This morning on my way to work a beautiful coyote darted from within the canyon on my right and ran past my car, across the four lane highway. Luckily there weren't many cars on the road. Seeing him made me sad. I thought about suffering animals and about the declining natural world; I also thought it must have meant something, since spotting them is a rare occurrence for me. The last time I saw a coyote was last year during one of my hikes through the Eucalyptus Grove at UCSD. It's a forest of mostly eucalyptus trees with dirt trails, covered with scrub brush, rocks, wildflowers, and secret paths for hiking and exploring. The coyote darted out quickly, from within a grove of birch trees and revealed himself to me in a small clearing. Then he trotted off.
I thought then that seeing the coyote was a sign, since I had been going through a rough period, and had been reading about animal totems and the appearance of other spiritual phenomenon. The fact that he came out of nowhere at a time when I'd been reading about serendipity blew my mind. I wasn't expecting it - you never do when serendipity happens.
I was grateful to see that today's coyote had made it safely across the road safely, since, last week I'd seen a dead animal in the middle of the same highway that had to have been a cat or dog. It was all torn up with it's insides exploding out, red, with barely any fur left, except for its poor feet and tail. All the cars were forced to straddle it in order to avoid hitting it again, since no one had managed to drag it to the side of the road before it was too late. It made me want to go home and hug and hold my own kitty, but alas, she is very sick now and refuses to come inside to be with us.
I looked up the Coyote within animal symbolism and found this:
COYOTE - is the trickster. When we're being too serious about life Coyote may come along to teach us to laugh at ourselves. It is also the karmic enforcer, reminding us that whatever we do to others will be done to us. Learning to balance wisdom with a sense of humor to make life work for us.
