This weekend we went to brunch and bid a sad farewell to one of my best friends who has moved to Beijing for at least the next couple years. After lunch, in a semi-haze resulting from my friend's departure starting to sink in coupled with trauma over listening to Bebe Winans talk about Whitney Houston on the car ride up, I popped into Anthropologie aka happy place to regain my composure and instead almost hit the floor.
Look at what greeted me.
Manifest destiny.
Tepee dreams come true.
Every since I was a kid I've always wanted a tepee. When my family went camping, I wanted to pack a tepee. We didn't own one thereby explaining how that never happened.
Growing up on the Prairies in Canada we were surrounded by wide open spaces, and experienced the four seasons in a very real and practical way. My family lives on a farm and my dad and his dad before him were both farmers. Was my dad a cowboy? Well, he wore the cowboy hat and cowboy boots but was never much of a horse rider, so I guess that's kind of a no. What my dad is and always has been is a Johnny Cash fan. That and an avid reader and watcher of western books and movies. Louis L'Amour, anyone? We only had 3 channels so, more often than not, my dad spent Saturdays telling us how much we were going to loooooove the upcoming cowboy movie. Uh, what?
I've been thinking about my childhood a lot lately, and wondering if my natural attraction to Native American culture--in Canada we refer to this people group as First Nations--stems from all the cowboy movies we watched. Hey, it's a theory. But likely not the only contributor because we also have a large Métis population where I grew up. In school, part of our Social Studies curriculum included learning about the Inuit and Métis people and I was always fascinated by their history. Superficially I'll admit I loved their fur boots and hats, and all the wonderful handmade goods they gave us access to.
Next time I talk to my mom I'm going to ask about the tepee status and see if I can get some follow-up on a lifelong request. Until then I've placed the above photo into the 'future dream home' file. Or vacation home. Either would work.
I've been joking around for weeks about wanting an indoor tepee, so it was pretty ironic to walk in and find this staring me in the face. Perhaps it's a sign?
I think I'm gonna work that angle. Ha!
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