From a book that changed my life!

Every once in a while a reader will come across a book that changes their life. It usually is not fiction, as was the case for me.

This book for me, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions; First Edition (August 11, 2015) was not even a NEW book. Only new to me. My daughter gave me a copy of it for Christmas.

Reading it was like biting into a luscious apple and letting the juice run down my chin. I couldn’t read it fast. I had to savor every page. And believe me, the lyrical writing style makes you feel that way. Like you’re going to let something important slip through your grasp if you don’t take the time to let it sink in.

I learned so many things about reciprocity in life and nature from this book that I cannot do anything in the morning anymore until I have recited the Thanksgiving address. It is a recitation of giving thanks for everything under the sky and believe me once it is done, you truly are thankful for all you have because there’s something about reciting the words of thankfulness that makes it really come alive.

And thanks to a lovely woman I met at a powwow, I now have ceremonial tobacco to use in Thanksgiving. And I have the story of her grandfather, who grew the tobacco on her farm, to bless me for all my days.

I guess that reciprocity is also the giving and taking of stories, sort of like now!

There is so much good stuff in this book which is subtitled, “indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants” that I cannot describe it all. You are carried away on a journey of discovery with the author. Discovering how nature looks, and smells, and sings and there is always so much more to be uncovered in wet areas, forests, etc.

I will never be able to describe all I learned from this book but I will never forget how it made me feel.

you can get it here: https://amzn.to/3SRmzsq

(this is an affiliate link)