There are books that offer information.
And then there are books that offer remembrance.
I am currently re-reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and once again I find myself transported into a softer, more spacious world. A world where science does not stand apart from spirit, and where the Earth is not a resource…but a relative.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, braids together strands of Indigenous ways of knowing with Western scientific understanding, all wrapped in poetic storytelling that reads more like prayer than prose. With reverence and humility, she invites us into a relationship with the land that is rooted in reciprocity, gratitude, and deep listening.
What if the Earth loved us back?
What if every breath, every berry, every breeze was not a random event, but part of a conversation?
This book invites that kind of remembering.
In some Native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us”.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Each chapter is a gentle unfolding – a story about sweetgrass harvesting, or the intelligence of asters and goldenrods, or the ceremonial giving of thanks. Yet, underneath the stories, is something more – a call to remember that we are not separate from nature; we are nature. The moss, the mycelium, the river, the root – these are not just things we walk past. They are kin. Teachers. Mirrors.
And in the quiet space between words, Braiding Sweetgrass teaches us how to listen again.
Living the Teachings
In the Sacred way, we honour the wisdom of the plant realm – not only in ceremony, but in the way we prepare our food, tend to our gardens, walk barefoot on the earth, and notice the gentle presence of a tree offering shade. This book is a beautiful reminder to bring that awareness into the smallest of moments.
Here are a few gentle invitations inspired by Braiding Sweetgrass that you might bring into your day:
- Begin with gratitude. Whether it’s your morning cup of tea, a quiet breath, or the fruit in your hand – pause to thank the Earth for what she has given.
- Listen to the plants. Truly listen. What is the rosemary in your garden whispering? What do the weeds at the roadside know that we’ve forgotten?
- Give something back. A song. A handful of compost. A small offering of water to a thirsty plant. Reciprocity need not be grand to be felt.
- Notice the ‘all of everything’. The way the wind speaks through the trees. The way your own breath mingles with the breath of the forest. The way you are the earth, and the earth is you.
As Robin writes, “All flourishing is mutual.”
Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
We live in a time when many are seeking reconnection, not only with themselves but with something greater. Braiding Sweetgrass is a luminous guide on that path, reminding us that we are held, that we belong, and that we are never truly alone.
