Taska Sanford
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. - Mark Twain.
I think we are all searching for Hosteen Coyote. This elusive spirit will bring us fire and knowledge. It will laugh in our faces until we laugh back. Coyote holds up the mirror so we can see our true nature for the first time.
Taska Sanford.
I can not say for sure that my dad was always fascinated by the trickster for the same reasons that I am. Even when my father was not an old man he referred to himself as Holsteen Coyote.
When my mom moved to California to live with us after he died, we found letters from me he had saved over the years. I wrote to him and my mom often during my years in college so far from home. My letters were more often than not addressed to Hosteen Coyote.
Coyote is by no means the only trickster in our collective consciousness. Coyote has many guises that run the gamut from silly, to self-reflective, to sexually deviant. That is quite a spread for one entity, but not unbelievable.
Our family had a little adobe tucked in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico. It was a magical place that certainly housed many spirits and beings even when buttoned up for the long harsh desert winter. Our family spent summers there wandering the desert with a collective urge of searching. We were always searching with eyes, ears, tongue, nose, fingers, and spirit. We voraciously read about the Navajo, Tewa, and Zuni. About cowboys, saints, and artists. Anyone who stopped just for a moment to breathe in this high desert-scape also felt that deep drive to search.
I think we are all searching for Hosteen Coyote. This elusive spirit will bring us fire and knowledge. It will laugh in our faces until we laugh back. Coyote holds up the mirror so we can see our true nature for the first time. We can even follow coyote back to the den, if we dare, for more tempting secrets. And like the desert itself, coyote is not always fun and carefree. Life lessons come with a cost. Sometimes we overlook the consequences of our thirst for more. Never underestimate coyote and never underestimate the desert. They are both more powerful than we are. And we humans need things that are bigger than ourselves.
When I look up to the galaxy cluster in the deep night and hear the yips of the coyote pups I know my place in the world again. Hosteen Coyote - father, trickster, and desert embodied pads through my heart and sends me to sleep body and spirit sated.
Photo and words: Taska Sanford
Taska Sanford is a member of the Art Junket in Berkeley, California (2018-2022)