Emily’s Reviews > Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants > Status Update
Emily
is on page 337 of 408
We may not have wings or leaves, but we humans do have words.
Language is our gift and our responsibility. I've come to think of writing as an act of reciprocity with the living land. Words to remember old stories, words to tell new ones, stories that bring science and spirit back together to nurture our becoming people made of corn.
— Jul 23, 2023 12:13PM
Language is our gift and our responsibility. I've come to think of writing as an act of reciprocity with the living land. Words to remember old stories, words to tell new ones, stories that bring science and spirit back together to nurture our becoming people made of corn.
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Emily’s Previous Updates
Emily
is on page 374 of 408
The earth gives away for free the power of wind and sun and water, but instead we break open the earth to take fossil fuels. Had we taken only that which is given to us, had we reciprocated the gift, we would not have to fear our own atmosphere today.
— Jul 23, 2023 06:10PM
Emily
is on page 318 of 408
Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair.
Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.
— Jul 23, 2023 06:09AM
Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.
Emily
is on page 299 of 408
We are all complicit. We've allowed the "market" to define what we value so that the redefined common good seems to depend on profligate lifestyles that enrich the sellers while impoverishing the soul and the earth.
— Jul 22, 2023 03:35PM
Emily
is starting
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.
— Jul 22, 2023 03:18PM
Emily
is on page 287 of 408
If there is meaning in the past and in the imagined future, it is captured in the moment. When you have all the time in the world, you can spend it, not on going somewhere, but on being where you are. So I stretch out, close my eyes, and listen to the rain.
— Jul 22, 2023 03:16PM
Emily
is on page 264 of 408
When times are easy and there's plenty to go around, individual species can go it alone. But when conditions are harsh and life is tenuous, it takes a team sworn to reciprocity to keep life going forward. In a world of scarcity, interconnection and mutual aid become critical for survival.
So say the lichens.
— Jul 19, 2023 04:24PM
So say the lichens.
Emily
is on page 244 of 408
Doing science with awe and humility is a powerful act of reciprocity with the more-than-human world.
— Jul 18, 2023 06:40PM
Emily
is on page 185 of 408
…sustain us. One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways o enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, sci-ence, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.
— Jul 15, 2023 06:43AM
Emily
is on page 184 of 408
The Honorable Harvest asks us to give back, in reciprocity, for what we have been given. Reciprocity helps resolve the moral tension of taking a life by giving in return something of value that sustains the ones who…
— Jul 15, 2023 06:42AM
Emily
is on page 174 of 408
Cautionary stories of the consequences of taking too much are ubiquitous in Native cultures, but it's hard to recall a single one in English.
Perhaps this helps to explain why we seem to be caught in a trap of over-consumption, which is as destructive to ourselves as to those we consume.
— Jul 15, 2023 06:00AM
Perhaps this helps to explain why we seem to be caught in a trap of over-consumption, which is as destructive to ourselves as to those we consume.
