From Acorn to Oak, from Woman to Wisdom

One Acorn, One Woman: the forest within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”

Three years ago, I began gathering acorns.

It wasn’t part of a grand plan at first: just something instinctive.

I would see them scattered across the ground, smooth and shining, and feel compelled to pick them up. Some went into my pockets, some into small jars to root, and some fell as I walked and landed straight on the soil where they would grow.

I had a quiet dream: to replant the lost forest around our home.

On the night of 26–27 November 2021, Storm Arwen tore across the UK, including our home in mid-Wales. In its wake, our trees fell in their hundreds. And then came the next storm, and the next. From A to Z, they swept through: winds that reshaped the landscape, snapping and uprooting what had stood for decades.

The loss was immense. Overnight, the land around our home looked changed, exposed, broken open.

Now, three years on, I can walk outside the destruction gone, and we’re starting to see the beginnings of that dream to live in the middle of a wood, re-rooted in the soil.

The acorns I first collected are no longer in their hard, glossy shells but young oak saplings, standing tall and green against the sky. Last year’s acorns are smaller, waiting patiently for their turn to be planted. And once again, I find myself gathering new acorns this season, beginning the cycle again.

It strikes me how this slow, mindful work of tending a forest for the future mirrors the work I do with women in menopause.

So often, women find me after feeling overwhelmed and lost during this midlife transition, and even describe feeling a lack of hope for the future.

Like an acorn lying unnoticed on the forest floor, they don’t yet see the post-menopausal power they carry inside and how they will survive, transform, and feel grounded and rooted with inner wisdom.

But every acorn holds the possibility of a mighty oak, and every woman holds within her the possibility of deep renewal.

What I offer is not a quick fix, but fertile ground: safety, compassion, tools for mind, body, and soul. When a woman is given space to rest, to be seen, to reconnect with her own wisdom, something extraordinary happens. Roots begin to grow. A quiet strength emerges. And soon enough, just like the oak saplings, I see how women begin to thrive.

They stand taller.
They find their voice.
They remember their worth.
They carry themselves with a graceful steadiness that was always inside them.

One woman at a time, just like one acorn at a time, transformation takes hold.

The forest reminds me that thriving is not instant. Growth takes seasons. Patience. A willingness to weather storms. But year by year, the saplings strengthen. What was once fragile becomes enduring. And one day, what was once just a pocketful of acorns will become a woodland.

This is how change happens in women’s lives too. Slowly, steadily, one rooted step at a time. And just as the oaks will one day shelter generations, the women who step into their power now create ripples of strength, courage, and wisdom for others to draw reassurance from.

It begins with a single acorn.
It begins with a single woman.
And it continues, always, in cycles of renewal.

Photo by Sarah Winterflood https://sarahwinterflood.com/