The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Recognizing “enoughness” is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more.

Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource.

currency in a gift economy is relationship, which is expressed as gratitude, as interdependence and the ongoing cycles of reciprocity. A gift economy nurtures the community bonds that enhance mutual well-being; the economic unit is “we” rather than “I,” as all flourishing is mutual. Anthropologists characterize

The prosperity of the community grows from the flow of relationships, not the accumulation of goods.

Giving begets giving

Libraries, parks, trails, and cultural landscapes we regard as public goods; they are what we call “common resources”—meant to be shared

Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you can take care of them.

Never take the first

one. Never take the last.

Share.

Give thanks for what you have been given.

A perception of abundance, based on the notion that there is enough if we share

Whatever your currency of reciprocity—be it money, time, energy, political action, art, science, education, planting, community action, restoration, acts of care, large and small—all are needed in these urgent times.