The Coyote Invitation

The Coyote Invitation

When you go for walks, are you mindful of who you might see?  I do not mean in terms of other people, but of other living beings. Yesterday when I went to get the mail, I was greeted by two robins up in the red oak tree.  I stopped, looked at them and said a word of welcome.

            When the dogs and I go for walks, I am in the habit of looking down.  It’s a good habit so I don’t trip over something.  But every once in a while, I look up and around.  Sometimes I stop. (The dogs like it when I stop because they want to look and smell.)  I see who has come to greet me – mockingbirds, squirrels, rabbits, ants, Bradford pears, red oaks, dandelions, and daffodils.

Sometimes I am simply noticing. This helps to take me out of the chatter my mind. But sometimes I wonder, “why have you come to me now?”  This happened to me recently.

            On a cold and wet Friday afternoon, I decided to have a prayer walk at Montserrat Jesuit Retreat Center.  Montserrat was the place where I participated in two eight-day silent retreats, both profound spiritual experiences.  As part of the spiritual direction I continue to get there, I will often walk the grounds and have a prayer time.

            On this particular Friday it was cold.  The rain had stopped.  I had on two coats, gloves, a knit hat and waterproof shoes. I headed down to Lake Lewisville, to walk along the shore but the wind was too cold, so I turned and walked along the tree line. My prayer at the beginning of these walks is “Come Holy Spirit come,” repeated over and over again. As I walked along the tree line, I thought of the powerful presence of the Divine I had experienced at Montserrat, not just in prayer, but in the trees and the animals and the land. Surely, I was walking on holy ground.

            As I rounded a bend, I saw a coyote standing in the field, just outside the trees, about 100 yards away.  I froze.  The coyote saw me and walked into the trees.  Soon a second coyote came out of the trees and stood where the first had been.  I did not move. At first the second coyote did not see me, then suddenly did, and moved into the trees.

            I have heard a lot of coyotes through the years and even seen an occasional one.  But I wonder why these two showed up during a prayer walk at the holy space of Montserrat.  I continued my walk along the tree line and soon came to the place where the coyotes had been.  I looked into the woods but did not see them.  I wondered where they went, what they were doing.  I continued on my path and after a while, I entered the woods at a spot I had gone in several times before.  I kept looking for the coyotes. I felt like I was trespassing in their territory.  Part of me said they are long gone. Part of me said they may be nearby.  I kept looking over my shoulder.  I felt nervous, anxious, though I wasn’t sure why.

            A few days later I did an active imagination where I saw myself back at Montserrat and back with the coyotes. I asked them why they had come to me. They replied they wanted me to come with them, into the wild, the brambles and thorns, part of the woods where there is no path.  No wonder I was nervous. Can I go with coyotes, animals known to be jokesters, playful, adaptable, who come out in both the day and the night?  Where will they take me?  How can I know?  Do I risk it?