The root of a thing is the beginning of a journey.
We cannot start anything without some kind of root taking hold below the surface. We do not start a journey without the associated thoughts taking hold in our minds.
In order for a plant to grow, a seed will first develop roots in the ground that enables the plant to shoot out of the surface of the ground. A new beginning.
Every new beginning stems from a root. You have a beginning and therefore you have a root.
How often do you take time to evaluate your root systems? How often do you pause before you embark on a journey to critically assess your thoughts? It would seem like the obvious thing to do right? If we are honest sometimes we skip this exercise and go into what some people might call "auto pilot". Sometimes we carry on down roads we have been before, roads that appear conducive for us. Its seems a familiar path so we carry on down it anyway without really considering the impact it has on our life's mission or purpose or who we are becoming. Its convenient so we keep on the path, it does not cause us any discomfort so it must be the right were to go, the right plant to nurture.
The beginning of every journey has a root.
Some of our individual root systems are complex.
Take for example, my root system. On the surface I appear as an average brown skinned woman living in the diaspora. A deeper look reveals my Nigerian heritage, historically shrouded in slavery and colonialism, civil war, ancient native belief systems and a highly religious people and so not always emotionally aware, a very communal people, rich in culture and variety of language . These themes that have permeated my background and have contributed to influencing my thoughts and consequently manifesting paths for much needed growth. These influences have led to sometimes narrow conclusions and preconceptions about who I am or what I could be.
My journey so far has lead me to bluntly refuse to be limited by what my background, my ancestry, history had to offered. I simply refused to be "limited" by my roots and instead planted new seed. Hence, a deeper look also reveals my decision to travel a path that perhaps has been travelled but not in the way I have chosen to travel it and sometimes paths that had not be travelled at all. A deeper look reveals a young woman who chose to discover her own life as it was meant to be. Sometimes this exploration meant visiting with history but not for the sake of staying there, it was simply for the sake of expanding on uncompleted dreams that still had a crucial and relevant part to play in the future. Our history can be such an intoxicating place to live because it holds many parts of us whether the sadness of losing loved ones or failures or disappointments long forgotten or simply the younger perhaps naïve version of ourselves or even a note on happier times. Much of this history is a reflection of our roots, roots that might have begun long before we were born. This history is a reflection of the choices we might make and those made in our absence.
When we look at it this way, can we ever escape our roots? Not really. There will always be there to facilitate our journey. I think the issue isn't just in what root system you have but the decisions you make as a result of it. There will be some part of your roots that need to be completely cut off for you to succeed.
Sometimes our root systems create significant havoc in our lives. The consolation is that we can renew our root systems like we renew our minds. We can renew how we think and what we act on by revaluating what lies at the root of the thoughts we have. We can go back to the beginning, take out the existing root and plant a new seed to cultivate new root. Some roots are bad and really stubborn though, you need to go really deep to dig them out. What happens in some cases is that we think we have dwelt with a particular issue in our lives but, it keeps coming back, symptoms of the issue keep appearing. This is often because remnants of the roots have grown again - we didn't dig deep enough in the first instance to pull it all out.
Using the analogy of the tap root, this root system goes deep, it isn't a "wide" spread system like the fibrous root. And many times when gardening we pull out weeds but because some of these weed have tap root systems, they keep growing back time and time again.
Its one thing to identify the root and another to deep it out completely so it does not regrow. It is also another thing to replace that space with truth , a new seed to generate a new beginning in our thinking.
What do our root systems determine? Why is it important to evaluate the beginning of a journey we might embark on?
I have found that our root systems have three main purposes
- Stability
- Longevity
- Procreativity
If the journey is not experiencing all 3 of these there maybe something faulty with the root system of the individual. Taking this a step further, I think we can apply this truth to our organisations as founders and CEOs, we can apply them in the organisations we work in, we can apply them in our relationships and our places of education and learning. Using this very simple principle, can help us see things more clearly and be part of solving the problems that might exist there.
