Auntie Approval

Where we live there aren't many businesses.  Big dreams are hard to come by.  But we are both hardship and unbelievable beauty.  

Four years ago on a tiny Rez house on a dead end road we waited.  We lived next to the amazing Pat and the now deceased Jim Northrup for 10 years.  Pat is one of those Aunties.  The one who raises everyone's children and would give you the clothes off her back.  Pat was a touchstone of our community. 

Their family had followed the development of Heart Berry from its beginnings as a beadwork hustle.  When I began working with the Inspired Natives Project Pat would stay up to date on all my doings.  She knew I was waiting for my very first wool blanket to arrive. 

On the day the truck was coming I saw Pat with her little powwow chair, sitting out in MIDDLE of the road, smoking, just relaxing.  I walked out "What ya doin'?"  "Waiting for your blankets."  And she did.

I've never seen a semi on our road. And it was just the first of many Unbelievable firsts in my life and in the life of Heart Berry.  I asked Pat to open up that first blanket, that first representative of so much hope, so many dreams, such a risk.  She put out her smoke, opened the box, and smiled just big.  For little girls like us, Auntie approval is highest approval.  

A world has shifted in four years, we have new neighbors now, one of whom works for Heart Berry.  

And big dreams become our pasts, become our children's everyday, and we continue to Thrive.  

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