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# System prepended metadata

title: Introduction
tags: [monograph]

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I want to start by acknowledging my grandparents - the beech trees on my childhood home – the East German island Rügen. It hosts ancient beech tree forests whose beauty is versatile, yet always striking throughout all seasons. The beech tree teachings of abundance, community care and trust in natural law follow me wherever I go. Beech trees also connect me to my long line of human ancestors who once thrived living in relationships with forests and the forest spirits. Well nourished through those close relationships, they resisted the church mission to discredit and punish intuitive ways of connecting and healing for hundreds of years. 


![kleiner](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SyCmhzyc6.jpg)


Nowadays, we still find remnants of my ancestors’ reverence in natural landmarks such as the many magical Findlinge ‘gigantic boulders and Hühnengräber ‘megalithic graves’.  The rich amount of folklore also attests to the fact that not all heathen knowledge from my islands is lost. It is often twisted or blatantly misrepresented, but those who know to look beyond, will know to interpret the information in a meaningful ways.

It will not surprise you that it brought me great relief when the news broke how my beach grandmothers and grandfathers finally became protected 10 years ago, which meant that as part of a UNESCO Heritage initiative, any commercially-oriented extraction will now be much more difficult to attempt.

I want to move on to give thanks to the tree relatives lining the paths I took as I grew older and travelled across the European, the Asian, and the American continents. Most prominently in my memory now are those tree relatives that I was blessed to frequent often or have especially memorable encounters with. There are for instance the gnarly shrub like trees on 南丫岛‘Lamma island’ in 香港 ‘Hong Kong’, fragrant plum tree orchards on 三山岛 near Suzhou in China,  lustrous maples in Ottawa, magical rainforests in British Columbia and the select mix of imported European trees and native cottonwood species in Sikoohkotooki where I now reside. I seek out trees wherever I go. Often, I even choose the places I visit for the forests near or surrounding them.

I appreciate everyone of the trees I’ve seen and those unseen for they have quietly supported me in the different stages of my life. They not only enabled my own life and still continue to support my existence but they also support  any other being around me who breathes air, drinks water, takes in energy and depends on the soil to thrive. 

I am grateful to have come to a point in my life where I can pause from migrating. For the time being, I find myself more and more strongly rooted in the soils of Siksikaiksáahko -the homelands of the Blackfoot people. It is here that have received many gifts, the most important to me being the wholesome experience of becoming aware of my ontological responsibilities, of embodying the knowledge of natural law and of enacting acts of respect and reciprocity transferred to me in valuable teachings and ceremonies.

![here](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/HJRInMJ5T.jpg)


I understand the privilege to live on saokióóhtsi ‘the prairies’ more fully with every season I pass through, and I intend to continue to listen to how I can more fully reciprocate. I am so grateful for the moments stand with the original people and their lands that include the mighty mistakistsi, also known as the Rocky Mountains, Paahtomaahsikimi, and many ot

I give thanks to nikoaiksi ‘all my relations’, who surround me and live within me, for they are my kin. Having come to live in right relationship with you, my soul has started to heal and my inner healing feeds my efforts to respectfully care for others in return. 

Last but not least, I wish to acknowledge my human herbalist teachers whose shoulders bolster my own current standing. You inspire me to step lightly and confidently onto my plant path. You feed my dreams of social justice. You prompt me to enact change. Your heart-centredness greatly enriches my life and your encouragement sustains me in building an ever-growing circle of human and more than human friends. 


