April 13, 2025
The land is the source of all goods and services by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“In a traditional Anishinaabe economy, the land is the source of all goods and services, which are distributed in a kind of gift exchange: one life is given in support of another. The focus is on supporting the good of the people, not only an individual. Receiving a gift from the land is coupled to attached responsibilities of sharing, respect, reciprocity, and gratitude of which you will be reminded.
This kind of gratitude is so much more than a polite "thank you." Not an automatic ritual of "manners," but a recognition of indebtedness that can stop you in your tracks-it brings you the realization that your life is nurtured from the body of Mother Earth. With my fingers sticky with berry juice, I'm reminded that my life is contingent upon the lives of others, without whom, I simply would not exist. Water is life, food is life, soil is life - and they become our lives through the paired miracles of photosynthesis and respiration. All that we need to live flows through the land. It is not an empty metaphor that we call her Mother Earth. Food in our mouths is the thread that connects us in a relationship simultaneously spiritual and physical, as our bodies get fed and our spirits nourished by a sense of belonging, which is the most vital of foods.
I have no claim to these berries, and yet here they are in my bucket, a gift.”
The Serviceberry - Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer pgs. 8 - 9
Invitation: “…my life is contingent upon the lives of others...”
Read more about Robin Wall Kimmerer at this (link).
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, April 14th at 4:30 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
We will continue our daily Shared Solitude: Embracing the gift of silence in community offered by our Courageous friend Emily - Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 am ET and Tuesday, Thursday at 3:00 pm ET through April 18th. See details on our Calendar HERE
Learn More About Circles of Courageous Commons HERE
I am clear that I took the land, nature and Mother Earth for granted until I moved to New Mexico where I have been exposed to the reverence of the land from the indigenous people here. The Native American people live in relationship with the land, with nature, with Mother Earth, not in ways that exploit the land. So, this life experience helps me more fully understand this reflection by Robin Wall Kimmerer today.