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Annual Reflections In Depth Perspectives
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1. Long ago there was only water. 1 Coyote was floating on a log when he saw the ducks. “We are the only creatures in an empty world,” he told them. “One of you should dive down and see if there is a solid bottom under all this water.” The red mallard dove first. He was gone a long time. When he came up he said, “There is dirt down there but I didn’t get any.” The small pin feathered duck dove next but he didn’t get any dirt either. Then the grebe volunteered. “I will bring you some dirt my brother” he told Coyote. The grebe was gone a very long time. When he came back to the surface he had a small bit of dirt between his webbed feet. Coyote spread the mud around and made solid ground. He made rocks and stones and hills and trees and grass. He scooped out ponds and streams and filled them with fish. He created East, West, North, and South and plenty of room to wander around in. ************************************************************** Measured, marked, weighed, named, mapped, divided and divvied up, known, assessed. Smoothed, reconciled. Then Old Man Coyote comes and kicks the empty skull of that world. Coyote’s road is a track in dry sand going everywhere and nowhere. Old Man Coyote walked in the first twilight and howled at the moon, a soul mate in fickleness and fidelity. Where Coyote came from, only the Creator knows. ********************************************************************* Some mornings I hear coyote yipping and yapping with glee and sorrow as he runs on the rocky hills that surround our cabin. I go outside to catch a glimpse of him, lean and hungry, trotting down the sandy wash between creosote bushes and burro weed on his way to the next valley. I hear his yelping far more often than I actually see him; I sense his presence, find his tracks in the dirt of the driveway where he danced in the desert darkness while I slept. Notes 1 This story is a rough paraphrase of a Crow story collected by Barry Lopez in Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With His Daughter: Coyote Builds North America, Avon Books: New York, 1977.
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Author Bio Catherine Svehla is a scholar, storyteller, artist, and activist with a PhD in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She lectures at CSUSB and Copper Mt College and facilitates the High Desert Mythological Roundtable in Joshua Tree, CA. To learn more visit www.catherinesvehla.com. website catherinesvehla.com Catherine's Blog Cultural Mythology: Myth Culture and Consciousness Catherine's Joseph Campbell High Desert Mythological RoundTable It meets the last Tuesday of every month, 7-9PM at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center, Joshua Tree, CA
Publications "There Is A Lot Next Door" see p23, The Sun Runner Magazine
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