Art of Stewardship what is good better and what is best.

[Music]

what if i was

to tell you that life wasn’t

always about what’s right

or what’s wrong that life

like trees have layers

rings of growth that can illuminate a

higher truth

found within them that life is meant to

be seen

through the lenses of what’s good

better and best now me

i grew up sheltered in the appalachian

mountains

raised at the foot of cold mountain

and it was a lot like huckleberry finn

my life was a little wild running the

woods with my brother

with my cousin and

i can remember us working in the garden

alongside my grandfather

and my father and we would harvest the

fruits of those vegetables

and the fruits of that labor to pickle

and to can we would forage morels

and wild leeks ramps in

uh early spring we would pick black

raspberry in

summer in high elevation huckleberries

in early autumn

we would slog across hay fields

follow abandoned logging roads to stands

of walnut trees to hunt for gray

squirrel

and rabbits we would float down the

pigeon river on wooden pallets

tied to fallen logs to catch a mess of

bluegill

and rock bass for a midweek supper i can

remember my father he would get off at

the paper mill and there was a little

church right at the bend of the river

and he would pull into that parking lot

and he would honk his horn

and we knew we better come running or

we’d be walking

our way home my childhood was good

it it really was we we experienced

things we were able to

get dirt under our fingernails and it

was

it was a good thing we like to um

forage for rock moss and

bundles of galax and we would sell those

to local florists

we would hunt for ginseng in october

and white-tailed deer in november and

so one of my favorite things to hunt for

was ginseng so what is ginseng well

ginseng

is a plant a native plant that

that its root is highly prized

for its medicinal properties it can be

found

in energy drinks it can be found in

green tea it can be found

in dietary supplements

and i love to try to forage for it and

try to find it

i can remember one story in particular

where my father and my grandfather

we had hiked for miles and we dropped

into this dense shaded holler

we pushed our way through a stand of

chest high jewelry touch me knots to

find this patch of

chartreuse and emerald green ginseng

plants standing there

with hickory nuts sized clusters of red

berries

and i can remember my father he would

always instruct me to leave the juvenile

plants behind

he said that’s for that’s for your

future that’s for the future generations

he would always reach down and he would

grab that cluster red berries and he

would roll those around in his hand and

he would broadcast them around the area

half the time he would carry a pocket

full

of ginseng seeds that he and my

grandfather grew

and he would replant those nearly every

time

he dug what he was trying to tell me

and teach me was to be a good steward

with the resources that was so

abundantly

offered to us and ginseng for my family

was a lot like

the vegetables that we harvested or the

land that we

farmed or the burly tobacco that once

cured

in so many barns another

example is my father

is a beekeeper and bees very much like

ginseng

are meant to be viewed as a resource

because you see it’s good

for me to get out in the woods and find

some ginseng it’s good for me to get out

and experience the hike

get dirt under my fingernails get

sunshine on my

face and achieve the goal

of finding ginseng now what’s

better is actually finding more than one

ginseng plant

what’s better is being able to

go into the woods and find more than one

plant

what’s better is when you’re like my

father you have

recruited your young son to follow you

into the woods

because many hands make work light two

eyes

two heads are better than one that is

better

so what’s best in regards to ginseng

well

best is understanding

and seeing the environment that ginseng

likes to grow in

it’s learning not to just identify the

ginseng plants

but the trees and the plants

that grow around it it’s understanding

what

soil ginseng likes to grow in and what

environment is needed

for that plant to thrive

well what’s best

is to leave the juvenile plants behind

what’s best is to begin to understand

that there’s more to the task

and the achievement of the goal of

finding ginseng

than actually just finding the ginseng

that it’s equally about the hike

and the sun and the ginseng plant and

the dirt under my fingernails

as it is anything else

so back to the bees my father he is a

beekeeper

and establishing a beehive to collect

some honey

is a good thing why is that

well honey’s good am i right

so theoretically if establishing

one beehive is good and we were trying

to collect

more honey the natural thing would be

a second beehive more bee hives is

better because

more bee hives equals more production

which equals more honey which eventually

equals a little more money in my pocket

right well then we’re back to the best

well what is best

well what’s best is understanding why

bees do what they do

why bees forage what they forage

best is establishing a beehive or two

bee

hives not just anywhere not just in a

asphalt parking lot or down the street

but in your own backyard near your own

vegetable garden

where they can pollinate your vegetables

they can pollinate your

apple trees best is

stewarding those honeybees in such a way

that they can thrive and establishing an

environment

cultivating and creating an environment

for them to flourish and grow

so what does this have to do with

anything what a ginseng and honeybees

really have to do with anything well i

believe

it has to do with everything the problem

is in the world that’s so

full of weights and measures that’s so

you know divided and decisive where

everything truly is about what’s right

or wrong we have forgotten that it

doesn’t have to be that way

for me when i was younger i was

headstrong

bullheaded and thrust into

management well i was eager

to prove that i had what it takes eager

to prove eager to accomplish

a goal well management can be

defined as the use of means to

accomplish an

end and management’s a good thing

businesses would fail

businesses would go under if we did not

have management established

to accomplish a goal well it would be

safe to say

that if management is the use of means

to accomplish an end

then the means used for what is better

is people that’s where leadership

comes into play and leadership

is better leadership as

forbes defines it is leadership

is the establishment

using the using people right

leadership is the establishment of worth

creating and encouraging individuals to

accomplish a goal it’s

social influence

for them to accomplish a goal but wait

both management and

leadership are focused on accomplishing

a goal

so if management’s good and leadership

is better

and so many of our organizations so many

of our churches so many of our

relationships

have only focused on what’s

good and what’s better or worse yet

that’s what they’ve settled for well

what is

what is best well

for me and my life story of progressing

from that young guy

focused on management focused on

accomplishing a goal

understanding that i can use people to

accomplish those goals

that is better but what’s best is

stewardship

stewardship is the responsible care

for someone or something

accomplishment of a goal isn’t even

included

in the concept of stewardship

it’s cultivating and creating an

environment for any one

thing to grow

for any one thing to flourish

and thrive no matter the production

value they have or have not

so what if we started looking at our

marriages

that way our friends our co-workers

our organizations in that light

through that lens

what if we stop looking at it as

things to manage or cattle to lead

but it’s unique resources for us to

steward for us to cultivate an

environment for them to grow

no matter the production value they have

because at the end of the day like the

honeybee

we might find out that we have not

received jars full

of wildflower honey but that the bees

have pollinated the purple clover in our

hayfields

and the purple clover has fixed nitrogen

into the soil

which causes the field grass to grow

well that field grass grows and is

harvested for hay

and that equals more hay to cell which

equals more hay

for livestock and then we realize

that our tomatoes are plentiful and our

apple trees

are fully loaded it’s not about what’s

right or wrong

it’s about what’s good better and best