I brake for lilacs!

Score! I'm sitting here surrounded by the lovely scent of a few fresh-cut lilacs...their fragrant sprigs permeating and intoxicating my imagination. For me, they herald May and mid-Spring in a way that no other flower can. Honestly, I can hone in on them like radar while driving. Like an addict, I scour the moving landscape with my keen eye for the purple cones, knowing full well that I only have a few short weeks in which to pilfer them from abandoned lots and properties. Never have I deprived myself of this vice or...when I owned homes, I planted them in my yards...when I did not own homes, I planted them in pots. I have a compulsive dependency on lilacs, for when they are not in bloom (which is most of the year) I have my stash of lilac essential oil to tide me over. My parents injected me with my first dose of lilac obsession by lining two sides of our property with a wall of lavender, deep purple and white varieties. I am hopelessly incurable during the enticement of their blissful bloom. Mark Twain must have loved lilacs, too, because he once said:
"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the lilac sheds on the heel that has crushed it." Do you think he'd mind too terribly much that I just substituted one itsy bitsy word in his quote...from violet to lilac?

©2012 Debbie Ballard (text only)

May Day Mayhem

 

In my youth, it was common practice on the 1st of May to gather Spring flowers from your yard, fashion them in to impromptu bouquets, leave them on the doorstep of your neighbors and then run away after knocking on their door or ringing their doorbell. What was left for them was an act of surprise remembrance by someone who lived close by, in the form of fragrance and beauty.

Today is a totally different story. Too many around the world utilize May 1st as an excuse to wreak havoc upon their fellow neighbors with mindless acts of vandalism and violence. I often wonder what those who initiate these actions would feel if it were their property or possessions that were being ravaged for no reason, or worse yet, their loved one hurt or killed during these brutal outbursts.

Understandably, there are often gross economic inequities that exist within all countries, governments and corporations, etc...there is absolutely no guarantee that we get to live in a perfect, utopian world...but I guess I just fail to comprehend how committing such acts of devastation can solve these dilemmas. Just exactly how do these types of actions resolve these problems, is what I'd like to know.  How does deliberately hurting someone else in a myriad of ways make things better for us all?

This is just another example of man's inhumanity to man and, quite frankly, when demonstrated in this manner shows animal-like regression rather than human being evolution. Surely, there must be another way to be heard, validated and to spark change for the better. So my plea to those who join in with the lawlessness of this day, I say to you, 'try to start with dialogue and not destruction'...because your actions DO reflect upon who you are as a person and what your heart truly represents.

 ©2012 Debbie Ballard