#braidingsweetgrass

📖 Braiding Sweetgrass

“They look like they’re trying to remember what it would be like to love the world.”

Dr. Kimmerer tells the story of Cascade Head, where there existed a cycle reciprocity between the people, grasses, salmon, and fire. Today, Cascade Head exists as a biosphere reserve, where regular tourists look out and mostly see the opportunity for a pretty picture, if that. 🏔️

Growing up surrounded by social media, it can take a lot of energy to retrain your brain from being centered purely on aesthetic, but it is important to appreciate the land and the meaning it already holds, instead of just projecting our own ideas onto it. 🤳

The tourism industry, for example, would be very different if it was less focused on pretty pictures and convenient beach access, and more on the form and function that our personhood takes in relationship with the land. 🌿

📖 Planting Sweetgrass, pages 1-60

The past year has been full of more alone time than expected, and it can often feel like we are simply waiting on better days to arrive—days when we can visit with friends and family without worry.

Dr. Kimmerer teaches us how pecans participate in mast fruiting, meaning some years they produce no seeds, and other years they produce thousands upon thousands of seeds. 🌱

Over generations, pecans thrive off this way of living. In lean years, they take in carbohydrates and store energy. In fruiting years, they put forth that stored energy and flower together all at once. “All flourishing is mutual.”

📖 Epilogue

"How do we refill the empty bowl? Is gratitude alone enough? Berries teach us otherwise. ... We need the berries and the berries need us. Their gifts multiply by our care for them, and dwindle from our neglect."

A plant in a garden will only flower under the right conditions—good soil, consistent watering and sunlight, etc. In order to enjoy the flowers, the gardener must ensure that the environment is kept healthy and strong 💐

Likewise, in order to enjoy the earth or even the berries that grow on it, we must ensure that the environment of the world is kept in good condition. The berries are just one small example of the importance of this relationship of reciprocity 🍓

📖 Planting Sweetgrass, pages 1-60

“It was the bees that showed me how to move between [asters and goldenrod]—to drink the nectar and gather pollen from both. It is this dance of cross-pollination that can produce a new species of knowledge, a new way of being in the world.“ - #RobinWallKimmerer 📝

Your internal and external world, where you’re from and where you are now, cultural and Western scientific knowledge—our lives are full of seemingly contradictory pairings. But are they contradictory, or complementary? 🌱

Engaging in the "dance of cross-pollination" may take time and energy before it begins to feel natural. However, certain outcomes are only possible by using these complementary pairings side by side. 🐝

Just like #asters and #goldenrod, all of us living in between places, concepts, or identifies, have the opportunity to benefit from the complementary values we hold. 🎭