Did You Invite a Coyote for Christmas?

I made a huge holiday faux pas.  I inadvertently invited a coyote for the holidays.

Earlier this year I intended this would be the best Christmas and New Year’s ever!  This has been a year of transformation for me as an individual, family member, mother and business owner.  As I became aware of this transformation I felt compelled to celebrate it – hence the intention for a fabu Christmas!

However, in visioning this celebration I saw it as marking the end of this transformation period.  Like any transformation, this death-rebirth cycle was not without its trials and a part of me was ready to shake all that discomfort off and start anew.  But here’s the deal – we don’t get to decide the beginning and end of spiritual transformations.  Don’t get me wrong, the Divine in us (the part of us that is God) is very much involved in this conversation but the ego (the part of us that believes we are separate from each other) does not call the shots.

When the ego does try to insinuate itself in the divine’s business, the Coyote Spirit is summoned forth.  The Coyote Spirit is the Trickster.  She is a teacher and uses human folley as her greatest tool.  She loves to play jokes on us to help us see the big picture.

You’ve heard the expression “When man plans, God laughs”?  Well, not only does God laugh, She sends the Coyote Spirit to help the plan-maker join in all the fun.

Resisting or ignoring the Coyote Spirit is futile because the Coyote will become more outrageous in order to be seen and heard.  How do you know if the Coyote is at work?  Well it takes a little practice to spot the Coyote but when your “plans” get messed up for a reason that seems impossible or inconceivable you can be pretty sure you are in the company of the Coyote.

So what do you do?  Well one way or another you invited the Coyote and like the good hostess you are, you would never think of uninviting a guest (and even if you did she wouldn’t leave).  So make the Coyote feel at home.

Want to know how?

Well here are my failsafe methods:

• Start laughing – most especially at yourself.

I found it really funny that I went searching through the bin of giant snowmen at Christmas Tree Shop for a ridiculous amount of time just to find two with their eyes still in tact only to come home and have my 3 year old pluck them right off – hahahahahahaha

• Give some love to the messy parts of your life — release all that judgment.

I love that my house is this messy.  It hasn’t been cleaned because my business is booming and my family is active!  I don’t know how its possible to take five trillion photos of my children in their Christmas outfits and still not have a single pose where they are both smiling and looking at the camera, but I am going to love the fact that I have two delicious little faces to photograph!

• Say thank you loud and clear for this Coyote. You are in the presence of a great teacher and are in receipt of a tremendous gift from a very loving Source.

Thank you Coyote!  I can’t wait to see what enlightenment I receive from hitting yet another unmoving object with my car (the third time this year) even though I have never had a single accident prior to this year – you are something else!  Oh, and I love the way you keep stealing candy canes off the tree and leaving broken pieces around the house!  How do you find time to get into all those nooks and crannies?

• Give a hug to someone who needs a hug but doesn’t necessarily deserve it.

Not sure why this last one works but it just does.

And here’s the best part about making the Coyote feel at home… Once you do, she will leave.  Her mission is complete.  Loving and feeling gratitude for our lives with a full and open heart is always at the center of the Coyote’s lessons.

…And the next time you go attaching to some serious plans about how your life is going to work, decide if you’ve got room at your table for the Coyote because you can bet she’s on her way!