Reciprocity

“Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity. Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them. If an animal gives its life to feed me, I am in turn bound to support its life. If I receive a stream’s gift of pure water, then I am responsible for returning a gift in kind. An integral part of a human’s education is to know those duties and how to perform them.” -Robin Wall Kimmerer, from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

How can you practice reciprocity today?

Trust and Mushrooms

“The mycelium organism is a dynamic root system of mushrooms that utilizes trust as a mechanism to build and sustain a vast, reciprocal, underground network that connects the roots of trees and plants and skillfully shares nutrients and resources to support the health of the entire ecosystem with which it moves with. This mycelial network cannot exist without trust. The mycelium communication highway recognizes and believes in the collective ability to channel and receive nutrients where needed, protect against parasites and expand roots into necessary sites of growth.” -Adaku Utah, from “Let the Choir Say Wow”

How have you learned to trust?

Dust to Dust

Today, throughout the world, Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday. With the blessing of ashes upon their foreheads, they are reminded of human mortality and the need for reconciliation and repentance. And yet, the notion that we all come from dust and will one day return to it is also a profound statement of interdependence: our origins and our fate are all the same.

Seek to make amends, reparation, or reconciliation for something today.

Love of Life

Mardi Gras festivals celebrate a multicultural, multigenerational, community joy.  Chris Rose writes, “Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once.”

Find some joy connecting with others today. (And maybe laissez les bon temps rouler.)