A message of healing and hope

With the current swirl of news around COVID-19, we are all reeling and doing a lot of reassessing. In times like these we need to connect with each other—in whatever way we can.
 
Willamette Falls has been a gathering place since time immemorial. The Falls also carry a promise of healing and hope, now and in the future. In that spirit of gathering together and healing, we hope to gather people together online by sharing books with you that allow us to deepen perspectives on one aspect or another of the places we now call Willamette Falls and Oregon. We hope these books can be a beacon of hope in our community as we move through this crisis.
 
We’ll share one book a week while this crisis lasts. Our weekly recommendations will bring you stories of gathering together, healing, hope, and resilience.
 
Our first book is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass—a delightful weave of indigenous wisdom and current science. A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, Kimmerer’s scheduled appearances in Oregon were canceled this week. It is our hope that, in these more homebound times, Kimmerer’s positive message of the interwoven nature of the world will both connect and inspire us.
 
In one chapter, she writes of the Thanksgiving Address shared each morning at Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois Nation) schools, which starts:

"Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one.”

The address goes on to give gratitude for the earth, the water, food and plants, medicine, trees and animals, birds and wind, nighttime sky, and all Teachers. We couldn’t think of a more hopeful and grounding practice for these trying times.

If you haven't already read it, we encourage you to get a copy of Braiding Sweetgrass and share your favorite passages with us on Facebook. It’s one way of rekindling Willamette Falls as a place to gather and share in community, even as we’re asked to stay closer to home.
 
Please take care of yourselves, your family, your community and this precious neighborhood we all share during these challenging times.
 
Warmly,

Andrew and Alexis