Hickory Nuts

I should be spending my time right now writing a research paper.  But too many thoughts are in my head so I'm needing to focus and thought a blog post might help me do that.  Two events that have happened recently are spurring my thoughts for this morning (maybe this will all come together to benefit my paper as well, I can only hope.)

Last weekend was a gorgeous weekend, 70's and sunny.  Em, Anya, and I spent an hour picking up hickory nuts out of someone's yard.  I brought them home with me, even though I'm not sure what I am going to do with them.  I did take a small bucket of them to the MYF auction and they brought $35 dollars.  So I am sure they are worth something but oh my it would take a long time to crack all of them.  I question if it is worth all of the work for just a small nut inside.

Next, a guest speaker in class this week (actually someone from our church) spoke on his leadership and experiences with leading change.  I describe the feeling in the room after he left as being elevated to another level.  He brought much to consider and challenged us all to be better than when came.  Our time together solidified the need to know ourselves and our core values.  To recognize that our experiences will shape us and change us.  So we embark on a journey that allows time and space to reflect, to open ourselves to refining and change allows us it embrace what it means to be authentic (because we know who we are and whose we are), to be transparent, and to live with integrity.

out shell breaking apart

Back to the hickory nuts. Wikipedia says that hickory wood is very hard, stiff, dense and shock resistant. This large tree when the time is right in the fall drops it's fruit.  The hickory nut, has a hard outer shell that serves to protect it from the outdoor elements. As the nut develops inside and as it is ready to be harvested it drops from the tree and the hard outer shell actually begins to split apart making it easy to gather the inside part of the nut.  This is not the end though. There is still another shell of this smaller nut that needs cracked.  We used a hammer to crack it open, which is a skill in itself to not completely shatter the nut inside.  All of this for a very small nut that is edible (if it is the right variety of hickory tree).


I see a process here, rather than just a nut, just as I see a leader as being more than a person, but a journey.  Both of these things merge together when considering how we lead people.  This journey we are on along with the value in knowing ourselves at our core, is where we reach the substance of our being. It is the place from which we can lead with authenticity and transparency.  When considering what it takes to get to the core, it is a process, just as getting to the nut inside the shell.  There is maturing, the inner growth that needs to happen inside the protection of the hard outer shell until we are ready to be harvested, and then the natural breaking open of the shell happens.  For many of us, we want to function and stay at this point in the process.  There is beauty here, there is safety here as well.  It even appears as if we are whole and have reached our potential.  I won't get into what can happen at this point with the squirrels that hide the nuts away or the nut weevils that lay their eggs in immature nuts in the summer, and leave a hole where the grub chewed it's way out.  (So what appears to be the best stage can have it's downfalls too.)

Getting to the meat of the hickory nut requires a breaking, patience, and most often what emerges is a broken nut.  But if there is not a breaking of the shell, the nourishment will never be received.  The brokenness is required to get to the core.  It is at the core that we really begin to see what the hickory nut is made of, what it looks like, what it tastes like, and then the nourishment can be received.

In all honesty, my journey has all too often stayed at the beauty of the inner shell.  Not exposing what is really on the inside.  I realize that as a leader, this is where we tend to function from.  I believe most times we all want to appear as if we are all put together and try to hide the fact that we are indeed broken, that we have gone through the pain of the breaking open.  We just don't want to be exposed and vulnerable.  So with ourselves and with others, ultimately the time and patience needed to get to the core will be time well spent.  For once we understand people at their core we begin to meet their needs in new ways and the journey ahead may not be as scarey or lonely.

When there is resistance to change might it be that we need to take the time to personally go and pick them up, peeling away the outer layer, understanding time in their environment. Might this allow us to know them more personally?  We realize that this is a process, a journey.  What might it look like if we actually begin to understand people at their core, in their brokenness?