Coyote Blessings

Blessings sometimes come in strange packages, and it makes them a little hard to recognize. You've probably had a few blessings of your own like that. The coyotes have turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me. Well, sorta. 

There's a train that passes through our town. I don't have its time schedule, but best I can tell, it passes through here at 9:00 pm, 11:00 pm, 1:00 am, and 3:00 am. I know that, because that's when I wake up. Every night. As it rolls through town, it blows a train whistle that is loud enough to wake the dead (as well as the sleeping). Now, that whistle is a good thing, despite the racket in the night, because it lets drivers know to stop at railroad crossings. It keeps our citizens safe, and I am all for that. 

The whistle, however, wakes the coyotes too. They go totally crazy, yipping and making coyote-racket. It's a frightful sound. Then the coyote-yipping wakes the dogs ( my outside dog as well as my inside-on-my-bed dog) and they start barking like a home invasion is underway.  There is no way to sleep through all this, so I get up for a few minutes. I can't stay up long, though, because I only have two hours to sleep before we do it all again. 

Recently, I've been pondering the racket in the night and how to get more sleep. As long as the coyotes and Maggie the Wonder Dog are mixing it up every two hours all night long, it's not going to happen. You can probably guess where I'm going with this. I began to think about getting rid of those varmints. 

Now you may not believe this, but it turns out there is an art to coyote hunting and there are people that really like to do it. I'm not saying they specialize in hunting coyotes, but suffice it to say, there are people to call.  I had begun to think about calling the coyote whisperers and asking them to reduce the population, but the idea of a massacre just didn't appeal to me. There must have been some reason to create them (though I can't imagine what) so, instead, I began to hope (and pray) for an alternative. 

I didn't hold out much hope for some sort of miraculous disappearance, so when Bill ( who helps me on my farm) offered to trap them, I said to go ahead. This sleeping thing was nearly to a critical point. I started fretting about fur licenses and permits and Bill said,"Nope. I don't need any of that."  Here's where things get interesting. He has a friend who has a kind of coyote farm. 150 acres!!! The man wants the coyotes, but only if they are alive!  No massacre!! No killing varmints!!! Can you believe it? 

I'm thrilled and really looking forward to moving the coyotes to the coyote-farmer's land. They didn't turn out to be a blessing for me, exactly, but they have allowed me to bless the coyote-farmer, and they will (I guess) be a blessing to him (if not to his neighbors). I can hardly wait for them to move!

The coyotes have reminded me of something I should have considered. There is no problem so bad or so complicated that it cannot be solved. There is a way through anything you face. There is a plan, and it's a good one, designed by One who loves you more than you can understand. The solution for finding the blessing lies not in yourself, but in knowing Who to ask.