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Book Discussion at Calvert Pines Senior Center

"The Serviceberry" by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Need a break from spring cleaning? Join us to discuss this short but inspiring book about centering our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, all based on lessons of the natural world.

Find your copy here!

As Indigenous scientist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests local serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethics of gifts, society, and the economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? The existing economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with its environment is an embodiment of interconnectedness and gratitude. The tree distributes its abundance of sweet, juicy berries to meet the needs of its natural community, in turn insuring the plant's own survival. Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”