What will we give in return?
Summer often brings a little extra time for reflection, reading, and revisiting favorite books. As we found ourselves returning to the work of Robin Wall Kimmerer this season, we were reminded once again why her voice continues to resonate so deeply. Through books such as Gathering Moss, Braiding Sweetgrass, and The Serviceberry, she has invited us to see the living world not as a collection of resources, but as a network of relationships.
As both a botanist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer has become known for weaving together Western science and Indigenous knowledge through beautiful stories that reveal how each can deepen our understanding of the natural world.
A common thread throughout her work is the idea that gratitude and reciprocity are not simply personal virtues; they are essential ecological practices. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she explores what it means to live as a respectful participant in the web of life. In The Serviceberry, she challenges assumptions about scarcity and accumulation, pointing instead to the generosity and mutual exchange that are common throughout nature. Her writing repeatedly asks us to reconsider our role in the world; do we have responsibilities to give back to nature?
This question took on new urgency while listening to Robin's recent conversation on the AskNature Podcast. (Thank you to the AskNature team for creating a space where these kinds of meaningful conversations can flourish.) Reflecting on biomimicry, she observed that applying it within a rights-based culture may have a very different impact than applying it within a responsibility-based culture. Learning from nature, she suggests, is only part of the story. The deeper question is what we will give in return. What will we give back to the plants, animals, watersheds, and ecosystems that have inspired our innovations? What responsibilities accompany the knowledge we receive?
Perhaps the most thought-provoking moment came when Robin shared a question that has been occupying her mind: "What does the forest need?" At a time when climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecological degradation dominate headlines, this question offers a profound shift in perspective. Designers are trained to identify user needs. Businesses are trained to identify market needs. Yet how often do we ask what a river, a forest, or an ecosystem might need from us?
For those of us exploring biomimicry and life-centered design, this may be one of the most important invitations Robin offers. Nature is not only a source of ideas, strategies, and inspiration. It is also a relationship. As we design products, services, buildings, and systems, perhaps we can begin by asking not only what we can learn from nature, but also what nature might need from us. That simple shift, from extraction to reciprocity, may be one of the most powerful design challenges of our time.
Learn more about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work and find her books at: https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com
Cut down tree at the edge of a forest in Idlewild, Ca
