Howl for the Hogmanay

Encounter with Coyote.

Blessings for this New Year dear loves. We are not big on the New Years parties around here, but do find it a beautiful opportunity to reflect on what bloomed this past year, and vision for what is to come. The seeds we are planting in the garden of 2024. May it be seeds of our hearts clearest hymn. Below I write about an encounter that I had this rising with a beautiful relative. Often in the night I hear them howling in the distance. As great ghostly beasts carrying the evening upon their furred backs, spreading it like a paintbrush across the land. Clocking the horizon in the dark star speckled night. Singing songs of the hunt. Melodies of the joyous frolic. Today I was gifted with a meeting. It felt like a sweet little medicine token for this newly emerging path. Animal encounters are always meaningful for me, and I recently have taken to writing them down as a way to solidify their offering in my memories. May this be the first of many.

Misty morning by the pond

I roll out of the warmth of my bed and step outside for my rising release. It is both a small inconvenience and a great blessing to have our outhouse a few steps away from our little home. It encourages meeting the day, first thing in the rising this always feels like a beautiful (and challenging) invitation. Stepping out into the crisp winter air freshly risen from sleep and sometimes too lazy to put on a coat. Bare skin meets a frosty breeze that richly awakens the body.

Today the moon hung in the sky as a soft silver pearl, on her descent back to the underworld. The day was born in the freshly dawning sun, wispy breaths of night still lingering in the trees. Mist cloaked the land like a cozy winter blanket. Keeping the creatures warm under her hidden veil. Last night was crisper than it had been for a few days. I could hear the ducks lallygagging in the pond, engaged in their courtships and duckly relating. As I emerge from my business I see a flurry of brown fluff. I stop for a moment.

Coyote.

They stand on the other side of the pond, observing my presence with a soft gaze. They stay for a few breaths, this ancient form of medicine man, capricious elder. A timeless moment where I may witness their form and receive the gift of their presence. Their coat smoothly blends in with the muddy background, yet stands out from the green bush. Shades of brown melting into swaying grasses. A puffy tail hangs loose and relaxed at their back. Sharp ears perk to listen for what is to come. For a moment, we are there together. Tied through the cord of our awareness. Through the woven thread of our gaze. In another moment, they walk off into the thick bush of blackberry. Unfazed by the thorny adversaries. They offer one last look back to me before they walk on and disappear into the thickness. As though to make sure I would remember what was spoken within the crystalline silence.

New Year blessing.

A form came and gone in a moment. An occasion suspended in eternity. As though it is a star strung upon the golden thread of my memories. The medicine of coyote landed for me as I emerged into this new day, new year, new cycle of growth and renewal. Animal encounters always feel like a special medicine song we may hold close to our hearts. This one though feels enlivened by the significance of this day. The potent elixir of meaning is woven through what grabs our attention, and what we hold dear. Their medicine was shared like roots planted in the hallowed darkness. A melody for what is to come. This year has been anointed with the footsteps of coyote kin. Arriving with a smile and a song.

May we hear the howling of our own hearts that guide us deeper still upon the pilgrimage of our medicine path.