From the Book “Braiding Sweetgrass”: Time

“[…] in the popular way of thinking, history draws a time ‘line’, as if time marched in lockstep in only one direction. Some people say that time is a river into which we can step but once, as it flows in a straight path to the sea. But Nanabozho’s people know time as a circle. Time is not a river running inexorably to the sea, but the sea itself – its tides that appear and disappear, the fog that rises to become rain in a different river. All things that were will come again.

In the way of linear time, you might hear Nanabozho’s stories as mythic lore of history, a recounting of the long-ago past and how things came to be. But in circular time, these stories are both history and prophecy, stories for a time yet to come. If time is a turning circle, there is a place where history and prophecy converge – the footprints of the First Man lie on the path behind us and on the path ahead.”

Recommendation from Hygeia: Listen to “Why Is The World So Beautiful?” (Radio Talk) and to the music composed for the book.