40 Days of Peace Day Twenty Six
The Three Sisters
A gift economy
“Respect on another, support one another, bring your gift to the world and receive the gift of others, and there will be enough for all.” _Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin’s referring to the lesson of the Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash. Alone, the may survive, but together they thrive in natures gift of mutual reciprocity. Together they share with us a blueprint of the world, “a map of balance and harmony.” You see, we don’t have a scarcity problem, we have a greed problem. We’ve forgotten the lesson of the sisters… we thrive in a world of abundance when we come together to share our gifts, without competition, but instead, cooperation and compassion.
“The corn stands around 8 feet tall; rippling green ribbons of leaf curl away from the stem in every direction to catch the sun. No lead sites directly over the next, so that each can gather light without sharing the others. The bean twines around the corn stalk, weaving itself between the leaves of corn, never interfering with their work. The bean leaves drop and are held close to the stem of the corn. Spread around the feet of the corn and beans is a carpet of big broad squash leaves that intercepts the light that falls among the pillars of corn. Their layered spacing uses the light, a gift from the sun, efficiently, with no waste. Acre for acre, a Three Sisters garden yields more food than if you grew each of the sisters alone.
Without the corns support, the beans would be an unruly tangle on the ground, vulnerable to bean hungry predators. The corn takes care of making light available; the squash reduces weeds and the beans help transfer nitrogen which the plants need for growth and production.
Its tempting to imagine that these three are deliberate in working together, and perhaps they are. But the beauty of the partnership is taht each plant does what it does in order to increase its own growth. But as it happens, when the individuals flourish, so does the whole.” (paraphrased from Braiding Sweetgrass)
There is enough for everyone
“The most important thing each of us can know is our unique gift and how to use it in the world. Individuality is cherished and nurtured, because in order for the whole to flourish, each of us has to be strong in who we are and carry our own gifts with conviction so they can be shared with others.”
A community is capable of thriving and living in abundance when they see that ALL gifts are purposeful in manifesting the provisions for the whole.
If we use nature as our teacher, we see a world made of gifts, everything serving a purpose that works together for the highest good of all. The tree is not “better” than the ant, both are whole and divine exactly as they are created. There is a practice of cultivating the land to work together in unison, we call Permaculture. Permaculture: the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient.
This is the way of nature but we got off track, creating mono farms, factory farms, pesticides and practices that have damaged the earth, the water and our health as a whole. The good news is, we’re turning the ship around and more of us are being called back to the soil every day. And many of us are being called to learn the wisdom that plants and herbs teach us. We’re bringing the wisdom of the sisters into our communities, our families and our “work”. We’re learning how to create our dreams by finding our “sisters”/ our team.
We each come with our own divine blueprint, gifts and a purpose. Seeking this truth is one of the first steps to returning to a world made of gifts, living in a gift economy where all flourishing is mutual. No more 1%, no more scarcity.
When we awaken to see ourselves; divine, sacred, beautiful beings with unique gifts AND connected to the collective, to each other, to our Creator… we begin experience synchronicity and doors opening. Have FAITH. When we start to seek our souls purpose, asking for our truth to be revealed, trust me, what you seek will find you!
Ask for your teachers, ask for what your heart is calling you towards. BELIEVE that these dreams placed on your heart are not some far off fairy tale, they are YOUR DREAMS and they are meant to be followed. You will find the people you are meant to create with. Let go of the things that are not meant for you. Give yourself space to be filled with your own truth. Greed and attaching yourself to a story or material things will only hold you back from your truth.
And once you find your gifts… its you gift to SHARE them!
As we leave this decade and step into 2020 I want us to believe in our own divine transformations! ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!
What are you waiting for? What is holding you back from living your highest calling? From living in joy and love and abundance?
You are made of stardust and meant to shine however you choose!
Remember.. “in order for the whole to flourish, each of us has to be strong in who we are and carry our own gifts with conviction so they can be shared with others”
In order for us to BE THE CHANGE and CHANGE THE WORLD
we must do the work to heal ourselves… to heal our wounds and traumas and fear that hold us back from living our truth and sharing our true gifts in the world.
TRANSFORMATION is making small changes that create big impact.
In transforming ourselves, we transform the world. When we love ourselves in a sacred manner, we see all our relatives as sacred. The radiating effect of this sacred love is seen in the choices we make. We become more aware of our choices, how we nourish our vessel and how we spend our time and money… We look at a dress we like and we automatically think about who made it… was she blessed in making this dress? It begins to matter. And next thing you know, abusive factory farms are closing their doors and small hand crafted businesses start flooding the market space. At least this is how I see it in my hearts eye.
“Use your gift to take care of each other, work together, and all will be fed.”
Charles Eisenstein writes of a future in which material limitation actually delivers a greater sense of wealth:
A world without weapons, without McMansions in sprawling suburbs, without mountains of unnecessary packaging, without giant mechanized monofarms, without energy-hogging big-box stores, without electronic billboards, without endless piles of throw-away junk, without the overconsumption of consumer goods no one really needs is not an impoverished world. I disagree with those environmentalists who say we are going to have to make do with less. In fact, we are going to make do with more: more beauty, more community, more fulfillment, more art, more music, and material objects that are fewer in number but superior in utility and aesthetics. . . .
Part of the healing that a sacred economy represents is the healing of the divide we have created between spirit and matter. In keeping with the sacredness of all things, I advocate an embrace, not an eschewing, of materialism. I think we will love our things more and not less. We will treasure our material possessions, honor where they came from and where they will go. . . . The cheapness of our things is part of their devaluation, casting us into a cheap world where everything is generic and expendable. . . .
Put succinctly, the essential need that goes unmet today, the fundamental need that takes a thousand forms, is the need for the sacred—the experience of uniqueness and connectedness. . . .
We are starving for spiritual nourishment. We are starving for a life that is personal, connected, and meaningful. By choice, that is where we will direct our energy. When we do so, community will arise anew because this spiritual nourishment can only come to us as a gift, as part of a web of gifts in which we participate as giver and receiver. . . .”
Dive a little deeper…
This week, the Center for Action and Contemplation has been sharing a series on the gift economy and how we can share in abundance for all with our choices.
There is no need for war, for violence, for poverty… there is enough
Making Do with More
Departing the Consumer Culture
Shams of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love
