May I…

by Chris Koellhoffer, IHM    July 13, 2024

Perhaps you, like me, were raised to show respect to everyone. To greet familiar faces. To hold the door for another. In a restaurant (the few times our family dined out) to wait til everyone was served before diving into a meal. At home, to pause before supper to offer a blessing and thanks. To ask permission to be excused, “May I, please…? What a different world it would be if we showed to all of creation the same respect that was a pillar of our upbringing in our family, school, group.

I’m reminded of asking permission every time I’m sauntering along and come across a field of wildflowers. No human hand has planted them. No human heart has cared for them. And I want to pick them. Just a tiny bouquet to take to a friend who is homebound. That’s when Robin Wall Kimmerer’s concept of the Honorable Harvest wells up in me. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. In her astonishing book, Braiding Sweetgrass, she combines indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Essential to the Honorable Harvest are the practices of asking permission and giving thanks as well as the habits of self restraint, respect, and courtesy for our kin of the natural world.

The guidelines for the Honorable Harvest are not written down, but they’re reinforced in small acts of daily life. Kimmerer’s book has become for me a sort of Bible of the natural world. So when I encounter wild Moss Phlox or New England Asters or Wild Strawberries, I try to follow those practices. I introduce myself as the one who comes asking for life. I seek permission from the flowers or berries. I pick carefully, minimizing harm to the remaining members of their family. I take what I need and share what I take with another. I reciprocate the gift, offering something in return. So I might thank the Moss or the Asters or the tiny berries by weeding around them so they have more space to flourish. I might offer them a blessing. I might give them a drink from the small flask of water I carry with me on my walks. I never pick the last one of any plant and I never pick a solitary flower.

All of these are truly deep spiritual practices that acknowledge the beauty and the inherent value of all creation, of the human and the animal and the plant families and beyond, out into the Universe. When we follow the Honorable Harvest, we stretch our worldview and expand our sense of who our neighbor really is. We become fiercely protective of these precious neighbors and their well-being. We grow in our awareness of how a single action of ours affects the rest of our planet. Truly, we deepen our communion with the Holy One who creates. And we find ourselves living in a state of wonder and awe and wanting to constantly bow down in profound and lasting gratitude.

Takeaway
Sit or walk in stillness with the Holy One.
You may want to enter into conversation with a living, growing neighbor outside.
Follow the practices of the Honorable Harvest: introduce, greet, ask permission, share, and give thanks.
Spend time basking in awe, in wonder, and in profound gratitude.

Featured Image: Amy Humphries, Unsplash

NOTE:
Please hold in your prayer for July 17-20: 
All those who will be part of a directed retreat at the Sisters of St. Joseph Center for Spirituality in Ocean Grove, NJ. I’ll be one of the guest directors for these days of retreat. Thank you.

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