Risking Rootedness

Should I stay or should I go? An invitation to rootedness and a whole host of other goodness at Cultivating Oaks Press

“A root will thicken when it takes hold, becoming the taproot. It can reach down through rivers underground, through dry holes left by dead roots, through bedrock even. It will cleave solid granite if it must, and eventually it can move gallons of water every day, for years and years, bringing nourishment from the depths of the earth to the uppermost leaves. 

Cleave is a verb with two meanings: to split or sever, and to stick fast to, and I cannot reconcile this. How does one word cover two very different ideas? 

To be dramatic: When a child marries they cleave the nuclear family and cleave to their spouse. Something is torn and something new is formed. 

But in our tree metaphor, a plant can be cleft by pruning so new growth can occur. Maybe that is the better way to work through this dual meaning. Each cleaving is adding to the health of the tree. What is pruned are natural dependencies that must change with time, but the plant is still the plant.”

Read the full post at Cultivating Oaks Press. The current issue is stuffed full of so many good words from so many great hearts. I hope you’ll find courage from this quarter’s theme and the beautiful work being done there.