Read the collection of some 45 Quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass in English and we are thankful that you are reading this blog post. Bookmark this page/website so you can read more quotes and captions from us. Love and peace for all and we are actively uploading best quotes content for you guys and we need your love and support.
45 Quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass
The trees act collectively rather than individually. We don’t know exactly how they do this. But we see the power of unity. What happens to one affects us all. We can starve or feast together.
Modern capitalist societies, however wealthy, are dedicated to the concept of scarcity. The first principle of the world’s wealthiest peoples is an insufficient supply of economic resources.
Every person, whether human or not, is in a reciprocal relationship with everyone else. All beings owe me a duty, and I owe them one as well. If an animal sacrifices its life to feed me, I am obligated to support its life. If I accept a stream’s gift of pure water, I am responsible for returning a gift in kind. Knowing those responsibilities and how to carry them out is an important part of a person’s education.
Never take the first plant you come across, as it could be the last—and you want that first one to speak well of you to the others of her kind.
The land is the true teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.
Something is broken when the food arrives on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a creature whose only chance at life was a cramped cage. That is not a gift of life; rather, it is a theft.
I want to stand by the river in my best dress. I want to sing loudly and proudly, and stomp my feet alongside a hundred others, so that the waters hum with our joy. I want to dance to bring about global renewal.
We are showered with gifts every day, but they are not intended for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, in the inhalation and exhalation of our shared breath. Our work and joy is to pass on the gift and to believe that whatever we put out into the universe will always return.
All powers have two sides: the ability to create and destroy. We must acknowledge both, but place our gifts on the side of creation.
Quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass
One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that randomness does not exist. Everything is infused with meaning, coloured by relationships that connect one thing to another.
According to native scholar Greg Cajete, in indigenous ways of knowing, we understand something only when we understand it with all four aspects of our being: mind, body, emotions, and spirit. When I began my scientific training, I quickly realized that science favors only one, possibly two, of those modes of knowing: mind and body. As a young person eager to learn everything about plants, I didn’t question this. But it is the entire human being who discovers the beautiful path.
We carry our babies in internal ponds until they emerge into the world on a wave of water. It is our responsibility to protect the water for all of our relations.
Doesn’t this imply that speaking and thinking in English allows us to disrespect nature? Denying everyone else the right to be a person? Wouldn’t things be different if there was no “it”?
What we are discussing here is more than just ecological restoration; it is the restoration of the relationship between plants and people. Scientists have made progress in understanding how to reassemble ecosystems, but our experiments focus solely on soil pH and hydrology—matter—at the expense of spirit. We might look to the Thanksgiving Address for advice on how to combine the two. We envision a time when the land will express gratitude to the people.
Trees talk in the wind.
Rivers keep Earth’s secrets.
Not only is the land broken, but so is our relationship with it.
If time could be reversed, as in a film, we would see this mess reassemble into lush green hills and moss-covered limestone ledges. The streams would flow back up the hills to the springs, leaving the salt glittering in underground rooms.
Quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass
The earth, which sustains us, is being destroyed to fuel injustice. An economy in which corporations have personhood but non-human beings do not.
Kindness helps us grow.
Find peace in the forest.
The earth, which sustains us, is being destroyed to fuel injustice. An economy in which corporations have personhood but non-human beings do not.
How poor will we become if the entire world is a commodity? How wealthy can you become when the entire world is a gift in motion?
Gardens are talks between soil and us.
I’m wondering if much of what ails our society stems from the fact that we’ve allowed ourselves to be cut off from our love of and connection to the land. It is medicine for a broken land and empty hearts.
Ruined land was accepted as collateral damage to progress.
The most important thing each of us can understand is our unique gift and how to apply it in the world. Individuality is valued and nurtured because, in order for the whole to thrive, each of us must be confident in our identities and carry our gifts with conviction so that they can be shared with others.
Quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass
Learn from nature, like a smart friend.
Plants tell stories with their leaves.
Thankfulness makes us happy.
Ecology is derived from the Greek word oikos, which means home.
For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place entails living as if your children’s future was important, and caring for the land as if our material and spiritual lives depended on it.
Perhaps there is no such thing as rain, only raindrops, each with their own story.
How generously they shower us with food, literally giving themselves to ensure our survival. However, by giving, they ensure their own survival. Our taking benefits them in the circle of life that creates life, the chain of reciprocity. Living by the Honorable Harvest principles: taking only what is given, using it wisely, being grateful for the gift, and reciprocating the gift.
Plants are also essential in re-establishing the link between land and people. A place becomes a home when it provides for your physical and spiritual needs. To rebuild a home, the plants must also return.
The original immigrant became indigenous as a result of her reciprocal actions, or give and take with the land. For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place entails living as if your children’s future was important, and caring for the land as if our material and spiritual lives depended on it.
Robin Wall Kimmerer Words
Our roots connect to the ground we walk on.
Weaving stories with sweetgrass threads.
When a language dies, far more than just words are lost. Language is the home of ideas that don’t exist anywhere else. It serves as a prism through which to view the world.
If the new people had learned what Original Man was taught at an animal council—never harm Creation, and never interfere with another being’s sacred purpose—the eagle would have seen a different world. The salmon would congregate in the rivers, and passenger pigeons would darken the sky. Wolves, cranes, Nehalem, cougars, Lenape, and old-growth forests would still exist, each serving a sacred purpose. I’d be speaking Potawatomi. We’d see what Nanabozho saw. It is not worth imagining, because it leads to heartbreak.
If shared beliefs define citizenship, I believe in species democracy. If citizenship entails taking an oath of loyalty to a leader, I’d go with the tree leader. If good citizens agree to uphold the nation’s laws, I will choose natural law, the law of reciprocity, regeneration, and mutual flourishing.
Stars and soil speak Earth’s wisdom.
Earth is a gift, not a thing we own.
They say a teacher will come when you’re ready. If you ignore its presence, it will speak to you even louder. However, in order to hear, you must remain quiet.
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