Encounter with a Coyote — A Sonomama Moment

Good evening.

After dinner today, I went for a walk in a nearby park—and unexpectedly,

I came across a coyote.

In Native American traditions, the coyote is seen as a trickster.

Sometimes wise, sometimes foolish,

it shakes the foundations of our assumptions and comforts.

While it brings confusion and surprise,

it also serves as a guide, reminding us of what is essential—

offering us lessons that go beyond rightness and control, pointing instead toward the natural flow and the intuition of the soul.

From that encounter, this poem emerged.

—

Encounter with a Coyote

The stillness of twilight.

The world breathing quietly.

And there—

On a narrow path, a coyote.

Thin, wild, sharp.

Unadorned, pure.

Neither fearful nor threatening—just there.

Amber eyes gazed into mine.

And for a brief moment,

there were no roles, no names—

just two lives in the wind.

Then,

like a shadow, it turned silently,

and just as it had appeared,

it vanished into mystery.

A mystery—

where it appears,

and where it disappears.

That fleeting encounter,

now feels like something from a dream.

Gone in an instant—an illusion, perhaps.

And yet, it is precisely because of that

that I can see:

Each fleeting moment is complete just as it is—a fresh, vivid expression of life.

Simply received,

as if biting into it whole—

a sonomama moment.

*sonomama means as-it-is in Japanese.

Words and Photo by K E I K O

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