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the old.  old.  rusted.  cast iron pot.  

Oak galls.  "Oak galls are the result from  the puncture of the bark of the young twigs of Oak trees by the female Gallwasp,  Cynips Gallae-tinctorae,  who lays eggs inside.  Oak galls are very high in tannin and are therefore good for producing true blacks, greys, and buffs as well as "saddening" other dyes. "  renaissance dyeing.com

primitiveways.com/black_dye   Dino Labiste    clear instructions and beauty FULL photographs

 

Robin Wall Kimmerer  "the next step in our cultural evolution, if we are to persist as a species on this beautiful planet, is to expand our protocols for gratitude to the living earth".

Robin Wall Kimmerer gives the word:  reciprocity.   I look it up:    the practice of exchanging for mutual benefit…mutual well being.

not so much the concept of sustainability.  That infers repeating what GIVES.  over and over.   ie a sustainable lifestyle.

Reciprocity.  Reciprocity means  Earth gives.  We give back.

thinking.  what do we give back here?   This is the single most important question.  What do we give Back?

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17 responses to “the Cast Iron Pot”

  1. Mo Crow Avatar

    respect reverence kindness

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  2. Liz A Avatar

    I have been troubled of late by the sheer volume of plastic that flows through our lives … knowing that it degrades into microplastics, contaminating our oceans … an irretrievable insult delivered with every load of trash that leaves our home.
    But the food leavings, watermelon rinds and pineapple tops, apple cores and corn husks, I take out to the compost “pile” … which is in reality a critter feeding station, so it never actually piles up. This much we do give back.

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  3. Patty Avatar

    Thank you for that website-what a treasure of info. We ‘compost’
    food (we say) but usually we’re feeding the raccoons, which is
    also good.

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  4. jaime Avatar
    jaime

    I give back all that I am. Good and not so good. I breathe for the trees. Fertilize/recycle (pee and poop) for the ground beings. Microscopically I am the universe for seventeen blue zillion microbes. Good and not so good. Eventually I will add bone and blood and decomposition. Hair. Nails. And whatever else I am.
    Who we are and what we are become entangled in our intentions and our behaviors. Respect, reverence, kindness as Mo says. Awareness.
    What makes us different than the groundhog that ate all my squash plants?
    Sorry for the rant.I’m having a Desiderata mood.

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  5. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    I compost every thing I can .. have two barrels along with two rain barrels. My reward is that I get wonderful fresh veggies from my garden through a good part of the summer. The other thing I think is important is to buy what we can from thrift and resale shops. Recycle.. recycle.

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  6. Michelle Slater Avatar

    Having no yard or garden, I still bring compost materials to the collection at the Farm market which is processed and distributed around parks and gardens in NYC, I give clothes to good will or the other thrift shops nearby. I am aware that this City is hardly a sustainable enterprise, that my tiny effort is less than a drop in the ocean of debris our collective presence amounts to. I go on being and being grateful.

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  7. Judy Martin Avatar

    artists and poets and musicians and philosophers and writers and all who work with creativity give back at the same time that they give themselves nurturing and personal growth.
    in fact all people give back when they love. Van Gogh said that love was the most amazing of the art forms.
    love you Grace xoxo

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  8. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Giving back by taking less. This has been really brought home since we moved here to New Mexico. First years here, huge garden, used lots of water, mindfully but still a lot. Water is so precious here given the fact that drought conditions exist over 95% of this state. The monsoon season this year seems to be more fluid, no pun intended, so we gather water from the skies, have drastically scaled back what we plant and we still feel nourished by what we grow and hope that in turn, the land feels nourished by our lessening of water and by our feeding the earth via continual composting.

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes, these. and you make me think to write these and those below on paper and place in some kind of container

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    giving to our relatives that share our Place of Earth…

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. the raccoons, the insect people

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    who we are and what we are
    this is what we Give

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    a huge thing, the repurpose/recycle
    how we consume

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    but Each One is a drop…that ocean is 1 into Many

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    “all people give back when they love”
    love back, Judy

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    i know that your taking less, refining the thing of Need is
    so central to how you live. And your words make me think
    too, about feeling nourished by what we grow….
    Nourished.
    Not just pleasure, which certainly is, but truly
    nourished in the deepest sense of being Fed.

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  17. Saskia Avatar

    ha, looks like a lovely brew!

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