Last Tuesday, Esther and I got away for a short break to a cabin called Getaway Cabins in the Mount Vernon, Washington area. There, we entered a tiny cabin surrounded by trees and woods everywhere, truly enjoying and marveling at the beauty of creation revealed in the world of covenantal cosmos.
In the evening, as Esther prepared supper in the tiny kitchen of the cabin, my eyes caught a little book hidden in the tiny bookshelf, called "The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben. I picked up the book and started reading and found one of the most amazing hidden truths of the trees: that trees talk to each other and even care for one another. Peter writes in the book:
A tree is not a forest. On its own, a tree cannot establish a consistent local climate. It is at the mercy of wind and weather. But together, many trees create an ecosystem that moderates extremes of heat and cold, stores a great deal of water, and generates a great deal of humidity. And in this protected environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what. If every tree were looking out only for itself, then quite a few of them would never reach old age. Regular fatalities would result in many large gaps in the tree canopy, which would make it easier for storms to get inside the forest and uproot more trees. The heat of summer would reach the forest floor and dry it out. Every tree would suffer. Every tree, therefore, is valuable to the community and worth keeping around for as long as possible. And that is why even sick individuals are supported and nourished until they recover.
Reading this page and seeing the trees again, I became very much intrigued by the way trees support and sustain each other. Even the weak and dying ones are cared for, creating places of stronger ecosystems and environments that protect, preserve, and even restore lives. The next day, feeling rested and restored by the ecosystem of trees, we drove back to Vancouver, our home. On the way, we stopped by a coffee shop called Woods Coffee. Once again surrounded by the trees, I reflected on the meaning of the economics of trees, the "woods economics"—how they work together to build a place of habitat that is stronger and healthier, making it possible for lives to flourish.
The reflection on the meaning of "woods economics" reminded me of an essay "Two Economies," by Wendell Berry, where he talks of two types of economics: one that is lesser and one that is greater. The lesser economy is one in which our current world operates. The greater economy represents an underlying reality, seen or unseen, that the lesser economy should operate and abide by. The greater economy is the world that truly embodies the eschatological realities of the covenantal cosmos, where vocational economics works towards the mutual flourishing of the world in relation to the planet, people, and places as it was meant to be in the world of creation and will be in the new world to come.
Driving home, I kept asking the question: How can the "woods economics"—the economics of covenantal cosmos working towards the mutual flourishing of the world in relation to the planet, people, and places—be more real and more true in the lives and vocations of ours?
I recently joined the development consultant team that has helped, over a period of months, one non-profit housing society whose building for seniors was in much need of repairs but was unsure how to move forward with the retrofit project to improve the longevity and energy efficiency of the building. The consultants had helped the non-profit housing society navigate the complex world of legal, operational, and financial challenges by engaging in engineering and energy studies, procuring contractors, and persuading funders to lend by showing them the project would be profitable but also purposeful, as it contributes towards the flourishing of the planet by improving the energy efficiency of the building, and places by building a stronger and more resilient community of the people.
I asked a friend who led this project what made him engage in the project. He said, "I just can't help but feel called to do it." He understood his work to be a part of a bigger reality of greater economy that embodies the principles of woods economics working towards mutual flourishing of the world, the way that was meant to be in the world of covenantal cosmos.
From the work of the team I recently joined, I saw the realities of woods economics come into play and discovered that pursuing sustainable profit and meaningful purpose do not need to be exclusive; they can seamlessly come together to work towards building places of healthier ecosystems where planet and people can flourish. That afternoon, I returned to the office and submitted a financial application for the project, knowing and believing that what I do is a small part of building woods economics—connecting the worlds of lesser and greater economies with a hope that it will find its way to the world that someday will be.
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