Braiding Sweetgrass Musings: Wisdom to Live in Reciprocity With Nature
“What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and there was something difficult you needed to say? Wouldn’t you dance it? Wouldn’t you act it out? Wouldn’t your every moment tell the story? In time you would become so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all. And so it is with these silent green lives. A sculpture is just a piece of rock with topography hammered out and chiseled in, but that piece of rock can open your heart in a way that makes you different for having seen it. It brings its message without a single world. Not everyone will get it, though; the language of stone is difficult. Rock mumbles. But plants speak in a tongue that every breathing thing can understand. Plants teach in a universal language- food.”
I’ve been making my way slowly through Braiding Sweetgrass, where author, ecological scientist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves indigenous wisdom about the beauty and intelligence of nature with modern ecological science to emphasize the importance of reciprocity with nature. This powerful book left me feeling inspired, grateful, awed and humbled by nature. Perhaps you too will be left with a deeper reverence of mother nature and how while the earth is always supporting, nourishing, and guiding us, and how we may in turn offer it our care and support in big and small ways.
Here are several ideas in the book that touched me:
Seeing and treating plants as dynamic and intelligent beings worthy of respect and care, and the ancient & widespread concept of Animism,a relational worldview that sees the world as an interconnected web of being and attributes a spiritual essence to all things (animals, plants, weather, & human creations). I now see and experience nature differently. On my walks I now smile hello to the trees. I thank the grove at the clearing I often visit. I perceive that branch that has leaned down as greeting me. I appreciate them for letting me sit there and sharing their shade. My experience is more connected, rich and intentional. I feel less alone, and in the presence of a web of companionship. How might you experience the natural world differently if you too considered trees as beings- with a way of being & language all of their own?
Plants and trees are able to talk to one another. They communicate via pheromones, hormonelike compounds that are wafted on the breeze,and act as chemical messengers. Trees can release the compounds and alert other trees to insect attacks, so those trees can then create defensive chemicals. Robin Wall Kimmerer refers to research that shows trees receive signals from subterranean networks of mycorrhizae, fungal strands that inhabit tree roots and support redistribute the wealth of carbohydrates equally from tree to tree. The mycorrhizae form fungal bridges between individual trees; Connecting all trees in the forest ensures they arrive at the same carbon surplus at the same time. They naturally weave a web of reciprocity, of giving and taking, and act as one. Through unifying, they survive and demonstrate when we work together, we flourish together.
Recent research has discovered that the scent of humus causes humans to release oxytocin. Usually, this hormone strengthens the bond between the closest people, like mother and child. Why do our brains react to humus this way? This indicates that we are inextricably linked to be in relationship with the environment.
Research showed that sweetgrass which was pulled out and harvested by humans actually grew back more plentiful and abundant, not more scarce. The majority of scientists believed human interaction would hinder growth. In fact, the opposite was true. The uprooting and shaking of the soil resulted in key nutrients being more evenly distributed. Nature offers us generous gifts to eat, cherish, and savor and is oriented towards being in reciprocal relationship. Plants desire thoughtful human contact and connection. This also mirrors how people, being OF nature, also experience uncomfortable endings, uprooting and even death, necessary in the cycle of life for expansion and growth to happen. Many of the caregivers I work with naturally become upset and worried seeing their kids experience anxiety or fear before new situations. Often the situations are challenging, but completely safe, and necessary for kids to experience their capacity, resilience and fulfillment. As in a painful breakup or other loss, suffering is inevitable- but discomfort faced with courage and compassion is often a signal that meaningful shifts are about to happen. Life follows death. Spring follows winter. Transformation follows destruction. Robin Wall Kimmerer says “the most vigorous stands are the ones tended by basket makers. Reciprocity is key to success. When the sweetgrass is cared for and treated with respect, it will flourish, but if the relationship fails, so does the plant.”
The author describes her practice of intuitively gathering plants, and listening to their responses to sense if it’s okay to pick and harvest them. Do they desire to be picked? This means connecting intuitively to felt responses in the body. Perhaps there’s a pulling back, a felt sense of restriction or closing in. Perhaps there’s an openness and warmth. Plants communicate in subtle arenas and energetically, and so too does our body. What are our energetic responses to plants? What herbs are we intuitively drawn to, or repelled by- by their scent, appearance, or other element? I have found that often we are drawn to the medicine we need-even if it doesn’t taste very good. We organically move towards healing and wholeness. I’ve become more curious exploring my relationship to individual plants and to herbs. I allow my intuitive connection to herbs to guide my selection and crafting of my afternoon loose leaf tea. My love of yarrow in particular deserves its own post.
Trees’ roots expand below the earth to the distance of their branches, holding us in a strong web of subterranean support. We are always being held from below and shielded from above. Trees blanket us in care. This makes me think about the trees of our lungs. Now when I walk, I imagine a dense network of roots below my feet. When I meditate or do Yoga Nidra, I imagine the vast network of veins and arteries in my blood are mirroring the lifegiving network of tree branches.
