Chapter 16.2: Returning to Our Roots & Strengthening the Taproot of Our Souls

 

Things burst forth, like plants budding in the spring,

And yet each one returns home again and again to its roots. 

The imagery of plants blooming in spring is both beautiful and powerful.  After a long, cold season of dormancy, in which the natural world patiently waits and bides its time, the conditions are finally right for massive growth.  Spring rains, longer days, warmer temperatures act as a catalyst for a veritable explosion of new buds, blooms, and blossoms as life begins to release and unlock the latent potential stored up inside.  During such times everything comes back to life.  Everything stretches and extends itself, reaching farther to unprecedented heights, growing bigger and stronger, creating more abundance, and reproducing the next generation to ensure ongoing survival and invest in the future.  There is a powerful lesson here for each of us.  Though we cannot always fully control when the external conditions for massive growth will be ideal, we can seek to put ourselves in the best positions to succeed and thrive.  Each of us needs to have regular seasons in our lives where we grow and flourish.  We need to unlock our inner potential and create abundance for ourselves and those around us.  We need to create, to achieve, to accomplish.  We need to realize and actualize the beauty and power within.  We need to embrace our place in the universe and choose to see ourselves for who we really are – unique and priceless treasures.  How do we create massive growth and abundance in our lives?  By returning to the wellspring of our souls and strengthening our roots.

Everything returns to its roots.  The success and abundance of all life is dependent upon the strength of the root system supporting it.  The stronger our roots, the more grounded we are, and in turn, the greater the growth we will experience.  Some plants have root systems that sink deep into the earth, grounding the plant from the tensions and hardships of circumstances above and beyond.  Other plants have wide, broad based root systems extending far out in every direction to counterbalance the vertical strain on plants.  Still others have interconnecting root systems that mutually support and sustain each other, drawing strength in numbers.  All root systems store and supply nutrients and nourish the plant.  So it is with us.  We can strengthen and develop our root systems so that they support and nourish us both as we grow and prosper and as we endure hardship and struggle.  What are our roots?  What deep anchors do we have to help us grow and to help us endure difficult circumstances.  What is our broad base of support and strength that counterbalances the strain of circumstance?  What mutually supportive intersections and interconnections do we have enrich and encourage?

Regardless of how strong and how varied our root systems may be, we can strengthen and improve them if we want to experience massive growth.  How do we strengthen our roots?  We can extend our support systems.  Make connections.  Develop friendships.  As British author A.A. Milne (1882-1956) wrote in Winnie the Pooh, “You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”  We can deepen and enrich our existing relationships.  The Way to have more friends is to be the kind of friend for others that we want in our lives.  The path goes both ways.  By being a better friend, we can attract better friends.  Find friends and allies, like-minded individuals who are striving not settling and develop real, authentic relationships rather than the fair-weather facade of friendship.  Find friends with shared experiences and different views, friends who will accept and challenge us.  Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) held that: “Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”  Like a stand of bamboo sharing an interconnecting root system, we both give and draw strength and joy from each other.  As Franco-Cuban author Anais Nin (1903-1977) has stated: “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”  If we want encouraging and empowering friends in our lives, we can start by encouraging and empowering those around us.  As Confucius said: “If you want to establish yourself, establish others, if you want to prosper, prosper others” (子曰: 己慾立而立人，己慾達而達人). 

Even more importantly, we can strengthen and deepen the taproot of our souls.  We can get clarity on who we are, our identity, and our worth.  We can liberate ourselves from limiting labels.  We can get off the rollercoaster of relative worth with its corkscrew of constant comparisons.  We can avoid the "beauty trap" and take back our power to define ourselves.  We can refuse to show off, put ourselves on display, promote ourselves as worthy, and try and curry favor in the world by accessorizing ourselves with status symbols to prove our worth and fit in.  Instead, we can tap into our own deep intuition and get clear on who we really are, who we want to be, and how we want to show up in this world.  We can empty our hearts and minds of outward influences, let go of external expectations, silence all the outer voices and expectations, the must haves, need tos, and should dos, take a deep breath, and just listen to the still, small voice deep down inside ourselves.  What do we really want?  What is really important to us.  Write it down as a feeling that can help us tap back into our souls – cherish, gratitude, courage, faith, hope, trust, and thrive are just some examples.  Listen for something from deep inside that embodies the feeling we want to grow into, the belief that moves us to action.  Put it somewhere we will see it multiple times every day.  Look at it.  Read it.  Recite it.  Say it over and over again in our minds.  Let that desired feeling generate empowering thoughts.  Let those thoughts create motivating beliefs.  Let those beliefs stretch into fearless actions – and don’t quit until we have the explosion of growth and abundance we want in our lives.  A homecoming awaits.  ~ DCB