Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist and author, shares her insights on moving from an economy of scarcity to one rich in gratitude and relationships. She celebrates the joy of picking serviceberries, emphasizing their cultural significance and the deeper themes of reciprocity. Kimmerer critiques modern economic practices, advocating for communal gift economies that foster interdependence and ecological sustainability. Her vision highlights the importance of honoring nature’s gifts to create a flourishing and interconnected community.
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Serviceberry Harvest
Robin Wall Kimmerer describes harvesting serviceberries alongside birds, experiencing a feeling of kinship and abundance.
This abundance inspires reflection on gift economies and gratitude for nature's gifts.
insights INSIGHT
Serviceberry's Significance
The many names for serviceberry highlight its cultural importance, from food and medicine to ecological roles.
Its blooming signals seasonal changes and ecological events like shad running upstream.
insights INSIGHT
Gratitude and Reciprocity
Gratitude creates abundance, leading to taking only what's needed.
Reciprocity involves giving back in return for gifts, strengthening relationships and multiplying benefits.
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about abundance and gratitude in the natural world
Robin Wall Kimmerer
In "The Service Berry," Robin Wall Kimmerer uses the life cycle of the serviceberry plant as a metaphor for rethinking economic systems. The book explores the plant's generosity in providing abundance beyond its own needs, highlighting the concept of reciprocity in nature. Kimmerer contrasts this natural model with human-made economies characterized by overconsumption and hoarding. She advocates for a shift towards a gift economy, emphasizing the importance of sharing and building relationships for well-being and security. The book offers a blend of scientific knowledge and indigenous wisdom, urging readers to reconsider their relationship with the natural world and the economy.
Sacred Economics
Charles Eisenstein
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. The book explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons. Eisenstein considers the personal dimensions of this economic transition and presents a vision that is original yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises of our civilization deepen.
In this episode, we return to one of our most cherished stories: “The Serviceberry,” by Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer. Exploring how we can move away from an economy of scarcity to one rooted in relationship and gratitude, she draws our attention to the gift economies flourishing all around us to affirm that it is entirely within our power to create webs of interdependence outside the market economy. When we find the courage to honor the gifts given by the living world, the outcome, she says, is not only material, but spiritual.
Emergence Magazine Podcast 