Hops & Hope

May/June 2024

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Mondays, May 28 & June 24, 6:00pm at the Immanuel fire pit

We will split the book into two months and instead of meeting at a brewery we will be meeting at Immanuel for the next two months! We’ll plan to meet back by the campfire pit/playground unless the weather is bad, then we will meet inside. You’re all invited to bring drinks (beer, wine or non-alcoholic) and snacks to share. Our next gatherings will be:

• Tuesday, May 28th, 6pm (discussing the sections “Planting Sweetgrass,” “Tending Sweetgrass,” and “Picking Sweetgrass”)
• Monday, June 24th, 6pm (discussing the sections “Braiding Sweetgrass,” and “Burning Sweetgrass”)

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

All are welcome to join, whether you finish the book or not.

Contact Deacon Savannah with questions!