# Quote — Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

> gift economies arise from the abundance of gifts from the Earth, which are owned by no one and therefore shared. Sharing engenders relationships of goodwill and bonds that ensure you will be invited to the feast when your neighbor is fortunate. Security is ensured by nurturing the bonds of reciprocity. You can store meat in your own pantry or in the belly of your brother. Both have the result of keeping hunger at bay but with very different consequences for the people and for the land which provided that sustenance.

- Author: [Robin Wall Kimmerer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer.md)
- Book: [The Serviceberry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#The_Serviceberry:_Abundance_and_Reciprocity_in_the_Natural_World_(2024)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry/gift-economies-arise

## More from this book

> Regenerative economies that reciprocate the gift are the only path forward. To replenish the possibility of mutual flourishing, for birds and berries and people, we need an economy that shares the gifts of the Earth, following the lead of our oldest teachers, the plants. They invite us all into the circle to give our human gifts in return for all we are given. How will we answer?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry/regenerative-economies-that.md)

> If the Sun is the source of flow in the economy of nature, what is the "Sun" of a human gift economy, the source that constantly replenishes the flow of gifts? Maybe it is love.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry/if-the-sun.md)

> There is no formula complex enough to hold the birthplace of stories.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/the-serviceberry/there-is-no-formula.md)