a helper for a child
I was working with young teen the other day, helping him develop his writing skills. He was telling me and writing about how he had been in the woods with some other people from the Center and had seen coyote tracks. As he was writing more, I suddenly heard the coyote asking me to ask the teen to look in the crystal ball. (This particular entity can use the crystal ball quite well.) So I did so without telling him why. He immediately saw the coyote.That was good confirmation, so I told him that the coyote had asked me to get the crystal ball. I asked him to look again to see what the coyote had to say to him. This time he saw the coyote in pursuit of a chipmunk, but reported that no words were presented.
I sent him back yet again to see more clearly, but he could not get any more information. The coyote again began to speak with me, and I relayed the messages. This is how it went as best I can recall:
C: Did coyote have to work hard to get the chipmunk?
T: Very, very hard.
C: If Coyote did not work so hard, Coyote would starve. Coyote cannot survive if Coyote just tries. What is Coyote trying to show you? (as I was saying these words, I marveled at how differently I was speaking, including the speech patterns)
T: To work hard on what I do.
So we spoke about his effort on his first draft, which was minimal at best, and the second and third efforts which showed a great improvement.
I was grateful for Coyote's intervention. Yet I know that Coyote is the trickster as well as the bringer of wisdom. Perhaps Coyote's ways are somewhat like the teen's ways, yet the teen has not incorporated the adaptability and cleverness of this totem animal.
I believe Coyote tricks us only to show us we are not infallible and that in learning to laugh at ourselves, we learn a wonderful wisdom.
thank you coyote...
the cousins attended to this entry with great interest!!
