Braiding Sweetgrass

It took me years to finally finish this one. I would start it. Then stop. Just knowing I was not in the right head space. In all I’ve read it in bits and spurts over the course of the last seven months.

Nature writing cannot be consumed quickly, at least not for me. I always have to slow down. I absolutely loved this one and I’m so glad I took my time with it. I loved the writing. It almost felt like you were there with her, bending down and REALLY looking at nature. Observing slowly. Not rushing.

I’m afraid we still have not heeded Kimmerers message. In one essay she writes how she was evacuated for one night due to a gas explosion at a nearby factory. Her warning loud and clear. And one I’m sadly too familiar with.

There are no words that can quite encapsulate what it’s like to leave home suddenly, and never return because it’s reduced to ash. My story is not unique and in the coming years and decades it’ll become more common than we all think.

It’s never too late to slow down and listen to the world around us. How can I participate in the Honorable Harvest? How can I express my gratitude to the Earth?

Thank you for this gift Robin Wall Kimmerer. I will return to it always. Favorite essays include: a Mother’s Work, The Three Sisters, The Honorable Harvest, Old Growth Children, The Sacred and the Superfund, Collateral Damage, and Defeating the Windigo.

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