Welcome to The Acorn
Older oaks drop many mighty acorns
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”
🌱 James Allen
Did you know that oak trees may not start dropping acorns until they’re around 40, and that their peak acorn-producing years are from 50 to 80? Do you know the feeling?
It’s my belief that everyone has not only the capacity to be creative but an innate drive to be. Except perhaps sociopaths and fascists – they don’t seem to have the ability to dance, do humour, or be sexy or imaginative. But then, perhaps they turned out the way they did because their creative impulses and reflexes were so stifled.
Getting in our own way
Having the capacity for creativity doesn’t mean that we’ll act on it. Many people put off their creative plans and dreams for what seem to be very practical reasons, or get in their own way about it. Or they do create, for themselves, yet keep that to themselves.
But something can happen around midlife. Like the green shoot unfolding from an acorn, breaking its shell and pushing its way above the soil, something stirs within us and reaches for the light. Perhaps the kids left home, or retirement was forced or taken. Health scares, the release of responsibilities, an increased awareness of mortality. Whatever the cause, the creative spirit begs to be given a voice in middle age and older.
There are so many bursaries, programmes, and other supportive resources for ‘emerging artists’ – writers, painters, animators, designers, illustrators, musicians, and more – which are only offered to people 25 or 30 and younger. That’s ageist balderdash. Creativity, enthusiasm, and inspiration can emerge at any age. Why shouldn’t it be supported at any age? Not every older person is financially secure. Or even when they are, they too need skills development, community, and encouragement.
Just getting started
When I say ‘creative’, by the way, I don’t just mean fine arts. Any compulsion to bring something new and positive into the world is a hum of creativity, whether it’s a painting or a plumbing business. And through action it can improve lives, including that of the creator. We all deserve support and attention for that, whatever our age.
I write elsewhere about my own creative – and non-creative – life journey. November 2025 marks 60 for me. Yet when it comes to creativity, I’m only just truly getting started.
I was 55 when I learned that I’m neurodivergent. Suddenly my whole life made sense. The knowledge finally helped me get out of my own way about creativity – though I still have my off days! I had been at war with myself for a very long time. At last I could lay down my weapons and pick up a paintbrush.
Though when it comes to art, I mostly make digital collages. I share some with you here. Subscribe, and open my Monday mails in your browser, to get the full benefit.
Getting on with it
I’d been wanting to start this magazine for a long time. I founded a private Facebook group called The Order of the Acorn back in January 2018 for those of us feeling our way towards a creative renaissance in later life. The Acorn is a dropped acorn, at last.
We are the Autumn People, finally beginning to release our fruits – even though the world has gone nuts. We’re ready now. We’ve grown tall and strongly-rooted enough to make things and share them. To sing our songs while we can, before they’re lost to us and to the world forever.
Through new articles each Monday – and sometimes related content and offerings – The Acorn will help you to navigate and fertilise your new growth.
Fox pieces are about the tricks we play on ourselves to swerve fulfilling our creative potential. Crows look at the resources we have at our disposal, perhaps without even realising it. Squirrel posts are about the ways the world outside can get in our way, and steal and eat our acorns, if we let it. Oaky articles look at people who exploded into creating enchantments later in life, as we will. And acorns are for positive, supportive, inspiring messages (and illustrations, sometimes animations) to buck us up and cheer us on.
Thank you for becoming part of my creative journey and giving me the gift of being part of yours. Together we’ll walk this winding, rewarding, mysterious, hopeful, confounding, life-changing path, and finally offer the world our gifts.
Yes, the world seems to be going to hell in a hand-basket. That’s no reason to lie down and give up; quite the opposite. When it comes to creative renaissance, there’s never been a more important time for this. Art is armour. Re-enchantment is resistance. Every creative act is an act of hope, for ourselves and for all of us.
“Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”
🌱 Steven Pressfield,