Human Delegates to The Democracy of Species
“The [Haudenosaunee] Thanksgiving Address describes our mutual allegiance as human delegates to the democracy of species.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
I’ve just finished reading the chapter “Allegiance to Gratitude” in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s brilliant book Braiding Sweetgrass. In this chapter, she speaks and embodies the power of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. The quote above has been emblazoned on my mind and heart, a kind of epiphany. I seem to be repeating it in every conversation I have these days, asking how to hold the horrors of this specific historical moment, most specifically the brutality of the war & violence in Gaza and Israel..
How do we, those of us who live in spaces of beauty and light, behold and celebrate the natural world as it is unfolding before us in the expansiveness of June, while other parts of the world suffer the most egregious atrocities?
I thought to begin this newsletter with a poetic meditation:
'All in a rush…
everything bursts green and we feel the heady rush
Of summer’s gaudy promise.
The delicate spring ephemerals dissipate
In the May heat, skunk cabbage and dutchman’ britches withdraw.
The last of the Tulip’s petals drop, with a reveal of yellow stamen and watercolor wash.
As the flowers release, now building seed power for next year, we are admitted into its glory of decay.
It is a thing to be with what is passing, catching the ‘just now’ moment.
The moment where shape shifts, where what is, has passed into what is becoming.
Nature…
Is the essence of ephemerality. We know this. We fear it. We live it. We forget it. We remember it.
We see it in the fallen tulip leaf, we see it in humanity's brutality, we see it in last breath of our beloveds.
And then the voice came in me, how can you talk about this, Kathleen, the beauty and decay in nature, while the world order and the very nature of how we understand reality is fragmenting?
This is not a new question. How DO we celebrate, when others are suffering?
I do not have a complete/final answer.
And I am risking, hoping, inviting, those of you reading this newsletter to ponder with me.
I wish to give voice to the conflict and contradiction I feel within myself, right now.
One friend shared an important observation with me:
Our own inner conflict about what to say, to whom and how is a reflection of our own neurosis. Why even give voice to this conflict I’m having? How to say anything without trivializing?
But here I am. Here we are.
I am aware that these are polarizing, vulnerable, impossible waters to navigate.
The Thanksgiving Address
Another friend/colleague shared with me that the nature of The Thanksgiving Address in its living tradition is rooted in the locality of the speaker. So we are called to be in gratitude for the beauty we behold right where we are. (Please find their Post Script below with additional info)
I'm asking...
If we understand we are human delegates to the democracy of species, then what actions do we take to reflect this world view, philosophy, way of being?
I offer this perspective as a counterpoint to a humanity at war with itself.
No amount of my suffering can mitigate the suffering of others. I can stand in compassionate witness to that suffering.
How do I stand?
I continue to dwell in this question. I keep listening at the edge of unknowing .
I stand by beholding the beauty that is before me. I give gratitude for the gifts I have received.
I struggle to write a truth that may touch our hearts. I do the work of living right where I am. I endeavor to be the best human delegate wherever I stand.
I remember as I behold the fallen tulip petal, the cottonwood leaves as they applaud for their full emergence.
I do the work that has been given me to do.
I pray in community with kindred human delegates, knowing we are held within the created order of the democracy of species.
As The Thanksgiving Address invites us to do, may we behold and be in gratitude for the beauty that is before our very eyes, wherever we are.
Life As Prayer
So we arrive with an invitation to join me and Elizabeth Cunningham for a new, expanded session of the workshop Our Lives As Prayer.... the above quote comes from her most recent book My Life As A Prayer.
Please join us...
Learn More/Register for Our Lives As Prayer - June 2024
Prayerfully,
Kathleen C. Mandeville, M. Div.
Community Pastor, Consultant, Facilitator, Coach
PS Regenerative culture design consultants Honey Sweet Harmony shared with me one version of the Thanksgiving Address as an English-language PDF and as a booklet published in Mohawk paired with many world languages. These were gifted by Tekaronianekon “Where Two Skies Come Together” Jake Swamp, sub-chief of the Wolf Clan, Mohawk, Haudenosaunee & founder of the Tree of Peace Society, and are an example of countless possible variations of the Address.
Through The Outer Edge, Kathleen offers personal and organizational coaching, employing the modalities of Systemic Constellations, ritual, pastoral guidance. Her specialities include working with healers and creatives, as they achieve the true expression of their soul’s mission. Combining heart centered intuition with hard headed strategy...'Cuz, baby you're a firework.'
Contact me at The Outer Edge Coaching for a free 30 minute consultation....