A few years ago my brother and I were visiting a friend, Austin Weaver, who introduced me to a band called Black Bear. He gave me the album 'Cinnamon Phase' and told me I needed to listen to it. I did so.

The lyrics to the song 'Black Bear' have really stuck with me, and I had a chance to listen to it again the other day. I ended up listening to it over and over. Who doesn't feel this way about their cinnamon phase?

Listen here.

In the woods, in the mountains there's a good place to begin
The song about a black bear living in his black bear den
Doing all the black bear things a black bear just might do
I hope in my next lifetime I could be a black bear too

And here comes black bear now, crashing through the brush
Unfazed by thorns and branches that would hurt me to the touch
In pursuit of some small animal, the food chain is a truth
And the bear has the advantage of the massive claw and tooth

But he'll also stop for berries or honey from the bees
Or nuts that he can shake down from the canopy of trees
And afterwards he'll have his choice from any stream to drink
While I'll fill up another cup from my old kitchen sink

And if he wants he'll have a nap and dream his black bear dreams
And I could only dream of black I dream I drink from streams
And as he sleeps he hears a breeze and knows that he is safe
While I'm sleeping with the fan on to drown out my lack of faith

The simplicity of solitude it's a hard thing to perfect
Stealing happiness from loneliness is not a simple theft

A black bear has it figured out and gets what he deserves
And the fur that he is wearing is the fur that he prefers
And when he stared across the river into my eyes it made me shiver
And I knew that it was lovely to have a black bear thinking of me

And when he thinks, he is thoughtful and when he rests he is restful
And when he runs he runs the fastest he spins the earth right on its axis
And that's his gift to all showing us the sun
Keeping time for everyone a steady beating drum

And all the dirt he bounds upon he'd leave his heavy track
That is deep when he is young and blue but deepest when he's black
Cause colour for the black bear is a synonym for age
If I were one then I'd be in my cinnamon phase

Instead I am 22 and the decades weight a ton
This new century's essentially a bullet from the gun
It takes coffee pots that cost a lot just to stay abreast
But coffee hits my sense of loss and makes a nervous wreck

The simplicity of solitude is a hard thing to perfect
Stealing happiness from loneliness is not a simple theft
But the black bear has it figured out and gets what he deserves
And the fur that he is wearing is the fur that he prefers

And when he stared across the river in to my eyes it made me shiver
And I knew that it was lovely to have a black bear thinking of me
And when he thinks, he is thoughtful and when he rests, he is restful
And when he runs, he runs the fastest spins the earth right on its axis

Fantasticsh isn't it?

www.myspace.com/blackbear