7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish in the sea inform you.
9 Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In God’s hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all humankind.
We’re going to spend a little time thinking about a concept called the Honorable Harvest. An author, scientist and professor named Robin Wall Kimmerer has coined this term, although she herself says that she is a student of this thinking, not a scholar. It’s an incredibly old way of life – traditional Indigenous wisdom you might call it. Kimmererer is also an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi (pot-ah-wah-tomee) Nation, and her writings weave these beautiful perspectives together: Native science, lifeways, philosophies, practices.
Kimmerer says if there is one piece of the traditional teachings she believes we are called to pick up, it would be the practice of the Honorable Harvest. She says that we are always being taught this by the plants, who give us everything that we need. It’s a framework that does not place human beings at the top of a hierarchy, but rather cultivates a mutuality and a give and take with humans and other plant matter. In a nutshell, the Honorable Harvest means that when we come to the woods, we don’t just grab everything in sight. We’re taught never to take the first plant that you see, and that means you’ll never take the last. If we encounter another plant, we’re taught to ask for permission. Introduce yourself. Tell them why you’ve come and what your need is. Kimmerer recognizes that some places might call you crazy; she believes it’s simply good manners. Asking requires listening – intuitively, by looking around, paying attention to what is around you. If they say no, if you look around and can only find one ripe blueberry, we practice moving on, doing the least harm.
If the plant says yes, another component of the honorable harvest is to share the generosity of the plant matter – with your neighbors, yes, but also in gratitude to the plant itself; by weeding, pruning, helping to spread seeds, through ceremony, learning the names and working to protect those that might be endangered.
Here are the principles of the Honorable Harvest as Kimmerer describes them:
“Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.
Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.
Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Take only what you need.
Take only that which is given.
Never take more than half. Leave some for others.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.
Share.
Give thanks for what you have been given.
Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.
Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.”
So as you head out on trail or out in your neighborhood, spend some time thinking about these principles. Things are slightly different depending on where you are – at home in your neighborhood, you probably won’t pick flowers from your neighbors yard. On trail, we abide by the Leave No Trace principles. So in those cases, we’re mostly going to be giving our gratitude, and listening to what the plant matter might have to tell us. How might it affect how you participate in the Earth? Understand it? Imagine your relationship with it? Every breath that you take is a breath that was made for you by plants. And if we take the time to be grateful, we expand our capacity for humility, for interconnectedness, and we remember that we are not the end all be all of living beings on this planet – we’re simply one member of a big beautiful family. In fact, we’re the younger siblings to much of Creation, and we have much to learn from them.
A blessing:
God who pays attention:
God who feels, God who pays attention, God who formed webs of life entangled,
Help me to notice today…
To notice my body – what it’s telling me it needs and wants.
To notice my neighbors – who they are and how they are.
To notice the creatures and creations around me – each as a valuable life of their own.
You know my limitations – what is enough or too much. To be aware of at once. To connect with. To feel. To hold.
Do not allow me to rush past what needs or deserves my attention.
Neither let me be overwhelmed by trying to bear more than my share.
Just help me to be alive to what is,
alive to you within and around.
– Rev. M Barclay, enfleshed
Written by 2022 Chaplain Hannah Sackett
