The Fauxyote

My eyes scan the roadside while I am driving. I don't know what I expect to find in doing this, perhaps an errant herd of pachyderms ready to explode from the verge and trample me. It’s is a survival skill deeply entrenched in my human DNA from a time when things like that happened. Today I see something odd there in the tall grass next to the pond. What is that? Is that a dog? Or is it.....a coyote? After almost rear ending the car in front of me, I wisely decide to pull over and see if I can determine what exactly I am seeing. I pull out the tiny binoculars that live in the glove box, train them on the canine in the grass. What I see makes me burst out laughing. It is most definitely a coyote allright. Not a real breathing one, but a faux coyote - a faux-yote if you will. As I scan around, I now see these fauxyotes stationed everywhere, undoubtedly an effort to frighten off the Canadian Geese population - or more accurately the poop-u-lation - those of you with previous goose experience will understand. Seems to be working because the pond, normally raucous with goose chatter is silent today. Not a single goose in sight. I smile at how silly that is and how easily the geese were fooled. 

Coyote is a good fool. I should know. Coyote is one of my major totems or teachers if you prefer. I can still remember the evening he wandered in, sat down on his haunches tongue lolling out and made me aware of his presence in my life. In Native American mythology, coyote is a hapless fool - which sounds about right when it comes to what I expect guidance-wise. Coyote intends well, begins fearlessly, screws up phenomenally,but in the end ultimately does do some good things.

It often takes me a lot of attempts before I get where I need to go, sometimes I will have to try EVERYTHING only to collapse in exhaustion and find that the answer has been right behind me or under my bum all along. It used to frustrate me to have to continually go thru all that chaos to arrive at a solution. I sometimes resented Coyote, his energy and his ridiculous way of teaching me - because it is rather like teaching your child not to stick the fork in the electrical outlet by allowing them to do exactly that. To learn for themselves the consequences - if they survive. Like I said tough teacher. Coyote makes me laugh and has taught me that when things feel frantic to stop trying so hard, to relax and let the answer come to me or I may discover myself slammed into the opposing wall still holding the fork and twitching. 

So what in the world am I to make of all the fauxyotes? It wasn't long before the geese became used to them. They didn't fool the geese for long and they aren't going to fool me. I think they are just to remind me to laugh amidst the chaos. And maybe, just maybe, to put down the fork.