Braiding Sweetgrass | 
pick5/5⭐ There are no words to describe how powerful, beautiful, and tightly crafted this book is. I strongly recommend the audiobook narrated by the author. #bookspinbingo #bookspin
No one would doubt that I love my children, & even a quantitative social psychologist would find no fault with my list of loving behaviors:
• nurturing health & well-being
• protection from harm
• encouraging individual growth & development
• desire to be together
• generous sharing of resources
• working together for a common goal
• celebration of shared values
• interdependence
• sacrifice by one for the other
• creation of beauty
⬇
The land loves us back. She loves us with beans and tomatoes, with roasting ears and blackberries and birdsongs. By a shower of gifts and a heavy rain of lessons. She provides for us and teaches us to provide for ourselves. That‘s what good mothers do. ⬇
As I grew to understand the gifts of the earth, I couldn't understand how “love of country“ could omit recognition of the actual country itself. The only promise it requires is to a flag. What of the promises to each other and to the land?
What would it be like to be raised on gratitude, to speak to the natural world as a member of the democracy of species, to raise a pledge of interdependence? ⬇
While expressing gratitude seems innocent enough, it is a revolutionary idea. In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness. The Thanksgiving Address reminds you that you already have everything you need. ⬇
Reading Envy Podcast Episode 237: Reading Goals 2022
Happy birthday to the podcast, born in January 2014! This is 30 minutes of just my voice.
Jenny talks about her reading goals for 2022, starts thinking about Russian novels, and reflects on reading goals for 2021. Next time we'll be back to our regular episodes!
Listen and subscribe:
https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy237
The idea of asking schoolchildren to pledge loyalty to a political system seems exceedingly curious.
[...]
And it‘s not exactly liberty if they force you to say it, is it?
We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put out into the universe will always come back.
We spill over into the world and the world spills over into us.
The young and the old are linked in one long breath, an inhalation that calls for reciprocal exhalation, nourishing the common root from which they both arose. New leaf to old, old to new, mother to daughter—mutuality endures. I am consoled by the lesson of lilies.
Maybe a little breeze came up, maybe a hidden current, or the earth tilting on its axis to slosh the pond, but whatever the invisible hand, my little boat began to rock gently, like a cradle on the water. Held by the hills and rocked by the water, the hand of the breeze against my cheek, I gave myself over to the comfort that came, unbidden.
The tightness of Kimmerer's writing and themes is mind-blowing.
Transformation is not accomplished by tentative wading at the edge.
Ponds grow old, and though I will too, I like the ecological idea of aging as progressive enrichment, rather than progressive loss.
Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021
Jenny asked previous podcast guests to chat about their top reads of the year, whether or not they were published in 2021. Jenny also chimes in with her own obscure categories. Please enjoy hearing from Tina, Tom, Lindy, Trish, Andrew, Kim, Jeff, Elizabeth, Audrey, Scott, Robin, Mina, Emily, Chris, Nadine, and Ross.
Listen and subscribe:
https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy236
In English, we never refer to a member of our family, or indeed to any person, as it. That would be a profound act of disrespect. It robs a person of selfhood and kinship, reducing a person to a mere thing. So it is that in Potawatomi and most other indigenous languages, we use the same words to address the living world as we use for our family. Because they are our family.
Our teacher, Justin Neely, a young man devoted to language revival, explains that while there are several words for thank you, there is no word for please. Food was meant to be shared, no added politeness needed; it was simply a cultural given that one was asking respectfully. The missionaries took this absence as further evidence of crude manners.
That September pairing of purple and gold is lived reciprocity; its wisdom is that the beauty of one is illuminated by the radiance of the other. Science and art, matter and spirit, indigenous knowledge and Western science—can they be goldenrod and asters for each other? When I am in their presence, their beauty asks me for reciprocity, to be the complementary color, to make something beautiful in response.
When I stare too long at the world with science eyes, I see an afterimage of traditional knowledge. Might science and traditional knowledge be purple and yellow to one another, might they be goldenrod and asters?
pickThis was a wonderful look at how science can be enriched by the knowledge of indigenous people. A look at a more reciprocal relationship with plants, animals and our overall environment. Love how eloquently she blends personal recollections and research with facts and native folklore.
pickThank you for the gift of this book @Reggie ! I‘ve taken about 3 months to read it because almost every chapter I had to stop and think for a few days. It‘s truly changed the way I view the natural world - I want to be a participant with it and not a spectator of it. Figuring it out will take some time but I see a way forward now. Again the learnings we get from indigenous cultures are just mind blowingly valuable 🤯 Kimmerer is a genius ⬇️
Strawberries first shaped my view of a world full of gifts simply scattered at your feet. A gift comes to you through no action of your own, free, having moved toward you without your beckoning. It is not a reward; you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it. And yet it appears. Your only role is to be open-eyed and present.
I think I figured out my December TBR! It was hard for me to find seasonally-appropriate books to start with, and then I left too many prompts from popsugar and read harder challenges to the last month 😬 oops!
Tagged book I was very much enjoying before the library took it back, so it‘s the book I‘m most excited to finish next month!
#WinterGames2021 #MistletoeManiacs #BookSpin #BookSpinBingo
1. I plan to read the tagged, plus I'll be listening to something when driving places.
2. Mashed potatoes
#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView
pickThis book weaves together many worlds: natural, mythical, & human, in a beautiful & compelling way. Sharing her knowledge as a scientist, naturalist & Native woman, I was inspired and informed about our world and what we can do to support it for future generations of living things-human and non human. We only have one planet and it is up to us, now, to protect it. I highly recommend this book, it is as gorgeous as it is important. Great on #audio.
