Carnal Truths

Coyotes. I see them all the time; they remind me how easy it is to become divided within my own heart. I’ve lost more than one beloved furbaby to a coyote’s hunger. In California. Colorado. Oregon. In July 2017, I found my beloved cat of sixteen years one morning after a family of coyotes had emptied her clean of life. I immediately fell to my knees and roared with rage at the clouds.

No longer blinded by grief, I send love to the coyotes I see on my morning walks. Because they keep a safe distance. Because their eyes are soft and wet with hunger. And because it would be a form of madness really, to blame coyotes for their adaptation to an ecosystem out of balance. We have devoured their habitat and so, by virtue of their innate needs, they take back what they can from the spaces we have colonized.

Humans are animals, too. If you cannot comprehend what drives someone toward helpless acts of violence, then say a prayer of gratitude that you have not suffered the trauma that so many people carry in their blood and bones. Chronic injustice breeds righteous hunger. And punishing and shaming anything or anyone for their desperate attempts to be seen, heard, and considered is not a religious or moral imperative — it’s lazy; it’s deflection of responsibility; it’s gaslighting.

Empathy will restore the natural order of things, IF we are brave enough to turn our attention away from those in power (whose needs have long been considered) toward those who have been marginalized and forgotten for far too long.