{"id":19848,"date":"2021-02-18T10:08:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19848"},"modified":"2021-02-18T10:16:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T15:16:52","slug":"the-reciprocity-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19848","title":{"rendered":"The Reciprocity of the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YihKbG8-X3U\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The bloodline of God is connected to&nbsp;<\/em>everything<em>&nbsp;. . . shells on the ocean shore, the mushrooms growing in the forest, the trees stretching to the clouds, the tiniest speck of snow in the winter, and&nbsp;<\/em>our dust-to-dustness\u2014<em>we are all connected and tethered to this sacred gift of creation. \u2014<\/em>Kaitlin B. Curtice,&nbsp;<em>Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In cultures that have kept alive the knowledge that we are all one, woven in the same fabric of life (what I referred to earlier this week as \u201cthe Great Chain of Being\u201d), people honor the reciprocity of the universe through ritual and tradition. Botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer elaborates on this teaching:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ceremonial giveaway is an echo of our oldest teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generosity is simultaneously a moral and a material imperative, especially among people who live close to the land and know its waves of plenty and scarcity. Where the well-being of one is linked to the well-being of all. Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away. Hoarding the gift, we become constipated with wealth, bloated with possessions, too heavy to join the dance. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know the origin of the giveaway, but I think that we learned it from watching the plants, especially the berries who offer up their gifts all wrapped in red and blue. We may forget the teacher, but our language remembers: our word for the giveaway,&nbsp;<em>minidewak<\/em>, means \u201cthey give from the heart.\u201d At the word\u2019s center lives the word&nbsp;<em>min. Min&nbsp;<\/em>is a root word for&nbsp;<em>gift<\/em>, but it is also the word for&nbsp;<em>berry.&nbsp;<\/em>In the poetry of our language, might speaking of&nbsp;<em>minidewak&nbsp;<\/em>remind us to be as the berries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The berries are always present at our ceremonies. They join us in a wooden bowl. One big bowl and one big spoon, which are passed around the circle, so that each person can taste the sweetness, remember the gifts, and say thank you. . . . The generosity of the earth is not an invitation to take it all. Every bowl has a bottom. When it\u2019s empty, it\u2019s empty. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How do we refill the empty bowl? Is gratitude alone enough? Berries teach us otherwise.&nbsp;. . . The berries trust that we will uphold our end of the bargain and disperse their seeds to new places to grow. . . . They remind us that all flourishing is mutual. We need the berries and the berries need us. Their gifts multiply by our care for them, and dwindle from our neglect. We are bound in a covenant of reciprocity, a pact of mutual responsibility to sustain those who&nbsp;sustain us. And so the empty bowl is filled. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The moral covenant of reciprocity calls us to honor our responsibilities for all we have been given, for all that we have taken. It\u2019s our turn now, long overdue. . . . Whatever our gift, we are called to give it and to dance for the renewal of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"296\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-7-500x296.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19849\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-7-500x296.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-7-300x178.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-7-768x455.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image-7.png 1940w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bloodline of God is connected to&nbsp;everything&nbsp;. . . shells on the ocean shore, the mushrooms growing in the forest, the trees stretching to the clouds, the tiniest speck of snow in the winter, and&nbsp;our dust-to-dustness\u2014we are all connected and tethered to this sacred gift of creation. \u2014Kaitlin B. Curtice,&nbsp;Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19848"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19851,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19848\/revisions\/19851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}