Here from Maria Pierleoni is a story about a boy named Lucas, a 300-year-old oak tree, and what lies beyond the physical that sets human life apart.
In the midst of a woods walk with a group of first graders, young Lucas, who had so proudly discovered an acorn that still had the hat attached to it, grabbed my hand and excitedly asked, “Do you know what’s inside my acorn?” And before I could give any sort of reply to his question, he jumped in the air and threw his arms and his legs out like a starfish and yelled, “A Mighty Oak!”
I smiled and asked, “If that’s what is inside your acorn, what do you think is inside you, Lucas?”
“Blood and guts Mrs. P, just like you’ve got.”
Now why is it that someone has taught this amazingly bright and beautiful child that inside every acorn is a mighty oak, but he has yet to be brought into the discovery of what is inside every human being, beyond blood and guts?
This is what was unspoken in my mind - If he had been able to understand, I might have said...
Dear Lucas,
Inside every human is a spectacular display of radiant possibility, of unknown capacity of flex and flow, inside a connection to that which created all humankind for purpose and promise of a never-ending story of joining together inside a covenant created just for humans and their creator.
Well, he was only 7, so maybe not. But my question remains the same. Why not?
The acorn cannot separate itself from the mighty oak contained in the seed. If it finds itself in the right ecology (a steady supply of good earth soil and nutrients, sufficient rainwater, fresh air breezes, sunshine and space to spread out) it will grow and grow. That’s all it needs to become mighty. We can imagine an oak tree some 100 feet into the sky with a trunk as wide as we are tall. Its enormous, steady and stable presence, royal-like in its place of occupation on the planet, holds the space and radiates the frequency of oak as far out as is possible, for anyone who wishes to be with it.
A Mighty Oak
Years ago, in a small town in Maryland, an old oak had stood for some 300-plus years in a churchyard, visited by many churchgoers Sunday after Sunday, and climbed on by generation after generation of Sunday school goers of all ages. It was loved, revered as quite special and caused awe in locals, friends and family and visitors as well. During one of my visits to the area I had the privilege of being in the presence of this mighty oak, after it had fallen and was being readied for clean up to make the churchyard safe. If you’ve ever hugged a tree, perhaps you have felt its warmth and the spark of life that lives in it, or heard its gentle song as it radiates its “mighty” in so many different ways.
This old oak had begun to rot from storm damage, and insects and woodpeckers were beginning to call it home. But so that its purpose and promise would not be forgotten, a local artist took parts of the tree for repurposing into a variety of sculptures. With the leftover pieces, he cut up little 2 inch by 3 inch chunks of wood, wrapped a wire around each piece, affixed an old key to the wire, then numbered each piece and gave them away to the churchgoers, family, friends and visitors to remember the oak tree and stay connected to its brand of mighty. Somewhere along the way some 300 years ago, a tiny acorn was planted or found its way into the earth, right in that spot, and up she grew. She became a witness in the churchyard to all that went on there, to all the humans that had come past her, by way of birth, death, matrimony, celebration, school and in the worship of life and living for all those years.
I told this story to Lucas and he was caught by the tree living 300 years in the same spot, much longer than his Grandma had lived or anyone else he had known in his 7 short years of being alive. It was a stretch for him to imagine the tree seeing all the babies as they came to the church for baptism, or the couples that came to be married, or the grandmothers that came to find their final home in the church cemetery. “300 years is a long time,” he said. I showed him a photograph of an old oak on my phone and asked, “What do you think makes this tree mighty?” “It’s HUGE!” he exclaimed, “and all the birds in the neighborhood can come and make their nests there because they know it’s safe.” (Interesting that he put “mighty” and “safe” together.)
If all acorns are seeds and contain everything they need to know to produce a mighty oak, does it work the same for the human? Will a steady supply of good earth food, fresh water, clean air and sunshine produce a mighty human? Well, yes. Maybe? But what about what lies beyond the strength and stamina of the physical being?
What IS inside the human?
A Magnificent Human
Now I asked young Lucas to think beyond the blood and guts he so vividly could imagine inside himself and myself, to see if we could find a hint of what was inside the human. I suggested we change out the word “mighty” for the oak to “magnificent” for the human. He asked why. I explained that “mighty” covers the size and power and strength of the tree. “Magnificent” to mean (per the dictionary): “impressively beautiful, elaborate or extravagant, superb or excellent”, which goes beyond the physical presence of something.
“A Magnificent Human,” he said aloud. I thought he was beginning to get it and so I asked, “If inside every human there is a magnificent human waiting to grow, what’s inside this boy named Lucas?” He thought for a moment and then out it popped:
“A pilot!
No, an astronaut!
Oh, Oh, Oh...a space traveler! That‘s what’s inside me. A space traveler to the stars. I think I will need to grow mighty like the oak first, Mrs. P, so I can reach that far.”
For Lucas, becoming a specific something with a name was his understanding of what’s possible inside life and living as a human. What he had yet to discover about himself and be able to articulate, is that he was a container or a seed for many things besides being a space traveler. He was curious, respectful, caring, willing, considerate, and soft.
He also held the exuberance for the discovery of new ideas, the delight in wanting to explore and know more, the willingness and the desire to stretch to understand and the can-do attitude that radiates from the ‘Let me get started by becoming mighty first.’ Lucas was exhibiting the ‘anything is possible’ that exists inside every human, waiting to be activated and acted upon or simply continued on from being a child, when everything is new, an exploration and an experimentation into the “what next?”.
Note to Lucas and reminder for myself and perhaps all selves:
May you seek the endless wonderings, ponderings and awe from nature, the planet and the world around you.
May you continue to ask questions about everything, today, tomorrow and the next tomorrow in search of truths and reasons.
Never stop imagining what could be.
Never stop dreaming of a better future.
Find ways to create again and again and again.
To cause the need-to-know feelings and urges that keep us all succeeding in the growing of a life...your life, my life, Lucas’s life, a magnificent human’s life.
What’s inside your magnificent human?
If you enjoyed this article, you may also appreciate these other writings from Maria:
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