Roots

Following my double total knee replacement, I felt so straight and strong that I embraced hiking with a renewed passion. Perhaps a bit cocky, I needed to slow down and respect the precepts of the forest; in particular the roots, which kept tripping me up…

Roots always get me thinking. And not just when I trip over them…

Rather, roots catch and hold my attention. They are so full of wisdom that I find them hard to pass without stopping. The way they weave themselves, innately able to find both grounding and nourishment deep into the earth. It’s not like they intend to create a design. But in fact they do, making intricate patterns along forest floors, far reaching and strong.

I am in awe of roots. Especially when I witness them exposed because the elements have worn away at their surroundings for so many seasons. Sometimes, ‘hanging by a thread’ is no exaggeration, when you witness a tree on the side of a cliff and cannot imagine how it is possibly still standing! And then you remember the roots… They’re ‘all exposed‘ …but how many more are growing in the other direction, working overtime to hold that tree to life? And how many trees are working together, to support each other behind (or in this case,) below the scenes?

There is now a substantial body of scientific evidence that …. shows … that trees of the same species are communal, and will often form alliances with trees of other species. Forest trees have evolved to live in cooperative, interdependent relationships, maintained by communication and a collective intelligence similar to an insect colony. These soaring columns of living wood draw the eye upward to their outspreading crowns, but the real action is taking place underground, just a few inches below our feet.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/

I remember reading once about the breadth of a tree’s root system.

“Roots may occupy an area four to seven times the surface area occupied by the crown of the tree.”                 – Iowa State University Forestry Extension

This information got me thinking about how far reaching will I search when I need something? What will I do, how far will I go, to make my life and the life of those I treasure, as rich and flourishing as it can be?

I have lived by the belief that nature has a bounty beyond comprehension of lessons to glean. Roots are just one of the teachers on the trail. But if they are able to find what they need in the environment where they were planted, then shouldn’t I also be able to look in my own ‘ figurative backyard ‘ when conditions tempt me to run elsewhere?

Roots are opportunistic. There will be more roots when conditions are favorable. 4^th edition of Arboriculture -Richard Harris, James Clark and Nelda Matheny

Ultimately, to me roots are glorious. If they even teach a person just one lesson, while simultaneously providing the source of nourishment and grounding needed by the tree you travel under, what a gift!  A little shade? Deep scents of freshness?

Trees can hold on, because of their innate ability to send their roots deep enough and wide enough into the earth to ground them.

For me, when a root is exposed, it is giving me a glimpse of its vulnerability and its strength all wrapped up into one.  And isn’t that what life is all about?