Earth gives unasked yet may itself be nourished by our giving

Evidence

The earth, that first among good mothers, gives us the gift that we cannot provide ourselves. I hadn’t realized that I had come to the lake and said feed me, but my empty heart was fed. I had a good mother. She gives what we need without being asked. I wonder if she gets tired, old Mother Earth. Or if she too is fed by the giving. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 353

Categorization

• QUESTION: Kimmerer raises but leaves open whether Earth is weary or is itself fed by reciprocal giving — a question worth pursuing for eco-justice accounts of land relationship.
• FICTION: The mother-Earth who is herself fed by her children’s grateful return is a seed for narrative about reciprocity restoring an exhausted land.
• XREF: connects to: Genuine rationality would treat the earth as a sustaining other rather than a resource — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 741; Earth is created cooperatively from animal gifts plus human thanksgiving — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 27; The Andean principle ayni requires balanced reciprocal giving to earth and community — , A Year of World Stories, 10687 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The Andean principle ayni requires balanced reciprocal giving to earth and community #expands (0.92) — , A Year of World Stories, 10687
• Andean ethics require reciprocal exchange with the earth as a living mother #expands (0.90) — , A Year of World Stories, 10689
• Sustainable harvesting is deepened by deliberately giving back more than is taken #expands (0.87) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 704
• Joy, not despair, is the gift owed back to a wounded earth #expands (0.78) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1200
• Giving something away can make it grow rather than diminish #expands (0.75) — , A Year of World Stories, 11790
• Refusing eternal life can bless the land and make it evergreen #expands (0.73) — , A Year of World Stories, 11509
• Reciprocity with the land is possible even where land and nature are absent #qualifies (0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 867
• Healing land requires shifting people’s worldview toward old-growth cultures #expands (0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1078