Roots

The root system of a plant or tree seeks out nourishment and helps to hold the plant fast to its place on the earth. When we talk about our roots, as people, we’re talking about where we came from, our family and ancestral roots as well as the place where we grew up. We also talk about putting down roots when we want to settle or plant ourselves in one place. But are we looking for nourishment when we talk about our roots? Some of us are. There is much to be learned from our ancestors. We can also learn about ourselves when we look to how our past has shaped who we are now.

As much as where we grew up, who are parents are, etc. has influenced who we’ve become, we always have a choice in who we are and what our life is like now. If we are unhappy with our lives it can be all too easy to blame our parents or childhood circumstances. Don’t do that. We are more than our past. What came before doesn’t dictate what will happen now and in the future. It’s great to learn from our parents and ancestors, but don’t let their lives dictate what yours will be.

Tap into your roots. Drink deeply from all those past lives in your family and from the spirit of the place where you grew up. Metabolize it. Feel those lives run through your veins. Say this is a part of who I am and then follow that tap root within, deep into the well of your true source of being and know that you are Spirit. Somewhere in all that the individual that is you lives. Be that unique person with roots in the past and in the eternal. Let these roots feed you and then express them through your being as only you can. Live the life you were born to live so that someday your life can nourish another’s. Tell the stories of your ancestors, but live your own.