Learn from everything

Braiding Sweetgrass

This is a must read book by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s available “everywhere” including as an audiobook rentable through most any public library. Would love to hear your thoughts. Here are my ruminations.

The indigenous human population of every land has much to teach those who follow. Moreover all elements of any place, animate and inanimate alike, have wisdom to share. Humans are one of the most recent species in this world (at least that we’ve discovered so far) which actually makes us the least knowledgable, although we seem to boast the title “most intelligent”. What we should be is the most curious about what we have to learn and we should approach the development of this curiosity with great care and responsibility toward our teachers - the land, air, water, and all creatures and contents thereof.

In our current state of “instantaneous acquisition and satisfaction” we miss the immense growth and enrichment of thoughtful observation and imaginative analysis. The plants, other animals, rocks, earth, rivers, oceans, creeks, mountains, valleys, plains, etc. do not share their wisdom on “Google” (thanks goodness) as they do not speak in human tongues. Nonetheless all elements communicate and interact. We, humans, need to slow down and pay attention, we have so much to learn.