The Serviceberry - Part Two

Photo of the book The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer with dried flowers around it

At the beginning of the year I wrote The Serviceberry - Part One, Part Two has taken me longer than expected, but it’s been here constantly, the themes, its essence hasn’t gone away, so now I’m here putting pen to paper.

The Serviceberry is a plant, and also a book by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I read this book at Christmas and it had such a profound effect on me. Picking it up again today, to write these words, bought me right back to how deeply this book impacted me. How much I long for a world that Robin describes through the pages of the Serviceberry.

Robin looks at economics, through the definitions of traditional economics, and then, what she describes as serviceberry economics, an economy of gifts and abundance. One of elements that really stood out for me was the premise of false scarcity. Robin asks the question “What if scarcity is just a cultural construct, a fiction that fences us off from a better way of life?”

This aligns with the very conversations I have with my teachers and mentors, it’s something I’m continually trying to unpick because I feel this, I feel this deep in my bones. I feel the societal emptiness that I speak about with Francis Weller, I feel the ever-present not-enoughness that can plague our society that I speak to my other dear teacher about. It’s here for us all, it isn't just me or you, it’s collective and it’s shaped by the system we live in. A system that couldn’t survive without this sense of false scarcity.

I want to caveat this to say that for some there really isn’t enough. There is real scarcity in our world, and an inequality of wealth. Robin talks about this in the way of nature, when the rain doesn’t come and the crops are unable to grow. There is real scarcity, and there’s also false scarcity. This feeling that there’s never enough, of wanting more and more, when we really do have enough, more than enough.

“It is the manufactured scarcity that I cannot accept. In order for capitalist market economies to function, there must be scarcity, and the system is designed to create scarcity where it does not actually exist.” Robin Wall Kimmerer

It seeps into our lives and this fiction lives us, every bit of us.

I feel it, like I say, I feel it as I’m writing these words to you. It’s deep within our core and it’s inherent in the language we use every day. “I don’t have enough time.” “I don't have enough money.” “I can’t afford…” “I want to spend more time with my children.” “I must work harder (because I don’t feel good enough).” “I’m too busy.”

We value and measure success through how much we have, money, house, car, followers on social media, how we look, the things we do. Everything is shaped towards this way of being.

It’s this way of being that causes harm, to each and every one of us, and also collectively. It’s in the oppressive nature of way we work, the way we treat others, how we’re in relationship with others (or not). We end up burnt out, chasing things that we think will make us happy only for this emptiness to remain within us. We feel empty. In The Wild Edge of Sorrow Francis Weller says “Facing our emptiness is key to our freedom.” I will say again, that this is both at an individual level and as a collective.

“I cherish the notion of the gift economy, that we might back away from the grinding system, which reduces everything to a commodity and leaves most of us bereft of what we really want: a sense of belonging and relationship and purpose and beauty, which can never be commoditised. I want to be part of a system in which wealth means having enough to share, and where the gratification of meeting your family needs is not poisoned by destroying that possibility for someone else. I want to live in a society where the currency of exchange is gratitude and the infinitely renewable resource of kindness which multiplies every time it is shared rather than depreciating with use.” Robin Wall Kimmerer

It runs deep, these things always do, but as always I’m committed to the undoing, seeing what else we might be able to create within the systems we live in. To take steps to what Robin calls a “better way of life”.

For many of us we still need to “survive capitalism” as Bear Hebert always reminds me. We need enough to pay for our homes, our food. The question I have been sitting with a lot these past few years is “how much is enough?” Sometimes enough is less than we imagine it to be.

Working for myself in the way I do now has changed so much for me. There is less in terms of the financial realm and there is so much more in other areas, in purpose, in beauty, in the time I have with my family and my children, in community and the people I get to meet along the way. It challenges me, and it gives so much. This is why I advocate for a different way of being - to explore and challenge what we’ve always known and to see what else may be possible too.

I’d highly recommend this book, it opens something wide about the way we live and it’s beautiful. I know I speak here of economics, and some of what can be confronting, but this book is beautiful, really beautiful. It can open our eyes to another way of being, a deeper connection.

I continually make a commitment to unlearning and undoing. I choose spaces and people that challenge me and my way of thinking, but also do it in a loving way, because I’m here for that too. I don’t always get it right (capitalism breeds perfection) but I’m here for accountability and conversations.

To this end I’ve changed the way I’m offering my work.

I have a lot of free resources, and one low cost offering, The Shame Series (this is an in-depth series with a lot of profound content for a low cost).

I’ve lowered the cost of working with me one-to-one and I’m welcoming one-to-one clients in at the moment. I would love to welcome someone into the 6 Month Life Mentoring programme, if this is you, get in touch.

Life’s Poetry has opened up its doors. I had some beautiful conversations with those coming into Life’s Poetry last year and was able to support with lower fee places. One dear soul also offered their services in return. I welcome transparency to have those conversations. And I can only do this when others are able to commit to working with me - it takes us all.

Stability is necessary too, for me, my family, and also the free community work I offer. Last week I was called into the hospice to support a dear family. I can only do this because of all the amazing souls who choose to work with me - thank you. And if you’re able to pay more, or a higher fee I ask that you do that, this allows me to support others in this way.

My business is built on grief, love, generosity and reciprocity. If you’re able to support my work, you can do that here. And if you want to pay-it-forward i.e. pay more for a course or programme, or gift a one-to-one session for someone let me know.

I’m also in the process of setting up “donate a crystal” with the wonderful Anna Alderson. Together we’re supporting those with cancer and at end of life. More on this soon.

We can only do this together, together we begin to create a Serviceberry Economy.

There’s a lot more outside my business and financial structures that I’m doing in service of this way of being. Choosing where I spend my money, supporting independent businesses, buying less, coming into community, spending time in nature, nourishing myself with seasonal foods, prioritising family, friendships and relationships over doing, fixing things that are broken (like my oven gloves) rather than buying new, keeping our chipped plates (much to my partners disappointment), giving to charity, speaking up about what I believe in, challenging narratives, sitting in ritual. And I’m doing it all imperfectly.

With love & gratitude

With generosity & reciprocity

With imperfections and messiness

With humanity