Why Breast Cancer Awareness Dreamcatchers?
My business
partner became a single parent to three children when his wife lost her battle with breast cancer in 1998. The Native American dreamcatchers and Mexican
Indian creations she made provided the models and inspiration for much of my early
work. The name, Cyña (pronounced sin'-ya) was something I came up with using a combination of letters from both our names, hers, Cynthia and mine, Donna.
A couple of years into the business venture, we inadvertently discovered that cyna was actually a word. It's the common name for Zizula cyna, a species of indigenous Mexican butterfly. Amazingly coincidental because not only was Cyndi's heritage Hispanic in origin --something that was a significant factor in her life, but also, because it was the name for a butterfly of all things!! A universally accepted symbol of metamorphosis, radical change. More specifically, a metaphor of the journey of a Spirit or Soul ascending the physical plane to return, once again, to its Source.
My own personal experience has convinced me that our spirits do indeed live on after our work here on Earth is done. Therefore I feel relatively certain that this seeming coincidence must have simply been Cyndi's unique way of showing approval of the business endeavor her energy had helped inspire and set in motion.
Cynthia Yanez Gaskins
Devoted wife and mother
1959-1998
