The Importance of a Trellis

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Deuteronomy 24:21

A few years back, a group of us gathered in the wine country of Northern California to celebrate the thirtieth birthday of a dear friend's youngest daughter. It was a memory-making, enlightening, and grand celebration.

One afternoon, as we were walking through a vineyard and were surrounded by lush, green, healthy vines, I realized my technical knowledge of how grapes are grown was surprisingly and embarrassingly limited. The aha was that only some vines would bear fruit ... others would not; vines growing along banks of the hills along the trail, as gorgeous as they were, would not bear fruit, while those with the support of a trellis have the opportunity to be quite fruitful.

All the vines had the same environment: cool nights, rich soil, proper watering, pruning, and sun — yet without a trellis, no fruit. A trellis is essential to support and guide growth, allow air to circulate, and most importantly to expose the vine to full sunlight ... and yes, this also relates to finances.

Practices such as budgeting, financial planning, saving, patience, dialogue, and wise investing provide the cool nights, rich soil, watering, and pruning, while thoughtful development of core values, awareness of passion, vision, a Rule of Life, and openness to change provide a flexible trellis.

A trellis for a vineyard requires a series of wires, braces, and wooden posts. The structure, although adaptable over time and changing conditions, must have longevity, including the ability to withstand harsh weather, brutal wind, and long periods of heat. The structure needs to be deeply anchored in the ground so as not to topple with every slight shift in the soil.

Components for your financial trellis — the wires, braces, and posts that support your financial picture — are a result of reflection on and discernment of your priorities.

Ask yourself along with significant others in your life, "What is the fruit I wish my handling of finance matters could produce?" "What are the pieces I need to build my trellis to produce this fruit ... what light and air and grace and hope and love can I weave together to bring it forth?" Form this discernment into a group of core values and spiritual practices, then weave them in your Rule of Life to guide you in showing forth God's light and ruach — wind, spirit, and breath. In other words, fruitful fi nancial planning is a matter of both heart and mind, practical and conceptual — both/and not either/or.

Reflection Questions

1 Read Deuteronomy 24:19-22. Much of this fifth book of the Hebrew Scriptures aims to provide the framework for a covenant between Israel and God. It invites God's people to have an awareness of the obligations each individual has toward God and one another. What does this passage mean to you in the context of your life today? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

2 What are the components of your financial trellis? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

3 What is the anchor that holds your "trellis" in place? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

4 What are your core values and how can you apply them to your financial planning? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

Jack Pines and Artichokes

Douglas Wood

Parker Palmer, in A Hidden Wholeness, begins his first chapter, "Images of Integrity," with this quote from Douglas Wood, a Minnesotan whose wilderness is different than my wilderness. As Dr. Palmer uses the words "wholeness" and "undivided" to define integrity, I wonder how and where integrity has been manifested in my life. When have I felt wholeness, and did the feeling last? If it did not last, does that make the experience of wholeness for a while any less whole? What were the joys associated with feeling whole and living into, as John Donne states, being "part of the main?"

I also began to explore specific times when, on hindsight, integrity was clearly manifested in the lives of others. How might our financial planning, our saving, investing, and sharing contribute to wholeness?

I recognize that outward and visible signs assist me greatly as I grapple with integrity in my financial life and so I, a person integrally part of coastal California, began to wonder what is an image of integrity for me. What is the image of someone who perseveres and survives the environment — both the internal and external environment — and yet emerges being true to what and who they are? The image that often recurs for me is that of an artichoke.

Agricultural families in my greater geographic area have grown artichokes for centuries. You can see field after field of them along our rolling coastal farmland. In the spring, their beautiful soft purple blooms rise up and catch your eye. However, when harvested, the leaves are tough and cracked, with prickly tips that can draw blood, while the stem is worn, dirty, and beginning to fall apart. The artichoke itself does not evoke the word beauty; it is not perfection. It is, like Douglas Wood's jack pine, what it is: a budding, blooming, then course and barely edible thistle — an image of wholeness, of integrity.

As I use the artichoke, Parker Palmer uses the jack pine image as a way to begin exploring what it means to be whole, what it means to have integrity. In his words integrity "means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life ... devastation can be used as a seedbed for a new life." The opposite is a divided life, when our lives become separated from our bedrock, from our soul, from God's image in which we were created. Palmer's first chapter is particularly intriguing as it offers an opportunity to explore integrity in all facets of our lives.

What is an image or who is a model of integrity for you? Who in your life has modeled wholeness in choosing to use their gifts for the benefit of the common good over self-interest? Recount the stories behind the actions they took. Take some time to reflect. Two or three images might come to mind. For now choose one and give some thought to how this image is reflected, or not, in your financial life.

I return to the image of an artichoke in reflecting on integrity and my financial life. To prepare the artichoke for eating, one must tear off the dry crispy leaves, cut away the prickly pointy tips, and trim the stem. You drop the artichokes in seasoned boiling water along with a sufficient amount of olive oil, and you let the transformation begin. Once tender, you can enjoy a taste of the "meat" of the leaves and then discard them. They have served their purpose by protecting the heart of the artichoke. The heart is the soul of an artichoke, the desired entity that was your quest.

