Tippett:
Here’s something you wrote. You talked about goldenrods and asters a minute ago, and you said, “When I am in their presence, their beauty asks me for reciprocity, to be the complementary color, to make something beautiful in response.”
Kimmerer:
Yes. And I think of my writing very tangibly as my way of entering into reciprocity with the living world. It’s that which I can give and it comes from my years as a scientist, of deep paying attention to the living world, and not only to their names, but to their songs. And having heard those songs, I feel a deep responsibility to share them, and to see if, in some way, stories could help people fall in love with the world again.
The way that Robin Kimmerer talks about her relationships to plants reminds me of the ways we might talk about our teachers - all our teachers, those that are still with us and those that have left us videos, texts or chants we’ve memorized or sayings we’ve held onto. There is a reciprocal relationship to watching and learning and yet also a responsibility to knowing their context and intention and being thoughtful in the way we share teachings and pass them on.
Here is a link to a PDF of Krishnamacharya’s
Yoga Makarunda and below we have included some videos. I have also been rereading
Health, Healing, and Beyond: Yoga and the Living Tradition of T. Krishnamacharya by AG Mohan. The process of learning and yoga is so much like gardening, each year you know a little more of the whole landscape and each plant. Each year you put energy in weeding and planting and in return flowers and veggies greet us later in the summer. Cyclical and reciprocal. -Sarah
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