The Whole Basket
I have been reading a book— Braiding Sweetgrass —loaned to me by a dear friend who said that she thought I would appreciate it. She was right. It contains some of the most beautiful and poetic non-fiction writing I have read in a long time. Each chapter is like a lovely gift to unwrap. In a recent chapter, I was struck by the description of weaving a basket because it reminded me of work that I have been involved with for the past three years with a non-profit organization in Morocco. As I read about the process and the lessons learned from the process of basket weaving, I thought of the Moroccan farmers, the land, the planting of fruit trees, and the sustainable economic development of communities. The author describes the challenges of starting a basket: “The first two rows of the basket are the hardest. On the first go-round, the splint seems to have a will of its own and wants to wander from the over-under rhythm around the circle. It resists the pattern and looks all loose a