Oh, I am going to savor this gentle book.
pickA collection of essays by a person who is both scientist and indigenous, the latter of which is the primary lens used to understand our world. There are many takeaways that move you to do something, namely starting with a hard look at the materialistic worldview of our (dominant) culture. Reverence, gratitude, reciprocity, respect; not just for humans, but every thing, the inanimate included.
Hi friends! I haven‘t posted any reviews because I haven‘t been able to read as much lately. I‘ve been struggling with more frequent bouts of migraines and my son keeps getting sick. Anyway, these are the books I‘m currently reading. Braiding Sweetgrass is an audible book which is great. I‘ve just missed sharing with this community, but am still frequently checking out everyone‘s posts and I‘m still stacking more books to read!
Current audiobook.
I‘m almost halfway through and so very in love with this book. It‘s amazing.
I started reading Braiding Sweetgrass and this passage got me thinking about how we treat gifting. The passage is about so much more than just gifts, but in light of the supply chain problems as we enter the holiday season, it stood out for me today as a reminder of what a gift really is about: "a feeling-bond between two people."
pickLoving this audiobook so very much. Almost finished Eliot‘s sweater & the book 📖 daydreaming what to cast on & listen to next! #knittersoflitsy #knitting #audioknit
#wondrouswednesday
No, but I have plans to start a journal.
It‘s been okay. I‘ve finished 5 books so far.
Grateful: my children, good weather, great pets, good books
The time has come for my IRL Book Club to begin choosing titles for next year. There are 6 of us, so we each get to choose two. I know that one of my picks will be Braiding Sweetgrass (I‘ve been meaning to read it for so long)…but what should the other be?
Which of these titles would you most want to discuss with a book club? Which would you drop?
*I‘d also consider The Need by Helen Phillips in lieu of Nightbitch.
As my 3 year old screams “mommy, I need a hug!!” from her bedroom after hours of bedtime sweetness and trying to teach more sleep independence. Reading this passage cut to the core 💔
pickThis demands slow reading, you need time to savour sentences, reflect on wisdom, examine your own thinking / ideals & ponder an alternative narrative that might feel different from your own. The book hit some dramatic highs - when I fed hungrily on her wisdom and ability to use story to change my point of view. At times I wanted to step away from her voice and challenge some of her choices, but that's good if a book gets you to that point, right?!
pickI had expected this book to be narrative nonfiction, but it reads as a collection of essays. Some of the essays are more engaging than others, and the book is slow-paced and contemplative. This is a good thing because Kimmerer gives her readers much to think about as she explains the natural world.
Trying to relax in the bath with my book … this buddy would rather I blew bubbles for him to chase! 🤣
It‘s not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. 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.
pickIt‘s difficult to do this book justice with words, it‘s just simply beautiful. Part science, nature, essays and spirituality, it really is something to be savoured. We should all practice gratitude for the wonder that is nature and look after Mother Earth 🌎
pickWhat a magical book. An indigenous woman who has studied botany and has a PhD in ecology, she tells tales and stories about the land and plants and peoples relationships with them through the eyes of an indigenous person. It was haunting and hopeful, beautiful and totally grounding. I feel like it was the perfect time for me to come across this book
“One story leads to the generous embrace of the living world, the other to banishment. One woman is our ancestral gardener, a cocreator of the good green world that would be the home of her descendants. The other was an exile, just passing through an alien world on a rough road to her real home in heaven. And then they met-the offspring of Skywoman and the children of Eve-and the land around us bears the scars of that meeting”
Our very lovely neighbours dropped by this afternoon with some blackberries from their garden. This is such a ‘gift‘ from nature that ties beautifully with the chapters I‘m reading from this book about really thinking about a gift economy and it‘s impact on our wants and desires. Of course I had to tell my neighbour about the book!
How to get out of a reading slump…..
1- Have your very good reading buddy chose you a damn good book
2- Read a section a week then look forward to a Sunday catch up together to share ideas, thoughts and hopes for the future
Love you @Chrissyreadit
My two next reads…braiding sweetgrass and Pine.
This bit about Onondaga Lake is more interesting to me than some of the rest because restorative ecology is a fascinating idea. I don't know if I agree that native plants have to be the ones to put back in an area; sometimes the area has changed so much over time that it would be better to use plants adapted for that. There's no guarantee you can get the land to be the same as it was before.
Still plodding along with this. I'm trying to take it for what it is -- and there are parts that have more scientific underpinnings -- but it really strikes me as more of a biography than really linking indigenous wisdom with science all that much. I'd hoped for a bit more.
I was really hoping for a lot more of the scientific side of Kimmerer's knowledge. This is really a memoir, in many ways, and one which deeply romanticises indigenous life. Which is not a bad thing if that's what you're looking for, but I wasn't, so I'm still struggling with engaging with it.
I'm struggling a little with this. I'm a scientist, and though I'm not a botanist, I know the scientific world she's talking about... and I've never had much connection with growing things. It doesn't help that she's writing about very North American landscapes and ecologies, rather than British landscapes I would be more likely to recognise. For right now, it feels a little sentimental to me, I guess, though that's not quite the right word.
