Just an Old man out standing in his field

The photo above is the portion of our mature woods where this year we tapped six sugar maples, collecting over 80 gallons of fresh maple sap. Not being prepared yet to complete the process, we gave this away to friends to include in their active syrup production.

But I had an interesting experience last night and this morning I felt compelled to share with you, my friends.

My wife and I are now empty nesters on forty acres of her century old family farm. As I’ve admitted many times, I’m far from worthy to be called, let alone call myself, a farmer. And especially now at age 72 and ages past my once svelt physique, the idea of actively farming is far beyond the pale. I call what I do now, farming vicariously: I enjoy farming by watching and supporting the active farmers or homesteaders who live around me.

For example, when I drive past a beautiful Jersey heifer grazing in a field, a voice from within (ignoring my real age and thinking I’m still 30 or 40) sometimes whispers, “Wouldn’t it be great to have one of those beauties again, to be hand-milking in the barn, producing gallons of fresh raw milk and cream, and then butter, cottage cheese, and yogurt, and farmer’s cheese?” Quickly, however, like a spiritual superman, my guardian angel gives a counter whisper, and I scream aloud, “Get behind me Satan! That ship has sailed!”

So what am I to do with this land? The most obvious seems to be to turn my focus from the mere ten acres of pasture to the far more abundant thirty acres of woods. Oaks, maples, black walnuts, hickories, poplars, cherries, aspens, pine, sassafras, locust, and dozens more species, including the honey locust that reminds us every time of our Lord’s vicious Crown of thorns. This canopy of green is undergirded with seemingly endless groves of spice bushes, bramble berries, multafloura rose, and far too many invasives and grape vines. This is also home to dozens of white-tail deer, raccoons, possums, squirrels, chipmonks, and a brazillion frogs and birds.

There is much, much to do here to manage and renew these woods, not just for the potential profit of lumber and fire wood, but for attracting wildlife, like our six grandchildren.

In the process of shifting this focus, I’ve had the privilege of meeting a whole new cackle of neighbors, not just the farmers and homesteaders, but now the tree farmers and conservationists focusing on woodland and pollinator management. I’ve even done something I rarely have ever done–I joined a club! A great fellowship of “tree farmers” and woodlanders from the surrounding counties, all adjacent to the Muskingum River watershed. Every other month we gather to hear a speaker, say on increasing the white oak population in Ohio, or we visit a carpenter’s shop where local trees are turned into products shipped around the world, or we visit a member’s property to hear how they are improving their woods or pollinator plots.

Last night was just such a meeting. Gathering at a member’s 25-acre tree farm, we learned about planting a half-acre perennial pollinator field, about creating vernal pools for pollywogs and salamanders, about planting trees specifically for attracting wildlife, and finally we learned about the advantages of solar energy for rural tree farmers. It was truly an enjoyable fellowship with like-minded neighbors.

But then this morning, after my first coffee and a rosary for my extended family, I picked up where I had left off yesterday reading Saint Francis de Sales’ classic, Introduction to the Devout Life. After a few paragraphs, he got my attention, causing me to sit up, readjust my drooping reading glasses, to re-read his words carefully:

Consider the unhappiness of worldly people who never think of all this but live as if they believe themselves created only to build houses, plant trees, pile up wealth, and do frivolous things.”

Seriously? “Plant trees”?!

“Okay, Lord, what are You trying to say?” Not being one to believe in coincidences, I usually take these kind of seeming coincidences to be some sort of “still small voice” of God trying to get the attention of this usually obtuse, hard-headed, self-centered mortal.

“Sure, Lord, these friends and I talked a lot about how we’ve improved our properties and homes, and particularly last night about PLANTING TREES (!), and, yes, sometimes our discussions focus on the potential of making some kind of profit from our woods, and, yes, sometimes our conversations diverge onto the many ‘frivolous things’ that fill our free time, but is this all just worldly frivolity?

“And was the seeming contented happiness that exuded from the faces of those gathered last night nothing but external masks, hiding the true unhappiness of us otherwise ‘worldly people’? Is it by definition wrong, especially for ‘retired’ folk like me, to turn our attention now to ‘build homes [smaller, for empty nesters], plant trees [maybe for our grandchildren’s future enjoyment or profit], pile up wealth [to survive on in our old age], and do frivolous things’ [like fishing, golfing, walking around the block, or just reading a book in a rocker on my deck]?”

I think, given the rest of what good Saint Francis de Sales wrote, he would emphasize that the operative word in this warning was the word, “only”. The problem arises when we “never think of” the things that he’s been emphasizing up to this point, and believe ourselves “created only to” do these otherwise earthly tasks, making them but “frivolous things”.

And what were these things he’d been discussing? He’d just finished describing the Second Meditation on “The end for which we were created”, in which he says:

God did not bring you into the world because He had any need of you, useless as you are; but solely that He might show forth His Goodness in you, giving you His Grace and Glory. And to this end He gave you:
– understanding that you might know Him,
– memory that you might think of Him,
– a will that you might love Him,
– imagination that you might realize His mercies,
– sight that you might behold the marvels of His works,
– speech that you might praise Him,
– and so on with all your other faculties.

Being created and placed in the world for this intent, all contrary actions should be shunned and rejected, as also you should avoid as idle and superfluous whatever does not promote it.

It’s truly troubling to see the increasing number of people in the world around us who seem oblivious to why they were created–oblivious that they were even themselves created, because they don’t believe in the Creator.

But as de Sales writes in the previous First Meditation:

Consider that but a few years since you were not born into the world, and your soul was as yet non-existent. Where wert thou then, O my soul? the world was already old, and yet of thee there was no sign. God brought you out of this nothingness, in order to make you what you are, not because He had any need of you, but solely out of His Goodness. Consider the being which God has given you; for it is the foremost being of this visible world, adapted to live eternally, and to be perfectly united to God’s Divine Majesty.

We exist solely because of His mercy and love, and everything we do–building homes, planting trees, investing our savings, enjoying one another–is somehow to be an expression of gratitude. Otherwise, everything we do can in the end be nothing but frivolous.

And everything about a tree, from planting to enjoying to harvesting it’s sap, is a vestige of God’s love and care.