Robin Wall Kimmerer

Quotes

1. Reciprocity helps resolve the moral tension of taking a life by giving in return something of value that sustains the ones who sustain us. One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.

   p. 190

2. 

   Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.

   p. 124

3. 

   If we allow traditions to die, relationships to fade, the land will suffer.

   p. 166

4. 

   Much of what fills our mouths is taken forcibly from the earth. That form of taking does no honor to the farmer, to the plants, or to the disappearing soil. It’s hard to recognize food that is mummified in plastic, bought and sold, as a gift anymore. Everybody knows you can't buy love. In a garden, food arises from partnership. If I don’t pick rocks and pull weeds, I'm not fulfilling my end of the bargain. I can do these things with my handy opposable thumb and capacity to use tools, to shovel manure. But I can no more create a tomato or embroider a trellis in beans than I can turn lead into gold. That is the plants' responsibility and their gift: animating the inanimate. Now there is a gift.

   p. 126

5. 

   For me, writing is an act of reciprocity with the world; it is what I can give back in return for everything that has been given to me.

   p. 152

6. 

   Through reciprocity the gift is replenished. All of our flourishing is mutual.

   p. 166

7. 

   How do we show our children our love? Each in our own way by a shower of gifts and a heavy rain of lessons.

   p. 122

8. 

   Respect one another, support one another, bring your gift to the world and receive the gifts of others, and there will be enough for all.

   p. 132

9. 

   To become indigenous is to grow the circle of healing to include all of Creation.

   p. 211

10. 

    We are all the product of our worldviews—even scientists who claim pure objectivity.

    p. 163

11. 

    Being a citizen does mean sharing in the support of your community.

    p. 168

12. 

    This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.

    p. 122