How Could Appreciating an Oak Tree Change Your Life?

Genuine appreciation of what is taking place in the world around us is directly related to our capacity for presence.

Conversely, our capacity for presence is practically nurtured by taking the time to appreciate the world around us. The truth is that many of us are so distracted, that we spend very little time appreciating our lives. We are often so busy that our perception is blurred and many beautiful and enriching elements of our daily existence fly by unnoticed. Many of us are so engrossed in problem solving and producing that we can go days on end without taking a few moments for a deep breath and inquisitive gaze at the world around us. Most of us would say that we don’t stop often enough to ask a genuine question in curiosity about the people we share a workspace with and give a little time to explore their response together. These types of interactions seem like good ideas to us but most often “have to wait.” The truth is, most of us have much better lives available to us than we are actually living. We simply spend so little time appreciating the wonder all around us.

Jesus called this out in what is perhaps his best-known teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. In it, he highlights how many of us are slaves to a quest for control and for “more” that is fueled by an ethic of self-reliance but ironically requires an allegiance to money and the process of acquisition. Instead, Jesus proposes that the very world around us invites us into a story of being known and loved by God, who has already provided what we need. Diligence and creativity are not about securing what we do not have but enjoying and stewarding what we already do have.

The doorway to beginning to seek the good way God has invited us to walk begins with stepping through the door of APPRECIATION.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:28-29, "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." In the original language, when Jesus challenges us to "consider" the lilies there is a challenge being presented which is rooted in a confidence that as deep as you "dig" into an understanding of the lily you will still not exhaust the benefit and wonder that comes from the inquiry. Yet, the starting point of this invitation is not study but APPRECIATION. Pause from the break neck speed of your life and the culture that pumps anxiousness, conflict, and uncertainty into our public awareness (because they are needed to drive consumption) and notice that the natural world around you is telling a very different story.

Of course, the applications of this wisdom transcend (quite broadly I might add) the personal implications. Leaders of all types of organizations can testify to the vital place that organizational culture has on the health, productivity, and sustainability of their entity or group. Still, so much of our efforts to fix and improve our corporate endeavors are part and parcel of the broken culture tearing away at our personal lives and perspectives. Far fewer have considered that the incredible natural environment around us that is so full of beauty, abundance, interconnectedness, and collaboration without co-opting has something to teach us.

Jesus understood this though. His teaching is echoing across the ages. We can still benefit from responding to it.

What does the landscape surrounding you have to offer you in addressing not only broken perspectives but genuine and practical problems as well?

This is the question that I am engaging with a growing group of others. I live in Sonoma County, which has been identified as the 2nd most bio-diverse county in America. Among the most iconic and prolific features of our landscape are over a dozen different types of Oaks. These beautiful trees serve as a "keystone" species for the ecosystem around them. They are prolific producers of food, shelter, protection, and ecological restoration. They accomplish this not by how fast they function, but rather by how SLOW they function. It seems so counter-intuitive, yet also obvious when you consider that sometimes it is much more important how long something lasts than how soon it arrives. Oaks restore dry, nutrient poor environments around them precisely because they have staying power. For example, their leaves decompose very slowly. This allows them to provide food coverage for a vast array of essential microbes and insects while also capturing water, preventing runoff, and instead feeding the water table around the tree. The lessons we can learn from oaks are many and learning them while gazing upon their beauty, enjoying their shade, and creating space for APPRECIATION is an exceptionally restoring experience.

For most, the take-away from this reflection is to fight for moments of APPRECIATION each day.

But for some, there is something more that is tugging at your heart. For those, I invite you to explore more about what we are learning and offering through Signaterra.

~Adam Peacocke