THE CAVENDER DIARY

We have a lot of Mexican import shops here in Texas.

I found these (extremely) inexpensive baskets at El Paso Trading Company a few months ago.

I knew the one in the center was a Navajo wedding basket, but I wasn’t sure why it was called that. (Especially when these were “Hecho in Mexico”)

“Hello Google”

The Navajo wedding basket is viewed as a map through which the Navajo chart their lives.

The central spot in the basket is the “sipapu”. It represents the place where the Navajo people emerge into this world. The inner white coils represent birth. As the basket moves outward, the white coils encounter increasing spikes of black. The black represents darkness, struggle, and pain.

Eventually the darkness leads to red coils. The red bands represent the blood of marriage and mixing of the spousal blood to create a family.

There red is solid because this is not a period of “darkness”.

Moving outward from the familial bands there is more darkness interspersed with white light. The white represents increasing enlightenment. The outer bands are the spirit world where there is no darkness. Only light.

The white line from the center of the basket to the outer rim is there to remind you that no matter how much darkness you encounter in your world, there is always a pathway to the light.

All that wisdom and life guidance for 12 bucks.

How could I not buy one?

We can use it to hold remotes on the coffee table cube.