Our vision is to provide a beautiful, nurturing, and safe environment where people feel appreciated and their unique needs for comfort and self-expression are genuinely met. We envision our workplace as a learning community, where personal growth is encouraged through our willingness to be aware, accountable, and supportive of our customers and one another.
Our philosophy is that life is joyful and filled with beauty – which can only truly be found in this moment. We focus on our customers and provide assistance that is both intimate and spacious. For some, the simple act of trying clothing on can be extremely challenging. All kinds of body image issues or self-acceptance issues rise to the surface. We are very sensitive to the delicacy of this process; and we gladly offer our support and expertise in finding what is just right for you. Truly it is a gift to serve and to participate with our customers in the venturing to a new and loving relationship with ourselves as we are.
Coyote Moon was opened in June of 1989 by Michelle Walker (that’s me) with a bank loan and all of my savings. The store was much smaller in the beginning, and very sparse! I had a dream of connecting my working life with my passion for the development of human potential. I wouldn’t have put it like that at the time (I was 26!), I just knew I had a longing to deeply connect with my work and to feel aligned spiritually with it. My friends encouraged me to sell clothing because it was obvious to them that it was a love of mine. Had my friends not pointed this out, I might have missed it though! So into clothing I went and the store grew more and more in that direction. I was young and very inexperienced. My first couple of years people would periodically ask if I was closing since my inventory would get so low. It was really that I was on a very tight budget and hadn’t yet figured out the necessary flow of goods. That was many years ago and we have really filled out in that time. Recently I found some pictures from when I first opened and really actually loved how much open space there was in the store back then. But the fullness of the store these days is truly a wonderful thing as well, just different. As I gave myself more and more to trust in the beauty and spirit of my store, it did take on a life of its own. Today, in my buying I want to cover so many categories that I often have too much inventory to actually fit in the store. I have an amazing merchandising manager though, also named Michelle, who does her magic work and somehow finds a space for all our wonderful treasures.
Through the years, the central spirit of the store and the intention with which I have facilitated my business has been one of celebrating wholeness in the human experience. My deep love is of the evolution of consciousness, yes smack dab in the middle of a retail store. It may be an odd combination for some to consider, but for me it has really worked. Over the years I have gotten a diverse range of training in the realm of personal development. I have studied energy healing, women’s group leadership, astrology. I then got a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from a Jungian-oriented graduate school. After that I found and trained in the amazing healing modality called Jin Shin Jyutsu which is energy-balancing from a non-dual perspective.
Along the way I have been an informal student of Buddhism which lead beautifully to finding the contemporary teachers of what is sometimes called “the new state of consciousness” or spiritual awakening. Among these wonderful teachers are Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Adyashanti, and Neelam. So through this journey of exploring, whatever was learned or discovered was applied as best as possible to the store and how it is run. There were times when this was a cumbersome process but now there is a simple beauty and clarity to our approach. It boils down to being present with what we are doing in the moment and really connecting to our customers in a personal way. We find that joy is available to us when we are present with whatever is happening around us. So simple! We try to remind each other of this when any stress comes in, and we are helped back to see what is right in front of us.
Michelle Walker Bio: 
