“The stories that offer truth relentlessly offer the opportunity
to re-choose who we will be in the future.”
– Jennifer Hough
The other day I was in my sauna, sweating my brains out because my body had been in pain. I was listening to the book ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’. It’s brilliant. The first time I read it, I wasn’t able to take in the full magnificence of the words within. I was in a different place.
We’ve just had our Canadian Thanksgiving, the Shadow of American Thanksgiving which follows in November.
I was listening to the story of how important nuts were to those tribes that lived on the prairies and in the forest. They would store nuts, much like wise squirrels and chipmunks do because they contain protein and good fats for the winter.
The book’s author remembers a story of her grandfather picking up a mother load of pecans and bringing them back to her great grandmother and, as I was listening to her tell the story, two acorns fell on the roof. I laughed.
The author now makes pecan pie every Thanksgiving in honor of her ancestors, and she doesn’t even like pecans! There is deep, abiding appreciation in her words, and I am sure anyone who eats that pie is filled with the love that went into it.
In North America, we have two holidays specifically for giving thanks, notwithstanding that we likely give thanks every day. This October and November, perhaps consider that the name ‘pecan’ came from the Native American Algonquin tribe meaning ‘all nuts requiring a stone to crack’. It became a First Nations word meaning ‘nuts’ because those new to the land didn’t have a word for pecans.
This is not an email about feeling guilty regarding what was perpetrated, which was indeed beyond avarice and greed. This is an email about the relentless generosity in the traditions of those who came before us that would assist us all to integrate with wisdom that is currently so poignant for all cultures to receive. Deep truths rise from the flames like a phoenix and give us hope. That to me, is the generosity of truth.
The stories that offer truth relentlessly offer the opportunity to re-choose who we will be in the future. I highly suggest you read the book. It’s like a gift to your heart about the richness of the cultures and connection to the land of North America from those who lived by the guidance of that land.
The generosity of the author’s words and lesson-filled stories overflow into my soul, and the stories change my being. If ever there was a book to truly give the gift of being grateful for what surrounds us, this is definitely one of my favorites. I love being humbled by words of wisdom that touch me deeply and cause me to change. The pain in my body is less. I am unsure if it was the heat or the alchemy in the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer.
I’m Grateful.
