A Jar of Acorns...

"Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb, a lovely garden in a seed, and a giant oak in an acorn."  ~ William Arthur Ward

One of the most healing things for me on this journey with infertility has been the insights I've gained by paying attention to nature and her mysterious yet sometimes brutal ways. One of my most profound spiritual teachers is my husband who also happens to be a talented arborist, an artist of the trees. Through his experience and wealth of knowledge he has opened my eyes and my heart to the challenging, beautiful, awe-inspiring world of Oaks, Elms, Redwoods and Chestnuts; the grandmothers and grandfathers of the earth. He has illuminated my life with wonder.

When I became pregnant for the third time in 2009, following two previous miscarriages, a dear friend e-mailed me a quote about acorns and their symbolism in Celtic mythology. Its subject line read: Gather Ye Acorns! She wrote, "oak trees and acorns were thought by the Celtic culture to be powerful fertility symbols. Acorns gathered at night were the strongest bringers of fertility." I began to look at the fruits of the oak in a different light.  

Sadly at a mere 6 weeks that pregnancy ended in a devastating miscarriage. That was more than two years ago but I keep collecting acorns because it gives me hope. 

A couple of weeks ago my husband brought home acorns from a Bur Oak tree to add to my collection. Unlike the acorns of White and Red Oaks which appear to wear little caps, the nuts of the knarly Bur Oak look like they're wearing fuzzy bonnets with a crown of hair peaking out. By design these precious packages foretell the appearance of their potential selves each portraying a unique character. How wonderful! 

I recently found another explanation of acorn imagery: "In Norse and Celtic culture, acorns symbolized life, fertility and immortality. Since the acorn only appears on a fully mature oak, it is regarded as a symbol of the patience needed to attain goals over long periods of time, thus representing perseverance and hard work."

What strikes me is that it's only a fully mature oak that bears acorns.

The past three years have certainly been a time of growth for me in so many delicate yet deep ways its difficult to enumerate. I have become an explorer in my own life. I travel inwardly to the depths of my sorrow and outwardly to gather experiences and meet the teachers I need to meet. I read. I am nurturing my voice. I am giving myself permission to be in this world; to occupy space, to speak my thoughts, to sound my heart. I am following a spiritual path that continues to unfold. Several months after my last miscarriage I wrote in my journal: My babies are giving birth to me and when I am born, I will be a mother. I'm still in the womb.

In the book Simple Abundance, a regular resident of my bed side table, author Sarah Ban Breathnach makes a careful distinction between perseverance and persistence in the chapter 'The Tao of Success'. She writes,

"Perseverance in life is being steadfast; persistence is being stubborn. Perseverance is achievement’s perspiration; persistence is its sweat. Persistence is knocking on Heaven’s doors so often and so loudly on behalf of your dreams that eventually you’ll be given what you want, just to shut you up."

I keep waiting to be gifted with a child to confirm that I am in fact worthy of motherhood. But I'm starting to learn it doesn't work that way. "If you think you're not strong enough to bear the Glory, rest assured it will be withheld until you believe you can and ask for it," Sarah Ban Breathnach writes. The challenge has been issued. The next curve of my journey has been revealed. 

In the meantime my tender heart is consoled by a fact my husband shared with me as we sat in bed, from Richard Preston’s The Wild Trees. "Over the course of its lifetime, a redwood may produce a billion seeds. On average, in the fullness of time, one of the seeds may grow up to become a mature redwood." Preston explains, "the seeds of a redwood are tiny and most of them don't grow...redwoods produce most of their seeds only in certain years, when conditions are just right, which are called cone years." We've cast some seeds and they didn't grow. Like the redwoods I'm trying to have faith.

And so with a jar of acorns on my bookshelf, a prayer in my heart, and all the vitamins a girl could want, I continue on this journey with my beautiful husband dancing with patience, perseverance, persistence and most of all love.