In one instance the author becomes caught in a rain shower. She describes the initial impulse and tension to find shelter, then surrendering to the rain. In doing so, she senses the essence of rain and feels the potent wholeness of the experience. She asks “what if time was measured in rain drops?” Sitting inside the elements she chooses to be exposed, saying “There is no substitute for standing in the rain to waken every sense-senses that are muted within four walls, where my attention would be on me instead of all that is more than me…..I don’t want to be a bystander to rain, passive and protected; I want to be part of the downpour, to be soaked, along with the dark humus that squishes underfoot. I wish that I could stand like a shaggy cedar with rain seeping into my bark, that water could dissolve the barrier between us. I want to feel what the cedars feel and know what they know.” In this moment she chooses depth and fullness over being shielded from discomfort. She invites us to consider how being in nature draws us into a deeper mindful presence just by being saturated in senses, and what if we choose to notice and attend to them.
Nature invites us into our bodies and into the moment. We cannot ignore the cool breeze on our skin, the wet raindrops on our face, the pesky mosquito. We are called into the moment’s essence- purely, dramatically, even when we don’t want it. When we are embodied in the present moment, we are closest to our highest selves, the self before and under conditioning and expectations and hardships. It is by being connected to our bodies and the present moment where we can connect to our truth,our gifts, our soul’s calling and nature offers a vehicle for this potential enlightenment. The lesson is also that discomfort can bring beauty if we resist our urge to avoid it and learn to be with it.
8. Nature is our mirror. We are of nature. When we are lost we can look to nature to lead us, when we are untethered, we can receive nature’s support. How can I, how can we, ensure we are giving as much as receiving? Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized that by mindfully walking and noticing each and every step we become more connected to nature. In this present moment, when distilled to the utmost simplicity of a step, a breathe, nature, we are reminded we are alive and have all we need. I have been reflecting on whether my energy towards nature is extracting or reciprocal and caring. How might we trace our daily choices far back to their origins and impact on nature? This one feels big and is an area I am still examining, particularly around online consumerism. We’ve become so disconnected from how our choices impact nature, but that packaging that new dress I purchased came in was indeed part of a tree, a tree that tried to protect its neighbors, and that would make me feel content in its shade if it had not been cut down.
9. In nature, there exists teamwork and layers of reciprocity. The three sisters, beans, corn, which usually grow together have evolutionarily adapted to nurture each other like family and demonstrate the importance of unique gifts being shared. The beans convert nitrogen into nitrates which fertilizes the soil for the corn and squash. In turn, the corn offers them support to wind up their corn stalks, while the squash’s big leaves provide ground cover and prevent weeds from growing. They thrive better when together versus alone. Plants grow in a way that ensures the flourishing of the group, not just the individual. It’s important that individuals share their unique gifts with one another, which lifts the whole group up. I so often see comparison rob my clients (and myself!) of joy. What if we celebrated and honored each person’s unique gifts, perceiving them not as threats but as complimentary supports to our own authentic life purpose. I’ve been feeling a calling to collaborate with other healers more, and to support wisdom exchange in groups. Thank you sisters for the nudge.
10. Basket weaving and art therapy- there’s the potential for healing and renewal in the process of giving new life and form to something. The act of creation mirrors our own journeys to wholeness in life. “The marvel of a basket is in its transformation, its journey from wholeness as a living plant to fragmented strands and back to wholeness again as a basket. A basket knows the dual powers of destruction and creation that shape the world. Strands once separated are rewoven into a new whole. The journey of a basket is also the journey of the people.”
11.Gratitude. Perhaps the most powerful and beautiful sharing was the Thanksgiving Address prayer that is known in the onondaga language as the Words That Come before All Else. My Ayurveda Teacher Katie Silcox actually shared this prayer to begin my 2-year training. This prayer honors and appreciates all parts of life and the natural world that sustain and nourish us, carrying the potential to shift our Western culture’s often casual and removed attitude to the land to be one of deep respect, reverence and appreciation. What if instead of the pledge of allegiance we took time to honor and express gratitude for the abundance of the land we live on, its elements and rhythms? The gift of water that flows within us tying us to nature’s tides, fire’s potential that burns in our hearts, which transforms our food’s nutrients and stimulates our intellect, the earth’s solidness which offers stability, strength and nourishment, and air which provides life for all beings, trees & humans alike. There are nature’s cycles which remind us of the temporary nature of all things and that expansion follows contraction, that periods of creative renewal and spring follow periods of quiet winter and solitude. Nature’s animals, whose companionship, playfulness, resilience, and indulging in simple pleasures including rest, teach us abundant lessons. There is so much natural beauty & abundance that nourishes our bodies, enlivens our spirits and enriches our lives; how might this intentional awareness contribute to desires to protect and nourish in return?
Magical Quotes:
“Paying attention acknowledges that we have something to learn from intelligences other than our own. Listening, standing witness, creates an openness to the world in which the boundaries between us can dissolve in a raindrop.”
“Scarcity and plenty are as much qualities of the mind and spirit as they are of the economy. Gratitude plants the seeds for abundance.”
“Our indigenous herbalists say to pay attention when plants come to you; they’re bringing you something you need to learn.”
“One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.”
