Hello friends! The sun has been shining today here in Vermont and the temperature rose just above freezing. This morning, Batman and I strapped on our snowshoes and trekked out into the woods. You can tell that it’s a “warm” day because my jacket is not zipped up! :-)
I’ve had “Braiding Sweetgrass” in my reading stack for ages. Our book group is reading it this month and I am loving it. I’ve got notes jotted and post it notes sticking out of the pages. Reading it is like taking a long, cool draught of water when you’re really thirsty. Written by Robin Wall Kimmerer, the subtitle is “Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of the Plants”. Perhaps you have already read it?
Reading it is bringing back memories of walking in the woods with my dad and the First Nation wisdom he had gathered over the years. My own appreciation of the natural world has been reignited after a long and isolated COVID winter. Today, I was scavenging birchbark blown down after heavy winds a few weeks back. I do love to work it into some of my projects. I was delighted to find this old tree, sadly near the end of its days, ready to shed some of its bark.
This sweet little bit of birch had flown off and landed in the snow along with a few pine needles and an old leaf. But what were those funny pockmarks in the snow? I looked up, and sure enough, a few maple branches in the tree above have started to drip their sap. I would not have thought to look up, but had just read the chapter “Maple Sugar Moon”.
This dried beech leaf, resting in the snow crystals, caught sparkling by the midday sunshine…just a pause, an exhale, an appreciation for what is. Simple, quiet beauty.
Braiding Sweetgrass is a gem of a book, and in a time when so many of us are looking for hope, this one delivers. The First Nation people have much to teach us about how we walk on this earth. The Thanksgiving Address, or the “Words That Come Before All Else”, sets “gratitude as the highest priority”. I have printed out the text and often sit with these words as I sip my first quiet cup of tea in the morning.
Sending light to you friends, as we lean in to brighter days ahead.