I purchased this box several months back, when I went to Guadalajara for a long weekend. These boxes are everywhere, which is the exact reason I wanted one. They are very symbolic of Mexico but in Vallarta they are more expensive, because they all come from Guadalajara, and therefore have to make the long trek over the mountains. So I figured I’d buy one there in Guadalajara. “When in Rome”. Or something.
“Milagro” means “miracle” in Spanish, and the word could be used to describe what we understand in English to be a “miracle”, but it also describes all the little charms individually nailed into place on this box. They are Milagros too. They are both the manifestation of dreams, and the seeds of dreams. They are the keepers of your secrets, and they are the speakers of those same truths. They’re basically Mexican charms. They can live in tiny bags under your pillow, or they can decorate any number of things in your home.
This is the box from which 10,000 pesos was stolen, the first time my place was robbed last fall. I had just run to the bank, it was rent day tomorrow and I was tired so I just put it there because it would remind me to go pay it when I opened it in the morning. It’s funny how in the aftermath of something so personally violating, you think things like “Oh, I’m glad they didn’t take the box. I love this box”.
The box cost me 250 pesos.
They stole 10,000 pesos.
Anyway.
The last couple of years have taught me to appreciate my things… the things I choose to give a space to in my life. You have to realize that they might be gone when you wake up. It’s happened to me so many times, in so many different ways. You lend it to a friend and never see it again. You turn in the kitchen and bump into your housemate and SPLAT! You entrust a major shipping company with it and it’s found later in a back room, ransacked. For example.
Never forget to commune with your stuff. Remember why you bought it. Clean it. Touch it. Spend time with it. Your people too. You should do the same with them.
Maybe not such personal things.
I digress.
I no longer ever put money in that box, but instead this is where I now store my dog’s poop bags. Yes… this box, the prized Milagro, the keeper of dreams, the teller of truths, now does nothing but store many rolls of poop bags… and it waits all day, watching like a sentinel, to assist in the only way it can now: waste control.
It’s one of my favorite things.
❤
Leave a Reply