Even mastery of craft requires returning humbly to the land for gifts

Evidence

And I remember shkitagen, the firekeeper fungus, the holder of the spark that cannot be extinguished. I go back to where the wisdom lives, in the woods, and humbly ask for help. I lay down my gift, in return for all that is given, and start again. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1378

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to ch90’s chaga fungus as fire-holder and to the gift-exchange logic of ch6 — asking the land and reciprocating with a gift. — connects to: Gifts returned to the land come back as unexpected reciprocal gifts — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 979; Joy, not despair, is the gift owed back to a wounded earth — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1200; Gifts stay alive only by moving onward through reciprocity — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 356 (+3 more)
• ADDENDUM: Firekeeper fungus directly extends the trees-as-infrastructure and fungus-mediated networks thread of the trees essay.

Broader Connections

• Gifts stay alive only by moving onward through reciprocity #expands (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 356
• Deep gratitude rests on the awareness that a gift cannot be repaid #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 9360
• Accepting a plant’s gift can itself stimulate that plant’s renewal #expands (0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 583
• Indigenous plant knowledge holds that plants arrive where and when their gifts are needed #expands (0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 419