"Apple River Musings" (Image & Text Copyright Wylddane Productions, LLC)
Apple River Musings
There is a river not far from here, called the Apple River. Most know it by its English name, but few know the deeper roots from which it flows.
In the Ojibwe language, it is called Waabiziipiniikaan-ziibi — "River Abundant with Swan Potatoes."
When French explorers came, they translated it partially, keeping only pomme — "apple" — from pomme de terre, meaning "apple from the earth," their term for potato.
By the time the English name was settled, only the word "apple" remained. The river lost something in translation — yet it also gained a kind of quiet mystery.
Still, if you sit along its banks, and if you listen, you can feel the deeper meaning whispering through the waters.
The river remembers.
It carries with it the memory of the people who lived here long before us, who knew the land not as a possession, but as a living, breathing spirit to be honored.
The Ojibwe, who named the river so thoughtfully, built their lives around values that feel both ancient and urgently needed today:
How much better, kinder, and more sustainable our world might be.
The other day, a friend posted something that struck me deeply.
"I have something a billionaire will never have... I have enough."
Enough.
Such a small word — and yet it holds an entire world of peace within it.
Enough means being rooted. It means knowing the taste of contentment. It means understanding that wealth has little to do with accumulation, and everything to do with belonging.
As I sit by the Apple River, watching its waters slip past stones and roots, sunlight glinting on its surface, I feel it: that sense of enough.
The sound of the water over the rocks is a song older than any words I know.
The scent of pine needles, sun-warmed earth, and the crisp bite of the river air fills my lungs with something I can only call gratitude.
Here, there is no race to win. No fortune to build. No world to conquer.
There is only the river, the trees, the sky, the life moving all around me.
And the quiet reminder that to live fully, we do not need more.
We need only to remember.
To respect.
To share.
To learn.
To love.
And to know, deep down in our bones, that we already have enough.
~Wylddane
There is a river not far from here, called the Apple River. Most know it by its English name, but few know the deeper roots from which it flows.
In the Ojibwe language, it is called Waabiziipiniikaan-ziibi — "River Abundant with Swan Potatoes."
When French explorers came, they translated it partially, keeping only pomme — "apple" — from pomme de terre, meaning "apple from the earth," their term for potato.
By the time the English name was settled, only the word "apple" remained. The river lost something in translation — yet it also gained a kind of quiet mystery.
Still, if you sit along its banks, and if you listen, you can feel the deeper meaning whispering through the waters.
The river remembers.
It carries with it the memory of the people who lived here long before us, who knew the land not as a possession, but as a living, breathing spirit to be honored.
The Ojibwe, who named the river so thoughtfully, built their lives around values that feel both ancient and urgently needed today:
- Respect for Nature: A deep, abiding connection to the Great Spirit and to all living things — seeing trees, rivers, animals, and even stones as part of a sacred family.
- Sharing and Generosity: Life was built not around accumulation, but around giving. A gift was not a transaction, but a sacred act of connection.
- Reciprocity: An unspoken understanding that what we give to the world — to others, to the earth — eventually returns to us in one form or another.
- Knowledge and Wisdom: Learning was not hoarded; it was shared, honored, passed down like a treasured gift, binding generations together.
- Interconnectedness: Every being, every element, every moment was part of a single, vibrant web of life, woven through with respect and care.
How much better, kinder, and more sustainable our world might be.
The other day, a friend posted something that struck me deeply.
"I have something a billionaire will never have... I have enough."
Enough.
Such a small word — and yet it holds an entire world of peace within it.
Enough means being rooted. It means knowing the taste of contentment. It means understanding that wealth has little to do with accumulation, and everything to do with belonging.
As I sit by the Apple River, watching its waters slip past stones and roots, sunlight glinting on its surface, I feel it: that sense of enough.
The sound of the water over the rocks is a song older than any words I know.
The scent of pine needles, sun-warmed earth, and the crisp bite of the river air fills my lungs with something I can only call gratitude.
Here, there is no race to win. No fortune to build. No world to conquer.
There is only the river, the trees, the sky, the life moving all around me.
And the quiet reminder that to live fully, we do not need more.
We need only to remember.
To respect.
To share.
To learn.
To love.
And to know, deep down in our bones, that we already have enough.
~Wylddane
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