Burden Baskets
Hold a glass of water. That is not tough. Hold it for a minute and you start to feel it.
That is what our burdens are like. We were not meant to keep holding them.
We must understand that we need to lay our burdens down and rest before picking them up again. We could share the cup and take turns holding it for each other. Another thing we could do is simply refuse to take it in the first place. We often take them, even if we are not thirsty.
Burdens are a normal part of life here on earth but we need to know when to refuse burdens others try to put on us. We need to share them. We need to rest when our burdens are heavy.
Just think, if you held them for an hour. Your arms would be so cramped you could not stand it. If you held them a day, we would have to call an ambulance or the psyche ward.
We think we can carry burdens forever and not pay a price. Also, others will come into our personal space, our homes, our places of work, and bring us all their burdens to hold, over and over again. We all know those kinds of people, our chaos makers.
I made a simple basket, covered it with leather and added a sprig of sage, tobacco and sweet grass inside it. I put a can of stones, shells, plant materials, and tobacco beside it and attached a note to the basket: “Please, take a symbol of the burdens you carry today and put it in this basket before you enter my personal space. The medicine will take care of them and I will bury burdens in the basket when it is full. Thank you for respecting my peace!”
Don’t carry other’s burdens while you carry your own. The apache women knew about Burden Baskets. They carried huge woven baskets on their back to gather food, wood, herbs and other things that would fit in their baskets. Along the day, they would pick up a stone, a shell, a leaf, or something they found to represent their psychological burdens. They were tired and burdened with every day things. They placed a small woven basket at the opening of their homes. That was the original Burden Baskets. Before they entered their homes, they laid their physical burdens down and put the symbolic representative of their inner burdens in the basket by their door. It reminded her and others that she had carried enough burdens for the day and to respect her peaceful place, her home.
Consider how you can adopt this tradition, both symbolically and personally. Respect your life and your burdens to know when to lay them down, when to refuse them, and when to pick them up again, if needs be. Take peace where you can find it, where you can make it, and refuse to carry others when it is time for them to put them down.
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