All Flourishing Is Mutual - The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerrer

This beautiful, compact book reminds me of a seed. A seed carries within itself everything necessary to live and transform into something utterly unrecognizable. Within a seed's compact outer coating lies the entirety of the plant being the seed will become. 

So it is with The Serviceberry, contained within the beautiful cover of the book lies everything the dominant culture in our world needs to entirely transform. 

As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

Kimmerer’s beautiful, gentle and lyrical prose draws us into the natural world and her analysis of how the natural world cares for each being, as in turn each being offers something in return.  Ultimately showing us with her words, that all flourishing is indeed mutual. 

At the same time she asks the reader to grapple with our current reality and the complex, hard to solve societal values and the challenges of human nature. She skillfully unpacks the economic systems we have created and how these systems create a culture and world of scarcity, competition and ultimately cruelty. A system where our values are at the mercy of an economic system that does not value us or any part of the living world. 

And yet…ultimately the book offers each of us a beautiful flowering branch of hope. After I read the book I asked myself “how might I engage more mindfully with a world based in reciprocity?” How might I contribute in my own way to a gift economy in my community? 

This is not a book to be read and then put down. It is a book to inspire you to action, to reread and cherish as a talisman of what can be. 

The actions we all take, to choose beauty, reciprocity, love and connection in our own lives matter. Small actions like a rock skipped on still water reverberate out in ways the thrower of the rock can never know. May we all contribute in any way we can to the gift economy. May we sprinkle seeds of reciprocity where we live, work and play. As contained within each of these seeds is an entire world ready to be born. 

The Serviceberry is widely available online and in bookstores. Stop by your local bookstore and pick up a copy, they will appreciate your business. 

I would like to offer my thanks to the lovely women that joined me in reading The Serviceberry. Our book club group discussions, deepened my understanding of the book. The comments, questions and sharing of ideas was fruitful and stimulating. Thanks you so much for taking the time to read with me.