The Jays gifts of creation from all of their ‘mistakes’
Fear of making a mistake and how we praise the Jay for theirs.
Oak trees and Jays have a special relationship that has been intertwined for thousands of years—Ecologist Clifton Bain suggests the only reason we have the mighty Oak on our isles is because of the Jay. During the last ice age, as water levels rose, the Oak tree, by acorn-and-gravity method, simply could not have moved up into Europe quickly enough before the English Channel formed. Gravity alone would have taken about 100,000 years. But the pollen record from that time suggests a rapid march of oaks northward 500 meters per year! Something must have carried it over…..
This union goes so deep that Jay's scientific name "Garrulus Glandaris" translates to 'babbling acorns'—if you have heard the Jay. The babbling part is self-explanatory, but the acorn connection runs a little deeper.
The acorn is the birth seed of the mighty Oak Tree - small but packed full of powerful energy. For our woodland kin, it is a winter lifeline. You see, acorns are like little calorie bombs, comprising about 50% carbohydrate. Why squirrels, mice, and birds race each other when the acorn emerges in autumn, scrambling to forage and store as many as possible for the winter ahead. But the Jay goes further afield with their acorns - they fly all over the place to find their hidey hole.
Flying overhead through woodland canopies with an acorn clenched in the beak, the acorn's smooth exterior can cause it to drop mid-flight, sending it free-falling into neighbouring fields. If an acorn lands in a patch of brambles, then it is our lucky day. This tiny little acorn has a fighting chance to become a mighty 1000-year-old Oak tree one day.
Even the acorns that manage not to be dropped and stored away, the Jay, along with other woodland critters, are forgetful. Which is fair, landscapes change dramatically in their transition cycles, especially from autumn to winter, with a blanket of snow. One day you going about your business all of sudden that littel twig that looks like ear to mark your hoidy spot is now all just white.
The forgotten or lost acorns can become mighty Oak trees -the cathedral of life for countless other beings, support 2300 different wildlife species - Which doesn't even included all the fungi, lichen, moss and micro bacteri! Old Oak trees are a community, a whole ecosystem in their own right.
The Jay might see this as many mistakes and even beat themselves up:
"How could I lose so many acorns!”
“How will I survive the winter?!”
”I'm such an idiot!"
- Jay
But if they could look out, zoom out and see the whole - they might see that actually these mistakes are amazing gifts to others, to the whole.
The collective web that we are all part of is better off from an individual's mistake.
We praise and adore the Jay for their mistakes. Their mistakes birth beautiful creations - mighty Old Oak trees that become community and a whole ecosystems!
So next time you make a mistake think about the Jay - you have no idea what ripples that supposed mistake has created for the whole you are part of.
Go gently with yourself - we are born to make mistakes - Mistakes are opportunities for beautiful creations.
“the one thing you must not be afraid to make is a mistake, it is in the nature of man to make mistakes - and only by realising them, and correcting them, can we ever hope to achieve our ultimate truth”
Love and go gently,
Joseph 🏡🌳