This column is a look at a brave soul who took a leap of faith to open her own business . What follows is a personal profile of a business owner following her dreams and thriving despite the odds—and Covid.
Kokopelli’s Corner
Cathy Boaz - Owner
111 East Grand River Avenue
Howell, MI 48843
Open 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
Monday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
facebook.com/KokopellisKornerHowell
Due to Covid restrictions, we encourage you to call for any changes in operating hours before visiting.
Find Hope and Healing at Kokopelli’s Korner
An earthy, woody scent of incense pulled me past the bake shops, the coffee boutiques, and the tattoo parlors that lined the streets of downtown Howell, and into a curious, little bright yellow and orange shop with an even more curious figure playing the flute and dancing on the awning. It was a place of spirituality, of acceptance, of hope. I had stepped into Kokopelli’s Korner.
“The whole reason I opened Kokopelli’s was to help people get in touch with their spiritual side,” said owner Cathy Boaz, who opened Kokopelli’s five years ago this past October. Walking into the shop, whether you believe in the store’s otherworldly worldviews or not, is like feeling the weight of a bad day lift from your shoulders. There is a wide variety of candles, jewelry, stones, smudge sticks, and other soul-healing items to be discovered. My spirits were lifted by simply taking some time to sit in the space and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the busy downtown streets from the charming storefront.
Boaz herself is adorned with crystals of every shape and size during our interview, a sample of the healing gifts that can be found around the store. Rings glittered on her fingers as she gestured to the many restorative items on display; various crystal necklaces caught the light and helped explain what makes this place special to not only her, but the community. Crystals, Boaz believes, can be more powerful than medicine when used correctly. The shop is an extension of Boaz—she practices what she preaches.
“There are many people who have turned away from churches and from God, and I wanted to give them an alternative route; to not give up completely [during life’s hardships] and to look at the creator in a different way. I wanted them to connect to the world again, to have hope. I wanted to help them see through the pain and suffering in the world, to assist them in finding a more beautiful way to express themselves, instead of looking at the world as something dark,” Boaz said.
The shop, said Boaz, is a place people come to when they need to find a sense of calm, a place to relax, or to heal from the hardships of the day. People from all walks of life enter the shop, and Boaz is ready for every one of them. She said she finds solace in guiding the wayward and the lost who venture into her location.
“I like making people feel better about themselves,” she said. “I do get a lot of people who are down and sad [when they] come to see me, and I like lifting their spirits up and reminding them what they came into this world for, or at least [to] get them on the journey to figuring it out for themselves. My favorite part is just being there for people and watching them grow [through becoming aware of their own spirituality]. I’ve seen people come in here in the lowest of lows and have watched them blossom into the most amazing healers.”
Boaz was initially met with resistance when she opened the shop back in 2014.
“You’d be surprised at the initial reaction [I received],” said Boaz. “I kept being led to Howell, and everyone told me not to come here. ‘It’s too religious out this way,’ they told me. I told them that doesn’t matter—I do believe in God, and I do believe in Christ. I try to teach people that even though you’ve given up on churches and organized religion doesn’t mean you have to give up on the Creator. It’s all about love, and that’s what you’ll find here.” With that mindset instilled, fitting into the budding small-business fabric of downtown Howell has been a breeze, Boaz said.
When asked if something spoke to her about the topic of spirituality specifically, when it came to opening a shop, she said yes, literally.
“Since I was a little girl, I could see spirits and would have crazy experiences that I couldn’t understand. I wasn’t raised to understand them,” said Boaz. “As I got older, I started to learn more about my Native American heritage, and then in my 20s I had a spirit come to me and tell me that I was going to own a spiritual shop at the age I am now. They told me it was going to be called Kokopelli’s Korner—and I’ve had that name ever since.”
Kokopelli is a fertility God of the Hopi tribe. A hunchbacked figure who plays the flute to chase away winter and bring back spring. Kokopelli generally presides over childbirth and agriculture, though he has been known to help a local business or two, according to Boaz, who asked the deity to “impregnate” her store with good fortune. Business, she said, has been steady ever since.
Before owning a spirituality shop, Boaz had her own photography studio for 22 years, a job that brought her joy, but ultimately was not where her passions lay. After her experience with the spirit, she explained that she was going about her job at the photography studio just like any other day when another spirit came to her to let her know the time to open her shop was now.
“Five years ago, I literally had a hand on my back and it gave me a shove as if to say, ‘It’s time.’” Boaz said.
“Not knowing where the money was going to come from at first was the hardest thing,” Boaz said. “I had to have faith, and luckily it all fell into place. I got to a point where I stopped worrying and just fell into trust in the Great Spirit, who is guiding me to wherever I’m supposed to go.”
There is a little bit of everything in the shop for people who may not be interested in the aspect of spirituality, too. Rows of essential oil bottles and bagged teas are a welcome sight for such patrons, but Boaz assured me that everyone who comes through the door, believer and non-believer alike, can find something positive.
“I love my days ahead of me,” she said, “I never know who’s going to walk through the door. I never know what experience I’m going to have, but I know it’ll be surreal, getting to work this closely with the Creator. When you have that with you and around you all the time, what’s not to love? I’m supposed to do this, I came here to do this, and if you follow the passion in life, you’ll make the money after that.”
Whether you’re searching for a little spiritual guidance, or just find your way to Kokopelli’s while wandering the quaint streets of Howell, go in, take a look, there’s something for everyone here.
“This is my heart and soul, when you come in here, you get a little piece of me. Literally—there are blood, sweat, and tears in this place. If I couldn’t do this anymore, I wouldn’t want to live anymore, because this is what I came here to do. For anyone that comes in here, I hope they feel the love that went into this place and are able to find the divine in Kokopelli’s Korner.”
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