The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Materials move through ecosystems in a circular economy and are constantly transformed. Abundance is created by recycling, by reciprocity.

It pains me to know that an old-growth forest is “worth” far more as lumber than as the lungs of the Earth.

We live in the tension between what is and what is possible.

I have some family members who have taken this a step farther. They live in an urban neighborhood where there are plenty of curmudgeons growling at kids to stay off their lawns. So they converted their once tidy little yard to a garden of berries and patches of flowers and put up a welcome sign for the kids in the neighborhood to come on in and find a handful of berries and pick a bouquet to take home. They converted their “private” yard to a common space.

I would love to do this!