Well written with important message Beautifully written with a touching message.
Life changing When I first started listening to this audio book, I was taken by surprise, really by a big surprise. My involvement to gardening changes and metamorphic being into a very intimate relationship with the fruit trees, the leaves of the kale, the flowers and the bees that come by snuggle up close into the Rose of Sharon. My caring for the land around where I live has deepened in ways that I did not know possible while listening to Robin. I feel like I know her and she accompanied me for hours while I ate, relaxed, walked and gardened, while I was still, in unwavering stillness on the cushion, pondering, wondering, in awe at the magnificence of descriptions with words of a world around her, her experience in this lifetime with plants, the march, the lab, samples, talks with her students, her children, the father of her children and separation....but most of all her humility and intuition of her spiritual heartbeat listening and present all along everything in everything she is, is us, all of us and the teachings of a shaman heard for the first time trusting and connecting with Spirit of Creation. The storytelling moved my heart, my soul in ways I would find myself cry at times, feel relieved and feel sad too. My view of my being in this body shifted profoundly as did my view of the world. I bow to our reunion and inclusion because together we can be safe, all beings living as one drum, one heartbeat on turtle Island. The Creation story about Sky woman opened my heart towards healing and experience wholeness. Robin is a healer, a being that continues to dispel darkness in my heart, even days, weeks, after finishing her book, and for this creative life of art with words worth living by of reciprocity and reconciliation, gratitude and in awe for it all is welcoming, balancing and enduring. Miigwech
Braiding Sweetgrass This book is a moving expression of the power of indigenous ways of knowing that has me respecting the natural world in a totally different way. Robin's writing is so easy, flowing and gentle. I listened to her narrating the audio book first and I fell in love with it. So now I am reading the book and have bought copies for all my relatives.
This book should be a required reading for all students. If we all had this kind of relationship with nature, we would not have a world heading toward extinction.
Maria An inspiring book. Loved the explanation of the Tree Sisters (Corn, Beans, Squash) growing and the lichens. Giving the creatures around us names and considering them our brothers and sisters makes a big difference. Intense and never boring.
Beautiful and educational These smart, heartfelt, and gorgeously written essays will expand your horizons in incredible ways. Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes on ecology, her experience as a scientist and Indigenous person, climate change, Indigenous knowledges and traditions, family, and so much more with grace and warmth. If you have any interest in nature writing, this is an essential read and one I revisit frequently! The audiobook is also narrated by her, and she has the most lovely, soothing voice.