Handling our finances requires much of the same, with one exception. To stay true to who we are, we peel off old ways, ways that are no longer working for us. We are to discard ways that are prickly — ways that prevent us from being who we are, who God created us to be. Unlike the jack pine and the artichoke, however, we have the gift, or a curse as Parker Palmer states, of choice. Taking the road less traveled, the road of integrity, means making a choice to, as Palmer writes, "refuse to live a divided life." I encourage you to choose wholeness, not perfection in your financial dealings — to choose "an integrity that comes from being what you are."

Reflection Questions

1 Read the quote from Douglas Wood that begins this essay. What words stand out for you? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

2 What does integrity mean to you? What images are associated with this? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

3 Have you ever noticed a disconnection, dividedness, between how you plan to handle your finances, the reality of your situation, and how you actually live into your financial plans? List some of these instances. __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

4 Is my legacy, as reflected in my financial plan and action, congruent with, and integrally a part of, the wholeness of God's dream? If not, how can I begin to move in this direction? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

Shaping Your Wildness

He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. John 15:2

During my childhood, Charlie and Lucille lived up the street. Every time I walked through their gate, I was fascinated by their Japanese-style garden. It was a work of art, and even at my young age, I understood the effort and care it took to keep it that way. Charlie raked the sand on a daily basis; rocks and pools of water were strategically placed as were what looked like miniature trees and bushes. Bamboo framed the area, and a mound of moss, about three or four feet high, was impeccably manicured. As I grew older I understood the mound to represent Mount Fuji, the trees to be bonsai, and the garden itself to be reflective of Charlie's wonderful memories and deep appreciation for the culture and people of Japan where, pre-World War I, he had lived as a young boy.

Bonsai, an ancient Chinese art form, began over a thousand years ago and migrated from China to Japan as well as to other cultures. When carefully shaped and nurtured, bonsai trees can live for more than one hundred years, and many reach slightly over three feet tall. Those who practice bonsai speak of the meditative, reflective aspect of their art and of a deep connection to nature.

Recently, while attending a conference, I was fascinated to see someone practicing the art of bonsai on a tall, wild black oak growing on a knoll on the grounds of the Chapel Rock Conference Center near Prescott, Arizona. It was during Sabbath time on Sunday, and this was his way of spending time in reflection, aware of and listening to the presence of God. Slowly, using large pruning shears, he shaped the oak, stepping back with every cut to see and consider what was emerging. Paraphrasing what Michelangelo is believed to have said long ago, he saw a work of art in the wildness of a very unkempt tree and set it free. The messy tangle of branches and leaves that we walked by many times each day emerged as a creative form — its true self revealed and a delight for our eyes.

Once home, I began to wonder if the image of shaping the tall, wild black oak might be a useful one to consider as we shape our financial pathways. I imagine there has been and will be, for each of us, a time when our finances seem to be a wild unkempt mess. Our natural inclination is to figuratively walk right on by, not even noticing the mess ... and if we do notice, simply hoping it will go away. It won't.

Step back. Take a look at your finances. Is there a place where a little pruning is needed? If so, gently trim what might be restaurant meals or those new shoes you really do not need. Then step back again and appreciate what trimming reveals. Is there another area, maybe in the realm of gifts, where a practice of saving can be instated? How might you model gift giving for the next generation? Think of gifts given to children, godchildren, and grandchildren — yours or those of friends. What comes to mind, especially at birthdays and Christmas, is a bunch of toys and video games. I wonder what giving and receiving would be like if a third of the money was spent on a gift for the child, a third was given in honor of the child, and the final third might best be placed in a 529 College Fund for the child. This to me is a both/and decision, a both/and gift; it passes on a value, addresses needs, expresses care for the next generation, can be a sign of abundant life, and gives the child a present to open, a present to save, and a present given in their name. Who knows? As they grow older, they just might assume the practice as their own. The wild mess is once more being shaped, nurtured, and formed, revealing a new identity. In terms of psychoanalyst Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development (learning generativity versus self-absorption), generativity is concern for and guidance of the next generation. How we shape our finances (and our children) is planted and established at an early age.

Is there an area in your financial life where many dollars are being spent in an effort to create memories and bring family closer together? If so, is there a simpler way to create memories and build bonds? A friend of mine shared what a special treat it was, when the temperature was over ninety degrees, to share a cup of frozen yogurt with his young daughter while they sat under an old elm tree. It is now a practice of theirs to do so at least once a week regardless of the weather — just the two of them.

It takes effort and care to shape our financial lives into a delight for the eyes, heart, and mind. Step back. Take a look. What do you see and what would you like to emerge? Are there ways you might prune and shape your financial life? How might your financial practices be a vehicle of generativity — a concern for establishing and guiding the next generation? You might want to consider keeping a journal of your thoughts, and/or share them with others as tools to begin putting them into practice.