Lil Man came to me last week very enthusiastic about learning to recycle, endangered species and taking care of Mama-Earth. He rambled about what the teacher said kids can do to get involved in recycling. It warmed me from head to toe listening to his excitement as he spoke about loving every single animal and tree.

I thought to myself, "Go-on Lil Man, go give a tree some suga!" (smile)

As I was lost in my sweet thoughts about Lil Man smoochin' trees, I got jolted out of my daydream when he said "But Ma, how come we don't do things to help out? Don't you and Daddy like Mama-Earth?"

"What? What kind of nonsense is coming out of this kid's mouth?" I pondered in my head. I went through a mental trip of the countless times I've made sure bottles went to "x"bin, plastic to "y" bin, newspapers to "z" bin and so on. I've even included him in the process and he has carried some of the bins for me. Mama loves da trees and all God's creatures (save for rodents, snakes, frogs, roaches, animals with more than 4 legs, critters softer than me, beasts with funny smells...okay, so Mama doesn't love ALL creature after all). Even still, it baffled me that Lil Man would think that we don't like Earth.

I asked Lil Man why he didn't think we liked Earth and he replied, "Well my teacher said we need to buy toys, clothes and stuff made from things that don't hurt animals and Mama-Earth. We need to shop at earth stores. But we don't."

"Earth stores? What are those?" I asked while scrunching up my nose and mouth.

"It's where you go to buy stuff that doesn't hurt Mama-Earth." Lil Man answered matter-of-factly.

The next day when I saw his teacher I decided to ask her about it. She shared with me that her class had learnt about endangered species, taking care of Mama-Earth (and yes she does call her Mama-Earth) and eco-friendly stores.

"Ahhhh"...I thought to myself, "Eco-friendly stores must be what Lil Man meant when he said earth stores." I really like his teacher. She has a real burden for the environment and it shows. She might be a little more crunchy than I'll ever be, but she all-ite by me. Hey, anyone who address our planet as Mama-Earth has definately got my vote! Actually, in blogdom I've met some serious crunchies and I don't ever think I could touch them.

Check this out, there are folks out there actually giving up toilet paper for cloth wipes. Respect. Seriously, I have mad respect for their efforts, but I still can't wrap my head around that.

So this is how it's going to go down. I'm beginning to realize that being eco-friendly is a lifestyle, not a trend, not a thing for the moment, not just about sorting a few items from my garbage. I'm on a mission to shop from stores supporting and bettering our environment. As my Mama always says "What do you choose? Wealth or Riches? A person with wealth has the potential to give. A person with riches gives freely never wondering how much they've given."

I got to give richly to Mama-Earth because as the native American proverbs says, "We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrowed it from our children."