Touching Spirit Bear letter # 3

This is the last lit.circle letter for my book and Cole has come a long way. He has realized that he has changed.

What did you learn. Asked Edwin. "To forgive," Cole said. Being angry is giving someone else control of my feelings so they own me. Forgiving gives me control again.

Although he hasn't carved anything about forgiveness in his totem. So far he has been doing good. He still soaks in the pond and pushes the rock and he knows he has changed . WHen he dances he carves it out in his totembut things start to turn when Edwin shows up for a surprise visit and tells him that Peter tried to commit suicide twice.

He really wants to help peter because he thinks its the right thing to do.

I can help him! I know he's afaid of me and what i did, he thinks im a monster that's coming back to get hi. Maybe if he meets me face to face he'll see i've changed and maybe he'll see that he can heal to.

He has a crazy idea to bring peter to the island. Peter's parents don't know what to do. They have run out of options and decide to bring Peter to the island, this was not an easy desicion. Peters parents would never let him go alone so they will accompany him until they feel that he really is safe and Garvey will also be there, just in case. After a few days, Peter tries to get back at Cole, he throws rocks at him and he destroys Cole's Spirit Bear carving on the totem. After all that Cole takes Peter to go and soak alone, without Garvey. When they reach the pond, Peter starts fighting Cole but he refuses to fight back because of the past and how he has changed. Cole can only try to defend himself by blocking the hits. However, after a while, Peter stops beating Cole and starts crying. Cole hugs and comforts him. At this point they both look up and see the spirit bear. This occurred because both Peter and Cole have become "invisible", or accepting of life's circle. While invisible, nature will see you as who you truly are. Life goes on as natural without disturbance allowing the one invisible to see everything that really happens in nature. in nature all you see is the truth. In the end Peter helps Cole carve a circle as the last piece of the totem pole. Garvey walks in and sees that Cole has carved a perfect circle and asks why. The boys don't answer and Garvey says

Could it be because every part of a circle is both a beginning and an end?" " and everything is one? Peter disagrees. He claims it's the only thing he could teach Cole to carve. Cloe nodded and said Im a slow learner but im working on it.

Touching Spirit Bear letter # 2

This is a really gross part in this book. It’s when Cole gets hurt, and he can’t move. His body is torn up. He's starved and throws up. He’s so hungry that he eats his puke and it makes me want to throw up too. Also, he sees a live rat on his arm, and eats that too, along with worms.

" He found two seagulls near his head, peaking fish chunks from the vomit he had trouwn up in the grass. My puke,Cole thought. They're eating my puke. In that moment, Sloe realiized how badly he wanted to live. The food he had thrown up was still food. Those fish bits sill contained energy, and energy was life, No thieving seagull was going to steal life from him. He jerked his arm at the gulls."Mine", he grunted."THat's mine". Squaking, the gulls hopped his reach. Cloe stretched his arm out, picked a small chunk of fish from the grass, and brought it to his mouth. After swallowing he reached foe more. Bit by bit until the few remaining pieces were too small to pinch between his fingers. Finally he relaxed. Eating had taken his last ounce of energy."(89)

Cole is starting to realize alot of things now that any type of food means energy and the author describes that with what and how Cole eats.This part is one of my favorites so far because he realized that he needed other people to survive. He also learned that he cannot always blame other people when the fault is only his own. I think Cole started to open his eyes about everything when he began to wade in the icy, cold water and when he throws his ancestor rock down the big, dense hill.

" Wolves often hunted in a pack. Together, they accomplished more than they could alone."(161)

"What did you learn?" Garvey asked.

"that you need the help of others" Cloe said.(162)

When he threw the rock that was the symbol of his ancestors he was letting go of all his anger and as it "tumbled faster and faster, Cloe felt his body grow lighter, and when the rock smashed to a stop at the bottom, he felt as if he could fly.