Acorn Week

It’s acorn week for Erin and The Bird & Bear Collective. This is the time of year I collect as many perfect acorns as I can ~ ensuing that they each have a firmly secured cap.

Over the next few days I’ll be hiding acorns in the pockets of my daughter’s hoodies, toiletries, and backpack before we drop her back at college. I’ll also be putting them in my other kids’ cleats before pre-season and on their bedside tables before the first day of school. I’ll even have a collection to hand out at the Bird & Bear as we prepare to step into Fall.

As a lonely little girl in my childhood, acorns were some of my first friends. I’d carry them in my pockets, draw little faces on them so I could play make believe with each collection, and put them to rest on my bedside table.

When my kids were small, we’d go on acorn hunts and see who could find the most. We’d draw faces on them and I’d tell them how acorns were their mom’s first friends. I’d also tell them how the acorn is like us, a brave seed who looks like a soldier wearing a helmet, prepared to brave the wilderness in the dark underground while growing deep roots that would one day become a tall and mighty oak tree … just like them.

In 2004, which was also the year I was married, the oak tree was named the national tree for United States. In 2013 our family moved to our current home with a backyard barn surrounded by gigantic oak trees. This is why we have the 3 rings around the Bird & Bear logo ~ they are the rings of an oak tree.

These brave little seeds have been a constant in my life since I can remember. A faithful reminder that brave seeds one day grow into mighty oaks.

This Bird & Bear was just an acorn seed years ago. Today we know that it is growing strong roots and big trees as we gather and plant new brave seeds year in and year out.