Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, is everything you want a nonfiction book to be. I was very overwhelmed by her writing (in the best way) because it is very poetic. You will learn a lot and it will make you appreciate our relationship with the earth even more. It may even teach you to think and act more carefully as well.
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.
Kimmerer uses her background as a botanist and a Native American with such care. You can feel her love for science and the natural world shine through. I love the stories she adds with her students and what she learned from Native American elders.
Never take the first plant you find, as it might be the last—and you want that first one to speak well of you to the others of her kind.
It is a long book and the type is not very large so it can take a while to read. I chose to read only 1 or 2 chapters at a time in order to really let her words sink in: It is way too beautiful of a book to rush through. I now see why this book is so beloved. There might be some things that feel repetitive but it did not bother me at all because it forced me to think about the important things in a deeper light.
We Americans are reluctant to learn a foreign language of our own species, let alone another species. But imagine the possibilities. Imagine the access we would have to different perspectives, the things we might see through other eyes, the wisdom that surrounds us. We don’t have to figure out everything by ourselves: there are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us. Imagine how much less lonely the world would be.
If you want good nonfiction about nature, this is a must read!
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