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.