Acorn Wisdom

The Acorn

Fall has always been my favorite season. It’s a calming down

from the activity of summer. It’s a letting go, a slowing down.

It’s a welcoming home, a time of gathering and a time of

remembering to share the many gifts we have been given.

The tiny acorn is one of my fall treasures.

A few years ago when I lived in the Hudson Valley, we had a

giant old oak tree, that relentlessly dropped acorns on us as we

sat outside, carpeting the ground with acorns of all shapes and

sizes. Loving creativity and crafts, I gathered up the biggest and

best of them, hundreds of them, to use in projects with my

classes and my grandkids. And as usual the acorn spoke to my

recovery as much as it did to my crafting.

The acorn has long been a symbol of growth, potential,

patience and faith. An acorn will first appear only on a tree that

is between 25 and 30 years old, a tree that has been around for

awhile. Sometimes the things we want to give life to might also

take a while to appear. Can you be patient, believing in your

potential, believing in God’s plan for your growth even when

nothing seems to be happening?_______________________

And when that first acorn does appear, it could take up to 24

months to be mature enough to drop from the tree and begin a

life of its own. What or who are the things and people you are

rushing? ___________________________________________

When the acorn does fall, it is too heavy to travel far from it’s

parent tree. Unlike many other seeds, it can’t be carried by the

wind so it relies on birds and animals to carry it away from the

parent tree. Will you allow yourself to be carried by others?

___________________________________________________

Who do you rely on to carry you when you just can’t seem to

do something by yourself? ____________________________

What is preventing you from receiving support from others?

___________________________________________________

The acorn needs to be carried at least 100 feet from the parent

tree so it can find fertile ground to root in. The tiny acorn

cannot grow in the shadow of older established trees who are

using up the water and nutrients in the soil and would prevent

the seedling from getting sunlight. Because the acorn will grow

into such a large and strong tree, it needs space.

What kind of space do you need?________________________

Is your seeking space a positive thing or a running away and

isolating?__________________________________________

The acorn follows the design of nature. It is it’s authentic self.

Can you imagine what you might accomplish if you could

connect with your authentic self? Can you imagine the seeds

you might plant if you were free from the crowding of societal

expectations? Can you imagine leaving the cultural land of

“not enoughness” and planting yourself in the ground of your

divine feminine nature.?

The acorn that is carried away from the tree to fertile ground

does not immediately plant itself there. The acorn needs the

tough shell that protects the seed until it is ready to germinate

regardless of how fertile the ground is. When you are carried to

a new place, can you be patient with yourself and with the

place you have landed in. Just getting somewhere does not

always mean that the place is ready for you or you are ready for

it.

Can you wait for what you want?

Can you sustain yourself through times of waiting?

Can you allow the place you have landed to accept you in its

own good time?

Can you embrace your new beginnings without expectations

or blame?

When an oak tree is ready to produce acorns, some trees can

produce 1000 acorns in a single year and then there are years

when no acorns are produced at all.

The oak tree teaches us that abundance is a gift to be

appreciated, rather than expected. When life disappoints you

and you go through dry spells, do you get emotionally stuck in

the scarcity of the moment?

When a thousand acorns are lying on the ground, though every

one of them holds possibility, not every one of them will

become a tree. They are like the thousands of opportunities we

find in our lives, though they all look good, we have to select

the ones that are right for us, right for our passion, right for our

purpose and then work slowly and carefully nurturing those.

The oak tree and acorn are symbols of limitless potential, in

that some trees over 200 years old are still producing acorns.

No matter how old you are, you too have limitless potential.

Now I might not be producing babies anymore, and gratefully I

am not, but what I have learned from years of having and

raising children has become a wisdom that can nourish and

guide others.

Limitless potential is in all of us. But like the acorn, if we hide in

the shade of our parent or family tree, we won’t grow into our

potential. Some of us hide in the shade of needing to fit in.

Some of us hide in the shade of expectations.

Some of us hide in the shade of shame.

Staying in the shade can sometimes be a temporary rest, but

we can’t stay there forever if we are to grow.

Staying in barren soil, prevents us from growing.

Staying too long in our shell, even after we have found the right

external conditions, prevents us from growing.

The acorn reminds us to stop hiding in the shade, no matter

how comfortable it might feel.

The acorn reminds us to find places with richer soil,

communities, jobs, courses, meetings, places that support us as

we grow.

The acorn reminds us to crack open our shell and begin to send

out roots, to grow and expand .

The acorn reminds us to trust each step of the process,

remembering we were designed for greatness, being patient

with the natural course of things, being courageous when we

are cracked open

Inside the acorn is everything it needs to know to thrive as a

mighty oak, a tree that can grow tall enough to seed an entire

forest around it. Also within that acorn is millions of years of its

ancestors growth history.

Inside you and me is also everything we need to know to thrive

as women of God, as well as everything we have learned from

our ancestors experiences in the past. Remember. the strong

tree is not the one protected from wind and sun, it is the one

that can survive the years of pressure from wind and sun, the

one that stands tall, unafraid to be seen, confident in the

strength that has been in it since