another—with a loving, jumbo,

slothy bear hug. They were so excited to begin to

mindfully move through the world together!

Slowly, they made their way to where the forest meets

the sea, and were surrounded by all the plants and

animals who share this treasured ecosystem.

We are all interconnectedand we only get one earth.