The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity rather than accumulation, where wealth and security come from the quality of our relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.

We’ve created a system such that we self-identify as consumers first before understanding ourselves as ecosystem citizens.

“If there’s not enough of what you want, then want something else.”

It’s all “me, me, me,” investing only in their own exponential growth with no regard for the future, their relatives, or longevity. Sound familiar? It’s a field of fast-growing weeds, or a stand of aspens. It’s as if Euromericans, in the age of colonization and displacement of “old-growth cultures” are behaving like colonizing plants after a massive disturbance, dominating the landscape. But those colonizing plants find they cannot continue this rate of growth and resource extraction. They start to run out of resources, disease may attack the overdense populations, and competition begins to limit their growth. In fact, their behavior facilitates their own replacement. Their rampant growth captures nutrients and builds the more stable conditions in which their followers can flourish. Incrementally, they start to be replaced.