I found a basket on my front porch.
It's empty.
It needs filling.
Though it looks like a non-descript market basket, one that you may see a neighbour carrying fresh produce in during her foray last summer to the local farmer's market, it was actually created by a woman who weaves to feed her family.
She weaves day and night.
Her young daughters weave alongside her.
Together, they receive pennies for their efforts.
Still, their efforts allow them to continue running their own business, to continue reaching for a better life.
I want to fill this basket with nourishment.
Abundantly
A bountiful collection from my community
To the woman who weaves and to her community.
A listening ear
A few bandages for the little hurts
A fiddler to play music that weeps and reels
Fingertip touch to heal the scars
Smiles, miles and miles and miles of them.
Eyes for vision and a heart to see
Candles for the dark nights
Stars for wishing upon
Fleece for warmth
Bread and wine to share
Hands to help, to rock, to reach out
Unconditional love to help mend the big hurts
And a bouquet of summer field flowers for hope.
This basket is magical..........it will expand to include all that it needs to carry. Care to put something else in it?
6 comments:
I met a woman in Ghana some years back who weaved baskets for a living so as not to be a 'burden' to her family - she was 79 - the larger baskets took her 3 days to make, the going rate was 50p....
....abundance
Beautiful take on the potential of abundance, the promise of abundance and the meaning of what abundance can encompass. Brilliant. much peace, JP
Hi Paul.
We all need to meet these women. I read an interesting chapter last night from that Paul Brand/Yancey book (I'm not normally a slow reader, but I have taken it slow with this one so as to absord the messages more fully) Brand's analogy of the skin cells representing the touchpoint people...the frontlines who see, feel touch and hear others and their life stories was very moving. Not all "cells" can experience the worlds stories firsthand, because they're busy with other tasks in the Body of Christ. It is up to the skin cells to share them......
Also.......this post actually started in my head when I was attending a "fair trade" craft fair....10,000 villages. I saw the baskets that were for sale. They were around 50 dollars and I wondered how much the person who made them would make and how much would have gone to overhead. Then, I started wondering about the person who made it............
Hi Deb. Thank you for your kind words. The piece wrote itself. I love it when that happens.
Beautiful and poetic piece - I know women like that in the Middle East. They work hard all the time, trying to earn a living for their families.
all that she wishes..... in abundance
I am always humbled at this time of year, brought down to earth by the flamboyant displays of opulence in our society compared to that of the vast majority of the world... makes me think
On a trip to Charleston, South Carolina years back, I was able to witness women who crafted baskits for a living.... and sold them in the marketplace of the city. The deftness in their fingers to get the straw tugged in tight, and pattern weaved just right was amazing... it was as if they had been doing it all their lives, and they probably had.
What really got to me....I thought about these women who lived on neighboring islands off the coast, who had so little, yet lived in a country that thrived in abundance. Their abundance lived through their craft and depended on our abundance to buy their baskits. Abundance can really be measured in so many different ways, can't it? And it shows how we are all so dependant on each other.
For your baskit, I add an endless supply of peace.... for mind and soul.
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