At work. Time for a cigarette but the head cashier was paying far too much attention. So, I walked down to lumber and out one of their doors, slid behind a parked truck. The lumber lot is empty and looks onto a road and abandoned areas. I was looking at the sky when something lower caught my eye. There are abandoned railroad tracks behind the building.... dark and uninhabited. And from that came a Coyote, the first I've ever seen in the wild.
It took me a moment..... and he must have smelled me because he stopped. He looked like a large German Shepherd, but no.... Coyote watching me watch him.... and my heart soared and I tentatively moved forward... and he moved away. Crossed the road, and looked back. And I regarded him.
There was a 'connection' in that moment. I have felt it before. It is a stillness and yet a wildness, and I am both with it and unable to touch it. Sometimes it seems that if I could jettison my thoughts... my spirit/heart might understand and take over and I would know something that eludes me now.
Oh, wow…your first coyote. Witnessed alone, in winter, unexpected—like a suddenly materialized spirit. This is the way you should first encounter such a creature—so that the moment can't be marred by the distraction of a companion.
ReplyDeleteSo that you can make and feel and know the power of the connection.
So that you can recognize the mystery of the wild light in that steady gaze, and just for an instant, feel the ancient pulse of wind and blood and the hot-breath pounding of the chase.
Coyotes are one of those animals which can appear as if in a dream and in their look, cause us to remember, just for a flash, something of what we've lost.
I'm so happy you saw a coyote, Robin. It is a wonderful sign.
Yes, Grizz... you've got it. But, it's going to take me several days to absorb the wonder of what you've said.... Thank you.
ReplyDeleteCoyotes seem to be all over the news lately. Unfortunately, it is often for bad reasons - such as disappearing poodles and bitten children. I have not seen one, yet. I do get excited when I see a fox and feel that all is right in the city when the foxes are still here.
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