Roots: Exploring Renewal and Resilience

Roots and hands fascinate me. The veins of life and love that become visible through our hands as we age mesmerize me, much like when you can see the roots of a tree on a creek bank or on an uprooted tree.  

I recall as a little girl sitting in the church pew next to my precious grandmother, Ninie, and playing with the veins in her hands. Pushing, poking, prodding…she didn’t seem to mind. Fast forward a few years ago when I was sitting next to our granddaughter in church and she was twirling my ring, playing with the veins in my hands, poking, prodding…I didn’t mind. A tear swelled in my eye that day as I connected the memory of my family roots and being present to the precious moment next to my granddaughter.

Photo taken in Dallas, TEXAS.

As I love on Mom these days, I often reach for her hands to hold them. I desire to embrace the moment, take time to touch one another – literally and figuratively. Her precious hands are often gently clasped together in her lap, and I notice the changes in the hands that were once full of vitality and life, flowing with love, energy and care. I still see beauty in her hands, although now they are arthritic and weaker. The veins are more prominent and remind me of a root system, calling to mind Mary Oliver’s beautiful words, “my root delicate as an artery.” The flow of love through Mom is deep, the heartbeat continues.

Increasingly, Mom has trouble recalling recent events, but she has a strong recall of many roots of her life. When I share something with her about one of the grandkids she will get so excited and exclaim, “Oh, I just have goose bumps all throughout my body.” I had only thought of goose bumps on the surface of the skin, but the way Mom phrases it, I wonder if it goes deeper – as the depth of her love for precious grandkids does, deep down in the roots of her being.

photo taken in Dallas, TEXAS.

Recently we had Mom over for lunch, and served very simple sandwiches on her and Daddy’s wedding pottery, the Seed pattern of Russel Wright by Knowles. When we pointed out that we were eating on their wedding pottery, her face lit up and she excitedly replied, “Oh, we picked those dishes out at The Mercantile.” Amazing when she is able to recall the general store from the ‘50’s in Seymour, TX as she digs into the rich soil, the roots of “her-story,” her history. 

What do our roots signify for each of us? Just as trees and plants have various root systems, so do each of us have a complexity of events, experiences, relationships, values, dreams, successes and struggles that weave and intertwine to give life to who we are today.

artwork by dianne m. Jones

At times during therapy, I will ask clients to draw a tree with roots, and label both the various roots AND the branches. The creativity and insight that comes from this project is illuminating. It allows space for the complexity and the beauty and struggle of life, intertwined with both roots and branches reaching out and searching for life. It is often a difficult project to explore and reflect on what are some significant moments that have been buried or not explored for some time. The drawing can propagate a grieving about a lost opportunity, an unrealized expectation, or the beginning of acceptance of an unwanted current reality. The drawing and exploration can also be “beautiful hard” as insights of deeper understanding of oneself become more vivid.

Roots of Renewal

What are our roots that really ground us? What is the anchor for our heart and soul? What are our roots of renewal? What does the concept of roots and renewal stir within you? 

Simone Weil, a French philosopher, wrote, “To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.” 

Maybe as we are reading this we are feeling weary and tired. How might a bit of rest be a sort of renewal for our hearts? For me, an intentional breath can be a balm, a quiet respite, a mini-meditation for my soul in a worn-out moment. At other times, a longer walk in nature, a nap curled up with our dog in the sun, or sipping on a cup of lemon tea can be restorative.

The season of spring represents renewal in so many ways. Maybe the renewal of our heart is looking closely at the roots we need to nurture, or maybe we need to pay close attention to a root that might need more delicate tending.

“Root” comes from the Latin word radix, which means "starting point," and you can think of the root of something as the place from which it starts, whether that's the root of a tree, or the root of a problem. What might be the beginning, the starting point, of our root of renewal? 

Maybe there is a location that feels renewing for us – a specific place in our yard, the lake dock, a trail in nature. Maybe there is a specific activity that is renewing for us – a time of prayer, meditation, or journaling. Maybe there is a group of people that offers nutrients for our heart – friends, a class, a place of worship.

When doing various balance poses in yoga, the idea of being grounded or rooted is significant. It is amazing how much it helps to mentally focus on the grounding. What roots can we envision that help us visualize renewal and growth?

Roots of Resilience

In researching resilience, we can discover many attributes of resilient people: resourceful, able to reality check the stories going on in our head, willing to ask for help, recognizing there are ways to help ourselves, managing the myriad of feelings swirling around, having others who are willing to walk the journey together with us, being connected to others, having hope, being curious about our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and practicing spirituality. 

I love the way Dr. Brené Brown defines spirituality: “Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.”

artwork by dianne m. jones

As I reflect on roots, this mandala that I created is very representative of the heartbeat of spirituality for me…the roots of connection with God, with others, with myself. Those two words that Brené uses, “inextricably connected,” are such a beautiful word description of our roots. 

How might we label our roots of resilience? Our faith? Our family? Our friends? A walk through nature? A disappointment? Our trauma? Our feelings of connection? Our feelings of disconnection? Our story? 

As I labeled the roots in my mandala, it felt like a cradle of deep love and care…a heart of gratitude for those who have loved me well, who have cared, who have listened to my heart, who have challenged me, who have patiently walked alongside me.

Who has held and cared for you? Who holds space for you? When and where do you feel heard, listened to, and understood? 

Roger, my husband, has written a beautiful and thought-provoking poem, “The Living Roots.”

As we reflect on our rootedness this month, as we seek curiosity in relation to our grounding of renewal and resilience, I invite you to join me in pondering a daily post on Instagram and/or Facebook. If you are not on social media, you may download the PDF of daily reflections here.