1) Stability is about being secure in your purpose, or path or place in. As human beings we all desire to stand on something whether a set of values, our sense of purpose, family, work, we all need grounding in something. This grounding is formed by our belief system or our value system and it give us stability. It gives us stability to be steady and dependable figures in our communities, our families and in the objectives we set out to achieve etc. Without stability, we become unreliable, not trust worthy and to some irrelevant. I recall many challenging seasons of my life, through losing my mother to cancer, through a separation and then divorce and even now through single parenting, my faith continues to give me stability. The root of who I am really is grounded in my faith not in the loss or disappointment. Each of these events have presented the reality of insecurities, anxieties, unforgiveness, resentments and fear at different times. If I did not intentionally work to weed these negative emotions out, they could have easily taken over my root systems, infected it and inhibited the potential of the future I now walk in and who i am becoming.
It was the intimate interactions with God that have kept me, kept my dreams, held me gently as I nurture my child within a stable home environment. It is God's gentleness that has made me who I am today and crafted out this amazing light-filled journey.
What does stability look like in your family? What does it look like in your home or place of employment? stability IS NOT YHE ABSCENCE OF TROUBLE OR DIFFERENCES IT IS THE PERSPECTIVE or mindset YOU ADOPT IN getting THROUGH THOSE DIFFICULTIES.
2) Longevity is staying the course, being a finisher in the things we set out minds to do. Corporate organisations talk about sustainability of organisational goals/objectives and we as a human race talk about longevity, living long and full lives. We want to be around for as long as we can and even when we pass on, we want to be able to leave something tangible behind, a legacy that continues what we have started. This is only possible with the right root systems. I spoke to a lovely lady the other day who is currently fighting cancer, going through chemotherapy and running an organisation that caters to women who are struggling with particular health issues and she said to me i am focussed on legacy now, what I leave behind and how it is sustained even when i am gone. It was an interesting mindset not one many can take on so easily. I believe the drive was again the root of it all, it never began because of her, it was always about a bigger purpose and that is what she still had in mind even with thus bump - cancer on her road. she had the end in mind when she planted the seed in the beginning it was that root system that continued to carry her even now. Longevity is legacy. Legacy manifests with the right root systems in place.
Staying the course in writing my first book required a lot of discipline and structure. I cultivated patterns which enabled me to cut out times in the day when my child was asleep so I could get quiet and write. I still do that. This pattern is fundamental in guarding uninterrupted time from the grind of my daily life so I can not only creatively express myself in my writing but very importantly renew my mind. The renewal process sheds old skin enabling new wine skin which is capable of holding new wine for long. This helps in the crystallization of long term visions and goals and a prolonged shelf life. This is why root system audits are so important. As evolving and transforming humans we should never stand still (be stagnated), we should constantly move toward a mark and one that relevant in the future.
3) Procreativity is about being fruitful and multiplying. Where a tree bears good fruit, we want more of it. A sure sign we have good root systems is the evidence of good fruit in our lives. We multiply in numerous way. We multiply biologically and spiritually. Both are of great gain in the world. We reproduce through our gifts and talents, we enable increase relationally. Where we see much isolation and broken relationship we see an attack on fruitfulness. Over the years I have seen my friendship circle grow richly. I marvel at my connections and relationships with value adding organisations and individuals. This increase in relationship is grounded in a root system that works well. It started with a small seed of faith to be better for the world around me, starting with my child. A couple of years ago I purchased my first home and today I am the founder of an online platform empowering people on their unique journey and an author. My journey that has seen increase in a way I did not anticipate but there was a beginning to it, a root system of faith. A root system that believes I can be more, I can transform and I can be better than I was yesterday.
Root systems can go as far back as our ancestry, our history , our DNA. Sometimes it goes as far back as our last disappointment making us think we can't do better. Or goes as far as our last big achievement and we continue to live in that glory when there is new territory to claim. But what if we decided to have the end in mind rather than what the present might be presenting to us. What if we kept the purpose in mind and allowed it decide what we should plant in our garden or in our life? In that workplace that seems to stifle you? In your home with your children that may seem to crowd you? What if we looked beyond all of that for a moment and than decide what to plant? That one decision could seriously revolutionise our root systems making us stronger, fruitful and self sustaining.
Steven Covey said in his book...The 7 habits of highly effective people "Start with the end in mind". Seems like an upside down way to end a blog about root systems but when you think of it, makes sense cause when you decide what you want to plant you know the seed that needs to go in the ground. And no matter how challenging the journey might be you know how it ends because you know exactly what you planted.
Be blessed.
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