Join us for a monthly book club as we read Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer.  As the book is broken into 5 main sections, we will gather for 5 sessions from January to May. 

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.”  

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

You are invited to a short meeting in the Overflow Room Sunday, January 5, after worship to discuss how we want to gather for our club, be it on a Sunday morning or evening during the week, a small group experience, or some other way that works for as many of us as possible. 

This book would make a great stocking stuffer!  It is readily available through your local bookstore or favorite online retailer.  Or let Jennifer Haratsaris know if you would like to have us order it for you in a group order.  The cost of the paperback ranges from $11.33-$20.