I am mama bear. My instinct is to nurture, welcome, offer soup, cookies and tea to those who come into my home and family.

I am also papa bear. I am lion. I am protective. I am territorial. I am provider.

When my children bring their significant others home a part of me is serving cookies and a part of me wants to take them outside by the wood shed and rough them up, find out what they are made of, what their intentions are.

Or at minimum, get them to help me stack wood.

It is not always smooth or necessarily pretty to carry both roles in a play that normally requires two actors.

You can’t arm wrestle with oven mitts on.

you want to hold them this tight always