Now something quite poetic and in a same time educational, and I believe inspirational, for our resilience activities.

“There she was – Sweetgrass – growing in one of the last places I might ever have expected. Tentatively sending out rhizomes through the sludge [talking about Onondaga watershed poisoned by methilated mercury and other toxic waste from the nearby industrial activities], slender tillers marching bravely away, sweetgrass is a teacher of healing, a symbol of kindness and compassion. She reminded me that it is not the land that is broken, but our relationship to it.

Restoration is imperative for healing the earth, but reciprocity is imperative for long-lasting, successful restoration. Like other mindful practices, ecological restoration can be viewed as an act of reciprocity in which humans exercise their caregiving responsibility for the eco-systems that sustain them. We restore the land and the land restore us. We will continue to need the insights and methodologies of science, but if we allow the practice of restoration to become exclusive domain of science, we will have lost a its greatest promise, which is nothing less than redefinition of human culture.”

This quote is from the book “Braiding Sweetgrass – Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and Teaching of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, distinguished teaching professor of Environmental Biology at SUNY and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

I am highly recommending this book for all of us, but especially students!