Women in a remote Myanmar village wove this basket by hand from pallet strapping and now here it is in an English country garden.
This basket links me with women I’ll never meet and yet I feel connected to them because they created it with their own hands and I’m very happy to have been given it as a present and now treasure it and use it as part of my everyday life. This is a vivid and colourful picture that makes the point beautifully. I don’t know much about these women’s lives and they won’t know me at all, but I want to celebrate this gift today as a symbol of how we are all connected, and to say thank you to them. As we send good wishes out across the world on International Women’s Day it is a day to reflect on how we are all connected. How we think, speak, behave and live our lives ultimately impacts each other’s. It’s quite a thought, and one to take seriously as whatever we do or don’t do echoes round the world and shapes today and the future for one another.