Now that I’m done with my Spiritual Direction program, I’m enjoying grabbing books from my “I really want to read this but maybe later” pile. One of the books I picked up recently is Braiding Sweetgrass by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer. Reading it has been so refreshing and challenging and eye-opening! (If you want a taste of it, check out this conversation between Björk and Kimmerer here Apple Podcasts or here Other listening option).
One of the phrases that has stuck out to me is “all flourishing is mutual.” The indigenous way of caring for creation – and humanity as a part of creation – is to see all things as connected. No thing exists on its own. The way that I care for the trees around my house is caring for myself and my neighbor. In fact, the trees and chipmunks and rabbits are my neighbors.
This is so different from the idea of “rugged individualism” steeped in our American culture. We love the idea of a self-made person. Forbes touts self-made millionaires and billionaires as though they made their fortunes without employees, board members, consumers, suppliers, and the likes. Admittedly, doing things on my own is a shot in the arm of my ego. It feels good. But it isn’t sustainable. And it isn’t even the best way to move through the world.
As I’ve ruminated on this phrase for a week, I have found it stirring up gratitude in me. The flourishing of the trees around my house provides shade, a place for the birds to sit and sing, a bit of privacy, a place to hang a hammock (in a few years). The flourishing of strawberry fields provide a beautiful bounty for my kids to hork down in a single evening. Even the flourishing of my family or my employees are things which engender gratitude in me.
And I know none of this flourishing happens on its own or in a vacuum.
The trees require the water cycle and nutrient-rich soil as well as my care for them. The strawberries require similar things as well as a whole supply chain to get to my table. My family and coworkers require even more interconnected pieces in order to flourish. Contemplating this widens and deepens my gratitude.
While I’m discovering words for this by way of indigenous wisdom, it must be said that it is also found in Christianity, specifically the more mystical strains of Christianity. I don’t think you need me to quote verses at you though. Simply put, we believe that it is Christ in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). And we believe that looking into another’s eyes is looking into the eyes of Christ. We believe it is Christ “through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6).
It is Christ who connects us all to each other and to everything around us.
Not only do I have gratitude for mutual flourishing but also for the nature of God’s being in the midst of it, bringing it about, furthering the flourishing. My gratitude extends past and moves through the leaves and soil and supply chain to the very God of the universe.
As you contemplate these things, what stirs in you?