Three Coyotes and One Blue Heron

On the first day of the Tibetan Lunar Year,
We are driving from Longmont to Boulder on the Diagonal Turnpike.
It's early morning.
Boulder and the foothills are charcoal and silver gray.
My daughter says, "Foxes!"
I say "Where"
I look and say "Oh, it's a coyote."
She says, "Yeh. It's coyotes. There are three of them."
"Oh, I can't see them all," I say. "I need to drive."
I reach my right hand across to her and say.
"Here. I want to hold the hand of the person who saw three coyotes!"
We smile. We grip hands. We let go.

We arrive in time to practice an elixir meditation and to breakfast and mingle.
My daughter meets a friend.
I say "Hello." and "Happy Shambhala Day." and "Cheerful Shambhala Day."
To lots of good people.
By the time we are ready to leave I am giddy with it.
My daughter grasps my arm.
I cannot leave without greeting every one I know and others who just look beautiful today.
What is this elixir?
My heart feels like a hibiscus
-- A bloom of red silk --
Effusing joy.
My daughter says "It's OK. You don't have to get so excited."
She is my good family, and
I leave -- in trails of happiness --
All tender with smiles.

We take the country road back to Longmont -- N. 63rd and Nelson
We pass the farm pond that's south of the old Riggby Church.
"Look!," I say to my daughter. "The Blue Heron!"
He stands in the pond,
His crest, his folded wings.
He is a rainbow of grays,
Surrounded by ducks and the gray reflecting water.

So, this is how I greet the year of the wood monkey
With an elixir of gratitude.