RECIPROCITY: RENEWAL OF THE WORLD FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF BREATHING

The above title is a quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book Braiding Sweetgrass. She feels that we are meant to have a reciprocal relationship with other living beings [all living creatures]. A sharing, mutual enhancement, caring and being with each other that fills up our daily lives. This she calls reciprocity and will lead to a renewal of the world as we learn to share this wonderful world with all living beings. We are indebted to many kinds of living things, especially trees in forests, for providing us humans with the oxygen that allows us to breathe and thus to live. So, what do we give back to other living things? One way is to carefully leave trees that will allow the forest to be healthy when we thin out the forest. This is in stark contrast with clear cutting that always kills forests as the seedlings they plant won't grow as what they need to grow has been stripped away with the clear cutting. 

There are many ways we can give back to our planet and establish a reciprocal relationship with living things as we share with and help to take care of our wonderful earth. Isn't this whart we are all supposed to do?