Music, lyrics and performance by Gretchen Sleicher
Lyrics
Picking berries all alone
In this wild mountain home
I can hear my great great grandmother’s song
Picking berries all day long
That we might come to live one day
Picking berries was her way
Picking berries all alone
In this wild mountain home
I can hear my great great granddaughter’s song
Asking me what might I do
That she may come to live one day
And pick berries in a wild mountain place
Notes
While picking huckleberries high in the Olympic mountains of Washington State, this song came through as a powerful connection running through deep time between my ancestors, my present day self and my great great grandchildren, linked by ourcommon delight in picking berries. As a white person in the U.S., of half German descent, the post WWII shaming of all things German in this country kept me disconnected from my roots. But when I could imagine my great great grandmother picking berries in the mountains of Europe in loving dedication to my future existence, a great opening happened. The question my great great grandaughter poses in this song is a touchstone as significant for me as my love for wild berries in wild places.
Full Song
Picking Berries