Happy almost Winter Solstice to you all! I recently started listening to the audiobook Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (how has it taken me this long to read it?!) and was moved by a chapter called “The Gift of Strawberries”, where she speaks about giving gifts and how we perceive them in our society. As we move through a time of year when our lives are dominated with giving and receiving presents, I always like to remind myself that I am constantly surrounded by gifts. You just need to know how to look for them. Below are a couple excerpts that spoke to me:

“A gift comes to you through no action of your own, free, having moved toward you without your beckoning. It is not a reward; you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it. And yet it appears. Your only role is to be open-eyed and present. Gifts exist in a realm of humility and mystery – as with random acts of kindness, we do not know their source…”

“…How, in our modern world, can we find our way to understand the earth as a gift again, to make our relations with the world sacred again? I know we cannot all become hunter-gatherers – the living world could not bear our weight – but even in a market economy, can we behave ‘as if’ the living world were a gift?”

I believe we can and I believe this community truly does consider the earth as a gift. By supporting Stearns, you are showing the value and significance in the work we do. You know how precious the earth is and that supporting local farms can help give back to our beautiful planet. 

Not only is this a time of year to give gifts of appreciation to our loved ones, but this is also the time of year to give back to parts of our world that need our help. Whatever you decide to do – donate to missing and murdered Indigenous women, buy a local CSA share, purchase products from companies that remove trash from the ocean, volunteer at a food pantry, donate coats to shelters – the world is lucky to have such considerate and kind people in it. It’s lucky to have YOU in it! 

Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope you all stay safe, warm, and surround yourself with love and light. 

Until next time,
Ember