Abundance and Reciprocity
Such lovely thoughts.
While my favorite book genre is “celebrity memoirs,” I do dip a toe into other categories once in a blue moon, especially when a book that is recommended by a friend piques my interest.
Most recently, that book was “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. My friend Vikki tossed it into a group chat, and I immediately picked up what she was putting down. I found the audio book on Spotify and started listening immediately. It’s a snack of a book, running just under two hours, but wow: big things come in small packages.
First, the book was a quiet, peaceful listen. The author’s voice combined with the topic, what we can learn from the natural world that will help us live lives focused on gratitude, reciprocity and community, was almost zen-like for me.
Kimmerer contrasts the natural world’s gift economy (the free exchange of goods and services) with our market economy (the reliance of monetary transactions to secure resources) in a hopeful, aspirational way. While she acknowleges that the market economy isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, she explains that we individuals can receive much peace and joy in life by finding ways to connect with others via sharing our talents and abundance.
The book took me back five years to the pandemic, when we were all sequestered in our homes, completely disconnected physically. We had to put out some real effort to connect with others. One of my very favorite pandemic activities was baking and “porch dropping” the results for friends and family members, meaning I would go to someone’s house, place my sometimes-adorably-packaged offering on the porch, ring the bell and then leave (or sometimes, back up by about twenty feet to have a socially distanced conversation with them before heading home).
I baked and delivered cookies, pudding (above), cupcakes, and even full dinners. Family and friends delivered equally wonderful homemade things to my porch: creamy jalapeno dip, hot sauce, sweet rolls, donuts…you get the idea. Each one was a momentary heavenly escape from the horrendously negative pandemic news that came out on a daily basis.
In fact, I enjoyed these “escapes” so much that I remember posting on social media back then how I hoped that once the pandemic was over, we would continue with the porch drops. Some of my people and I still do it, though not quite as often, and these occasions provide the same lovely feelings of being the recipient of someone’s love in the form of time and effort—and wanting to continue sharing my own with others.
From The Serviceberry:
“In a gift economy, wealth is understood as having enough to share, and the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. In fact, status is determined not by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away. The 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.”
All flourishing is mutual. In the current climate that is such a hot mess politically, we can take lessons from Kimmerer about connection and caring for our community. We must do so, because when we all take part, these humble and thoughtful actions will go a long way towards healing what is broken.