Native Grasses, Wild Flowers, Strong Women-The Women I Love.

I was going to write this blog about the grit of being a Dakota woman and the ones I know. 

 It was going to be about my seven beautiful wild flower sisters, and how Dakota women are a different breed.  

They are a different type of wildflower to be sure!

 Then there are the Wyoming, Sandhills and the Niobrara of Nebraska, Washington, Kansas, Idaho, Oregon Ohio and the Minnesota, Alaska and the Texas women I know.  African, Italy, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, India, Russia, Pakistan and Sweden?   

Did you know there are some amazing wild flower women in all 50 states?  And around the world!

Something about wild native grasses and wild flowers exhilarates and inspires.  

They seem to beckon and call out... 

I instinctively hold my head a little higher and feel a little braver when I run my hands over the tops of their seeded heads.

Native grasses and wild flowers can be slow to mature.  And their beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in their function.

A paradox of tough and feminine.  Complex and simple.  

They know their job and they do it fearlessly.  Holding on to sandy, rocky or other imperfect spots as if to say, "Yeah- YOU JUST TRY IT." 

Drought, flood, wind, blizzard, fire and the elements pull at them in an attempt to cut them off.  

These women.  The ones I admire are the same way.  The women I'm related to are this way.  Our Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers were stubborn, beautiful and tough ladies.  

They knew where God called them and whom He called them to.  And they stayed.

Depression, dirt, famine and poverty.  These women left ease and family and surety to go where they were called to go.  To be who He called them to be.

And don't mess with their family or those they love.  They are fiercely loyal and loving.  

Not in a fluff and pomp sort of way...  

I'm talking about the teeth bared and this is my ground kind of way.

Fight is in our bones.  Not just fight for fight's sake.  Fight for our land, our children, our husbands, our legacy, our God, our Mission and our calling.

God has scattered these native grasses and wild flowers throughout the world. 

 To hold the ground. 

These are the women I love.

Heather