Printed on the front and back is our newest rendition of Coyote (also known as Prairie Wolf) - this time, two friends enveloped in the eternal dance of the world (known as "lila" in Hinduism, which translates to "divine play" signifying the universe as an expression of God's playful nature.)
From their divine play emanates the garden that adorns the entire body of the wearer: filled with Dame's Rocket and Wild Phlox.
Dame's Rocket is a flower that grows in abundance on the roadsides here in Appalachia in spring. Without being invited (some might say, invasive) she nonetheless finds herself there and offers up the most beautiful magenta and purple-ish hues towards each passerby regardless of what labels they ascribe to her.
Dame's Rocket is known as the "Flower of Deceit” because while beautiful, it appears to have no fragrance during the day. Come nightfall, however, the flower has a lovely perfume, as noticeable as a "rocket in the sky." In this world of divine play, beauty and the gift of each moment is not always apparent at first, and takes time, circumstance, and a habit of noticing (much like this flower asks of us.)
Phlox tends to bloom in clusters at the top of each stem, which has lended it a reputation for representing togetherness, friendship, and eternal bondedness - all in harmony with the divine play of the Coyote.
Phlox has appeared in literature dating back as far as ancient Greece in Homer's Odyssey. (In this story, the sailors have to drop their torches onto the ground that then blooms with red phlox.) I am continually enamored by the fact that while the world around us rapidly changes, becoming ever-more unfamiliar with each generation, the flowers on a roadside or a simple woodland ditch remain unchanged. I look longingly at their blooms and for a moment I am held in the very same gaze as my ancestors thousands of years ago were.
While there is much more I could say about Coyote here, I highly recommend the book "Coyote America" by Dan Flores. Here is a summary:
Legends don't come close to capturing the incredible story of the coyote. In the face of centuries of campaigns of annihilation employing gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Alaska to New York. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won, hands-down. Coyote America is the illuminating five-million-year biography of this extraordinary animal, from its origins to its apotheosis.
