I’ve probably said this already, but the name of my publishing company, Spectacled Bear Publishing, and the fact that there is really such an animal as a spectacled bear belongs to the realm of serendipity. I didn’t know such an animal existed, and it certainly didn’t know of me.

But here we are. The real spectacled bear’s South American habitat is endangered; which, in turn, endangers the life of the species itself. With that in mind, I’m using the real bear’s tenuous existence to underscore my company’s mission: to save gentle reads from extinction.

Gentle reads are also endangered as reality fiction in the form of stories about suicide, divorce, and other social issues filter into children’s literature.  I don’t deny these situations exist and deserve attention, but my mission is to offer quieter, gentler works that make one feel there is also great literary satisfaction in reading something that is heart-warming, thought-provoking, and well-written.

The photo here is one example of  spectacled bears.Google® “spectacled bear” and you’ll see how many images there are. Google® the World Wildlife Federation and learn about how tenuous this charming animal’s existence is.

And Spectacled Bear Publishing’s existence is just as tenuous unless you, Dear Reader, begin to follow the site when it launches in July, purchase the forthcoming first offering titled Philip & Phoebe, and commit to saving either the animal kingdom’s version or this website. The bears and I thank you.

If you read my blog regularly or are signed up for my newsletter, you know I’ve started a publishing company called Spectacled Bear. Its tagline is: “Saving gentle reads from extinction.”

The website and our first book both debut mid-summer, but in the meantime I’m seeing spectacled bears everywhere. It’s the Pregnancy Syndrome. You know, when you’re pregnant you see other pregnant women at the super market, the mall, the park. You never knew there were so many before.

Or you buy a new car, a white one, and suddenly you see white cars all over the road. Or you get purple streaks in your hair; and, Voila!, everyone has purple streaks.

So when Earl and I visited Shipshewana last weekend, who did I run into but a spectacled bear. It wasn’t the exact image of my website’s logo or even a semblance of the actual spectacled bear in the animal kingdom.

No matter. It came up to me as a kindred spirit and asked to have its photo taken. Of course, I obliged and the result is my first attempt at putting photos into my previously word-focused blog. But I suspect I’ll see spectacled bears everywhere going forward, and I‘ll want to share their charm.

Also, if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter and all the details about S. Bear, go to the top of this page and do so. I can’t bear it if you don’t.

Last weekend, Earl and I went to Shipshewana, IN, which has an inordinately large Amish population. That’s part of the charm. You step into a world that is markedly different from the one you left down the road.

You forsake gas-guzzling automobiles for horse drawn buggies. With that you give up speed for clip-clopping to your next errand. You compare your brand-name clothing to the long, plain dresses the Amish women wear and the black pants and hats worn by their men. You admire their workmanship in the various shops that sell furniture, cheeses, and meats.

We hadn’t been to Shipshewana in a while, maybe three or four years. And what we noticed most was how “gentrified” it is becoming. You still see Amish families and their buggies, but it’s overlaid with chain hotels and strip malls. There are far more tourists than there are local residents. And that’s somewhat disconcerting.

I imagine many Amish need the income they garner from selling their wares to the “English”. At the same time, I wonder what is the effect of rubbing shoulders more often with those from the twenty-first century? I sense it’s not in favor of the Amish.

I’ve had the most amazing trainer for almost two years, but he is leaving in two days to take a new position near Grand Rapids.  It’s too far for either of us to travel on a regular basis just so I can spend half an hour with him two to three times a week.

So how do I continue to maintain – or even improve – my fitness level, the one he is responsible for my achieving in the first place?

I could join another health club, look for another trainer, and hope to find someone as good as Dylan. But I’ve belonged to other clubs over the years and had other trainers.  Nobody held a candle to Dylan.

So I’ve decided to save membership fees and trainer fees and invest in some basic equipment; you know, weights and bands. The same equipment I gave away several years ago. Then I collected all the books I have around the house on such topics as yoga, stretching, and exercise. There are quite a few.

Next I put everything in a bin on our patio with the idea of making an appointment with myself three days a week (Making a definite appointment to train is part of the process.), preferably outside on my carpeted patio in warm morning sunshine. The summer season is coming our way, and I hope by the time it’s over I will have incorporated exercise into my routine without a trainer. I’ll still miss Dylan though.