Coyote tales

In North American folklore, Coyote is the trickster, the force of nature, the shaper, the creator. He plays by his own rules, he wreaks havoc where he goes, and as he goes, he reshapes the world. He is not a romantic figure - his actions are often disgusting, shocking, perverse and not bound by any moral compass. But he is always sneaky-clever, and his cleverness is his power.

I grew up with a collection of Coyote books, and in one story, Coyote's line was, "Maybe I will do something." And as soon as this idea came into his head, inevitably he would do something, destroy and create and transform a piece of the world, and then move on, always making tracks. Tracks, tracks, tracks.

Sometimes I can see a piece of Coyote in Bikram, this man who created this yoga system. In his brilliance, his vulgarity, and his power to create. Traveling the globe, changing it piece by piece, always making tracks, tracks, tracks. The master trickster, the mechanic, the shaper.

In my practice today, I unexpectedly met my own gaze in the mirror and thought, "Maybe I will do something." And I tried to pick up a piece of that same spirit and create, shape, change. Annihilate the comfortable. Get ugly, get messy. Do something. Change. Leave a different world in your wake.