A Time to be Sad

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.

Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful!

This is a picture of me with my bestest friend, Cassidy. Today Chance and me don't feel like playing or making gingerbread beings or getting ready for Merry Christmas to come to our house. Chance and me are very sad. James is sad, too. Our friend Cassidy got sick and he stopped breathing. James says that Cassidy is at rest. Cassidy was our friend. He was a bunny rabbit who lived with his brother Tanner, the big 'ole yeller dog. Their buddies Jay and Shaun are very sad, too. Tanner got sick last Christmas. He had  cancer. He fell asleep and didn't wake up, either. We were sad then, too.

Know what? It hurts to be sad. It hurts way inside. Being sad is worse than being sick. We don't want to play hide and seek. We don't want to play Snakes and Ladders. We don't want to play I'm a Gonna Get You and race around the house. We just want to sit very still and think about Cassidy.

Cassidy and Chance and me always had fun together. We'd race and chase each other in the back yard and I could hop like a bunny rabbit. Sometimes Cassidy shared his carrots with us. Cassidy was a vegetabletarian, you know. He didn't eat meat. He didn't even eat Smarties! We'd rock together in the big rocking chair and sometimes we'd sit in Cassidy's window and watch the clouds and birds. Now, Cassidy is gone. We will always remember him. We have lots of pictures and we will always share our memories of him with our other friends and buddies.

James taught us a song to help us remember Cassidy.

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun. A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal ... a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance ... a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to lose and a time to seek; a time to rend and a time to sew; a time to keep silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

So, when we sing this song we will always remember Cassidy and Tanner, too. This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Good-bye Cassidy. Rest well. We will always love you and remember you.

We're really sad. We're gonna go find James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed. We are gonna sit on his lap in the big rocking chair and he can hold us tight. We will get out the picture album. The three of us will remember our bestest friends Cassidy and Tanner. We'll sing our special song.