Coyote
Her caramel-brown eyes stared into my soul as she determined if I was a threat to her family
There was a shallow coulee on my childhood land where I would go when I didn’t want to be seen. As the oldest of four children, nature was the only place to be alone with my thoughts. In my teen years, I needed solitude for deeper reasons. Nature was where I found healing.
Part of the Qu’Appelle Valley, in Saskatchewan, Canada, the trees and vegetation in the coulee were fed by underground springs. The tightly packed greenery kept the sun from reaching the forest floor, making the area a few degrees cooler. This oasis contrasted the yard's heat where our house sat, closed in by trees, impenetrable by any breeze.
In the centre of the thick forest of oaks, elms, evergreens, and poplars was a meadow — rich with wildflowers, prairie grasses, and clover. Songbirds frequented the open areas, away from the noisy blue jays that would stick close to the trees. Purple crocuses dotted the hillside in spring, replaced in fall by Brown-eyed Susans, with their chocolate brown centres and gold petals. The land, untouched for generations, held wonderful secrets beyond the trees, begging to be explored.
