Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist and a professor in the SUNY system. She is the author of "Braiding Sweetgrass" and was a keynote speaker at two successive Friends General Conferences, a major convention of American Quakers. I didn't feel drawn to attending her presentations but the title of that book and the fact that Prof. Kimmerer is a member of the Potowatomi tribe as well as a college professor stuck in my mind.
We just began reading Braiding a few nights ago. The comparison of the Potowatomi creation story with that of Genesis was interesting and memorable but the chapter on naturally occuring fruits like strawberries was especially so. It happens that Karen Maezen Miller wrote in her blog about taking notes during one of her Zen retreats and then giving the notes to an attender. Gifts from nature of strawberries and gifts from the leader of a retreat created a theme of gifts, a economy and a currency of gifts.
Miller discussed how her teacher Maezumi Roshi saw the irony of hoping to see Haley's Comet, which comes around only once every 75 years. Her teacher tried to emphasize that every moment, like this very moment, occurs only once, never to be repeated. Rather than work to see that comet, why not work to note the value, the taste, the meaning of more of the unique moments that befall us continuously? Each moment of life is a gift!
