Keep it slow and simple with a natural abundance inventory

November is Native American Heritage Month, and while we have traditionally linked Thanksgiving with the native peoples of North America, we have the opportunity to deepend and clarify that relationship.

Globally, indigenous people have lived for centuries embedded in the seasonal ebbs, flows, and changes of the regions in which they live. Through that deep relationship, they handed down wisdom about how to live in reciprocity with the earth—both harvesting and living off the land while protecting and stewarding it so that the abundance continues.

When I was a kid, my mawmaw sent us out to the giant pecan tree in her yard to gather buckets of nuts and crack them open with an old wooden nutcracker. She let the sun and wind dry her clothes and bought honey from a local beekeeper.

I wonder if she knew that the abundant neighborhood holy bushes were used for centuries to make tea or that she could eat a prickly pear. A thrifty woman who sewed all of her clothes and some of mine too, I wonder if she knew she could weave a basket with beargrass? She would have enjoyed that.

As climate change takes an ever greater toll on our planet and all of the life it sustains, now is the exact right time to rediscover reciprocity with the Earth. And an excellent place to start is to rediscover the natural abundance of the place where you live. Whether you are indigenous to the place or not, you can see your area through indigenous eyes.

What abundances are hidden in plain sight in your neighborhood?

And some clickable fun

We love to discover and share, so we’ve added three cool clickables. And just so you know, when we list products, it’s just because we like them. We’re not sponsored by anything but our dreams and imaginations.

• Want to add more indigenous recipes to your Thanksgiving feast? Check out these from firstnations.org, these from FoodCorps, and these from Indigenous chefs.

• Celebrate indigenous brilliance and culture through this collection of Native American poetry.

• Get to know the earth through it’s deepest and longest memory—its rocks. Read A Stone Is a Story: An Illustrated Love Letter to Deep Time and Earth’s Memory.