The trees gave so much sap today.
A glorious gift — each tap yielding two, clear, crisp, cold gallons of sweet sap.
Robin Wall Kimmerer says that dominion is not it any more.
Probably never was.
Reciprocity is our responsibility to sustain the earth.
I think back to all of the leaves fetched from the Bristol Village.
The organic mix to add calcium to the soil.
To not taking wood from the sugarbush.
Just letting it rot to feed the soil, slow the water, and house the critters.
The gift is the sap and today’s sap will yield 5 gallons of syrup.
We have gifts to give in return.
It makes us so much better when we find our way into that role.
That expansion of reciprocity is needed now.
It is a humble relationship whose time has come.
Pondering the gifts to share with this glorious natural tree world.
A natural world that loves us back in sweet sap.
David Brynn
Bristol