It would be one thing if we had bushes overflowing with blossoms, but we don’t. For whatever reason, they’ve been hard to grow on our property, so I’ve been very careful about what I snip off for myself.

Thankfully this Aries girl who can be quick to fire up, was on the phone with our beloved Marianne. Out of my mouth was, “What the *&bleep%??” Marianne giggled and then counseled me to call out to this woman, “Can I help you?” Not what I would have come up with.

I followed her advice and the lilac lover promptly headed to her car and sped off. Good move.

This got me thinking…why did this enrage me so? Was it ego screaming, “These are MY lilacs!!!” Maybe a smidge, but not at the core of my emotion.

It was about respect. It was about the “if I want it and I can get away with taking it…” attitude. It was about smearing the idea of responsible earth stewardship.

The Mayan Elder that Peter and I have worked with, talks about asking permission…for everything. May I sit on this chair? May I enter this room? May I eat this banana?

I LOVE this concept! It immediately and by definition aligns us with our highest path. We can’t NOT be respectful if we are humbly living in a state of permission.

There’s construction going on all around our house. Every time I hear a tree fall or be fed through the chipper, I cringe. I wonder if the person operating the equipment has ever asked, “Do I have permission to cut down this 80 year old magnificent creation?” Or, “Do I have permission to level this land?”

Houses will be built and flowers will be picked.

In the process, let us all pray that we humans learn how to truly respect our beautiful planet and do these things with love and awareness. Amen.