{"id":3476777,"date":"2019-04-30T11:57:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T11:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/?p=3476777"},"modified":"2019-04-30T11:57:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T11:57:46","slug":"flowers-of-the-food-forest-reciprocity-and-the-obligation-of-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2019-04-30\/flowers-of-the-food-forest-reciprocity-and-the-obligation-of-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Flowers of the Food Forest: Reciprocity and the Obligation of Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cAction on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.\u201d — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Giving<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was born into the time of Giving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It is a Giving, of course,<\/p>\n

That is not new,<\/p>\n

But that has existed since the dawn of time;<\/p>\n

Heaved up from below,<\/p>\n

Raining down from above,<\/p>\n

And slipping like ribbons<\/p>\n

across the face of the Land;<\/p>\n

Restless, churning, cycling;<\/p>\n

Sometimes terrifying, always beautiful;<\/p>\n

Always giving.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The air<\/p>\n

The rocks<\/p>\n

The waters<\/p>\n

The creatures<\/p>\n

The sunlight<\/p>\n

All gifts<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But all limited<\/p>\n

By the tempo of the cycles,<\/p>\n

By the beat of the songs<\/p>\n

Played by the ancient musicians<\/p>\n

From the beginning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Taking<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

But I was also born into the time of Taking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This Taking, of course,<\/p>\n

Though far younger than the Giving,<\/p>\n

Was not new to my species.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it had been accelerated,<\/p>\n

Refined, focused,<\/p>\n

Sharpened, organized,<\/p>\n

Quantified, optimized,<\/p>\n

Monetized, rationalized,<\/p>\n

and rendered so toxic<\/p>\n

That all its yellow eyes fell upon<\/p>\n

(Which was much and then most)<\/p>\n

Withered and blew away<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was a Taking framed as holy religion,<\/p>\n

Masterminded by dispassionate science,<\/p>\n

Engineered with adroit technology,<\/p>\n

Powered by ancient sunlight,<\/p>\n

Defended with card tricks and hell-fire,<\/p>\n

And inspired by both the crushing sadness<\/p>\n

And blinding selfishness of a suicide.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And for what purpose, this Taking?<\/p>\n

Alas (alas!), it sought,<\/p>\n

as its ultimate and baffling goal,<\/p>\n

the reduction of a miracle<\/p>\n

To blendered entropy;<\/p>\n

A spark of magic at the cost<\/p>\n

Of the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And now, fifty years later,<\/p>\n

This Taking,<\/p>\n

Metastasized and overgrown,<\/p>\n

Has diminished<\/p>\n

Not just the songs of the present,<\/p>\n

And not just the songs of the future,<\/p>\n

But now even the songs of very distant future;<\/p>\n

A scale of time as unimaginable to our minds,<\/p>\n

as forever.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the Taking<\/p>\n

Into which I was born,<\/p>\n

And to which I have served.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Obligation of Gifts<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

So now what?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now that we have reached<\/p>\n

The endgame,<\/p>\n

When the songs of the Giving<\/p>\n

Are becoming softer<\/p>\n

And sometimes falling out of tune,<\/p>\n

And instruments are dropping out<\/p>\n

One by one,<\/p>\n

And even the ends of these songs entirely<\/p>\n

Are imaginable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are we to do now?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the songs are not gone yet.<\/p>\n

And we are still here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And now,<\/p>\n

As we still breathe,<\/p>\n

And we still see and feel,<\/p>\n

And hear and taste,<\/p>\n

And we still have hands,<\/p>\n

And we still have voices,<\/p>\n

And we can still laugh and cry and love,<\/p>\n

We can do,<\/p>\n

Once again,<\/p>\n

What is the right thing to do<\/p>\n

When given these gifts,<\/p>\n

Or any gift:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We can<\/p>\n

Say thank you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And we can acknowledge<\/p>\n

That these are indeed<\/p>\n

Gifts<\/p>\n

That we have been,<\/p>\n

And are continuing to be,<\/p>\n

Given.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And we can treasure the gifts,<\/p>\n

Even the smallest,<\/p>\n

And treat them with the respect<\/p>\n

And love<\/p>\n

That all gifts deserve.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And we can nurture the upwelling desire<\/p>\n

To repay these gifts<\/p>\n

In whatever way we can.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And we can trust that<\/p>\n

What we give back<\/p>\n

To those we love<\/p>\n

Will always be returned to us<\/p>\n

In some way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flowers of the Food Forest<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So on an April morning,<\/p>\n

Birdsong ringing out,<\/p>\n

The ground wet with dew,<\/p>\n

I sink a shovel into the damp soil<\/p>\n

And plant another tree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And I upright one from last year<\/p>\n

that has fallen over in the Winter,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And I start seeds<\/p>\n

For those that I will plant next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And I visit a sour cherry,<\/p>\n

Planted fifteen years ago,<\/p>\n

And now in full, glorious bloom<\/p>\n

(That may perhaps avoid the frosts this year).<\/p>\n

And I stand in awe,<\/p>\n

With an upwelling of love<\/p>\n

And thankfulness,<\/p>\n

For these gifts,<\/p>\n

For all these beautiful gifts<\/p>\n

We are given.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAction on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128238,"featured_media":3476794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213522,79718,79719,213531],"tags":[213715,97885,94248],"class_list":["post-3476777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-environment","category-foodwater","category-food-water-featured","tag-building-resilient-food-and-farming-systems","tag-foodforest","tag-gifteconomy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3476777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3476794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3476777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3476777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3476777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}