IHM EarthCare Update

Many of us are familiar with Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer, a botanist, indigenous scientist, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, calls plants and animals our oldest teachers who continually offer us gifts and lessons. Only when we can hear the languages of other beings, she notes, will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Now Kimmerer has authored a new book, which in size and appearance has the look of a personal diary and the feel of an intimate journal. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times. The Serviceberry tree is beloved for its fruit, for its medicinal use, and for its white flowers. A calendar plant, its bloom hints of spring and is a sign that the ground has thawed.

Did you know that the Serviceberry, the focus of this new book, resides right here on our IHM Land Plan? The tree distributes its wealth—the gift of its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of the natural community. The Serviceberry tree reminds us that all flourishing is mutual. Kimmerer imagines that if we practiced this gift economy, if we acknowledged that everything we consume is the gift of Mother Earth, we would take better care of what we are given.

At the end of this book, the author announces that advance payments from The Serviceberry, this book about the gift economy of the natural world, will be donated as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice in support of healing land and people. Our EarthCARE committee invites us to consider how we might also reciprocate the gifts of the Earth each in our own way.