Living in sacred relationships
This week’s podcast of On Being is a rebroadcast of a 2016 conversation between host Krista Tippett and Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist, author, professor, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Her books include Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants.
My background includes an education in various types of systems. I first studied naval engineering. Later I studied, clinical psychology, philosophy, and theology/divinity. I have also had a lifelong interest in physics. I have a profound curiosity of what factors affects how pieces of systems work/play together.
My background also includes some Native American heritage, time on farms and ranches and living for a time with the Tlingit Indian community. Most farmers, ranchers or any person or group who has lived in a direct, interdependent relationship with the earth has a profound appreciation for the fact that plants and animals “have a capacity to learn, to have a memory”. (Dr. Kimmerer). She says that when she started college the approach which was taught was to think of plants and other parts of nature as objects “whereas she thought of them as subjects”.
When I think of objects I think of something inanimate that serves a purpose, may provide a service or may even be a nuisance. When I think of a subject I think of something which has an ongoing purpose and story – something which interacts with all of creation.
In Native American cultures one’s relationship with animals, plants and all parts of the universe is interactional and thus sacred. One is constantly reminded to be grateful for the relationships and to actively give back; to take no part of the universe for granted.
Oxford dictionary gives one definition of relationship as “The way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave towards each other.” I am suggesting that one has a host of relationships with mother earth, one’s body, the food we eat, and the energy. The dance one does in a relationship has both short and long-term consequences.
It is easy for us humans, particularly when one does not have a daily intimate relationship with plants, animals or even other people to act as if we are the actors or other people animals, plans and even minerals are that on which we act. We may not, for example think about what happens after one ingests a Red Bull, a Happy Meal, an alcoholic drink or some form of nicotine; what happens in the chemical factory within our body or what happens to one’s brain which then affects how one treats others which, in turn, affects how one treats mother earth which …. All these parts of the system(s) then talk back to the individual and the rest of the universe.
Much of what I do with those who hire me as a counselor/therapist is guiding individuals, families and groups in thinking about the interactional nature of all relationships and then adjusting one’s intentions regarding the various relationships. What happens when I eat certain foods, when I treat my partner as an object whose primary job is to serve me, or when I ingest alcohol or other recreational drugs? How do my decisions affect other people, plants, animals and even the air that I breathe? How does using certain pesticides affect other parts of the ecology?
When Dr. Kimmerer studies the relationship between moss and rocks she is studying a very important part of the universe. As the moss breaks down the rock which goes back to particles of sand which in turn affect the soil which in turn affects plants one begins to appreciate the living nature of the moss, the rock and the relationship itself.
As one begins to be more intentional about how every behavior affects one’s partner, co-worker, store clerk, extended family members, those we might label the stranger, the plants, other animals and even the rocks one begins to live in the realm of the sacred.
Written July 20, 2018
This week’s podcast of On Being is a rebroadcast of a 2016 conversation between host Krista Tippett and Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist, author, professor, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Her books include Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants.
My background includes an education in various types of systems. I first studied naval engineering. Later I studied, clinical psychology, philosophy, and theology/divinity. I have also had a lifelong interest in physics. I have a profound curiosity of what factors affects how pieces of systems work/play together.
My background also includes some Native American heritage, time on farms and ranches and living for a time with the Tlingit Indian community. Most farmers, ranchers or any person or group who has lived in a direct, interdependent relationship with the earth has a profound appreciation for the fact that plants and animals “have a capacity to learn, to have a memory”. (Dr. Kimmerer). She says that when she started college the approach which was taught was to think of plants and other parts of nature as objects “whereas she thought of them as subjects”.
When I think of objects I think of something inanimate that serves a purpose, may provide a service or may even be a nuisance. When I think of a subject I think of something which has an ongoing purpose and story – something which interacts with all of creation.
In Native American cultures one’s relationship with animals, plants and all parts of the universe is interactional and thus sacred. One is constantly reminded to be grateful for the relationships and to actively give back; to take no part of the universe for granted.
Oxford dictionary gives one definition of relationship as “The way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave towards each other.” I am suggesting that one has a host of relationships with mother earth, one’s body, the food we eat, and the energy. The dance one does in a relationship has both short and long-term consequences.
It is easy for us humans, particularly when one does not have a daily intimate relationship with plants, animals or even other people to act as if we are the actors or other people animals, plans and even minerals are that on which we act. We may not, for example think about what happens after one ingests a Red Bull, a Happy Meal, an alcoholic drink or some form of nicotine; what happens in the chemical factory within our body or what happens to one’s brain which then affects how one treats others which, in turn, affects how one treats mother earth which …. All these parts of the system(s) then talk back to the individual and the rest of the universe.
Much of what I do with those who hire me as a counselor/therapist is guiding individuals, families and groups in thinking about the interactional nature of all relationships and then adjusting one’s intentions regarding the various relationships. What happens when I eat certain foods, when I treat my partner as an object whose primary job is to serve me, or when I ingest alcohol or other recreational drugs? How do my decisions affect other people, plants, animals and even the air that I breathe? How does using certain pesticides affect other parts of the ecology?
When Dr. Kimmerer studies the relationship between moss and rocks she is studying a very important part of the universe. As the moss breaks down the rock which goes back to particles of sand which in turn affect the soil which in turn affects plants one begins to appreciate the living nature of the moss, the rock and the relationship itself.
As one begins to be more intentional about how every behavior affects one’s partner, co-worker, store clerk, extended family members, those we might label the stranger, the plants, other animals and even the rocks one begins to live in the realm of the sacred.
Written July 20, 2018
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